OC Carpetbagger Lends $22k to Temecula City Council Candidate

Bernie Truax, a former Orange County resident who moved to Temecula during the mass exodus from the OC in the 1990’s, quietly fronted current Temecula City Council District 4 candidate Adam Ruiz a cool $22,500 in 2016 as a “campaign loan”, which has carried over to this year’s race.

Truax is currently enjoying an “entanglement” with the City of Temecula worthy of Mrs. Pinkett-Smith herself as his company, Truax Development, builds the only 4-star luxury hotel in Old Town Temecula, the cost of which will run the development company a cool $75 million dollars. Truax was also approved in 2018 to develop the two vacant lots on either side of the Temecula Civic Center fountain in Old Town, soon to be potentially known as "Truax Town", though funding sources for the "Town Square Marketplace" that Truax's company proposed is not readily available online.

As a side note, the Truax Hotel is tone-deafly located literally across the street from an affordable housing complex. Yes, you read that right; wealth inequality will take center stage during your stay at the grand Truax Hotel. I’m sure “Let them eat cake” will be scrawled across the tops of the menus at the restaurant and you will be able to waltz your cares away in the Ballroom while ignoring the underpaid and financially struggling waitstaff living off your tips, just like the Robber Barons of old did those many years ago. Ah, smell the marble inlay, laid by the hands of people who could never afford to stay there.

Ok, aside of the general awfulness of this clearly greedy and morally unsound development firm, it does beg the question: What is in it for them? Why would the lend such a sizable amount to a local City Council candidate? In an average City Council race, most candidates only need to raise a cumulative $20,000-$30,000 in donations from multiple people to be considered highly competitive. To give some context, single $22,500 campaign “loan”, which is basically a donation that may or may not get paid back but isn’t required to be recompensed to the debtor, is pretty meaty stuff.

It would seem that Ruiz, real estate agent and mortgage broker, according to his website, is also the current Vice Chair of the Community Services Commission for the City of Temecula AND the Chairman of the conservative strong-arm organization, Southwest California Legislative Council. Those factors considered, he could potentially personally benefit from the creation of local real estate deals with the City of Temecula or through the City of Temecula. In reality, it could have already happened.* He will almost certainly advocate for more commercial development in our city, considering his background and professional experience, though the need for more business spaces is yet-to-be seen; we can’t even keep the small businesses we already have up and running.

What we see here is the good old fashioned Old Boys Club in action, folks. As I’ve said before, we the voters do not choose our candidates. They are chosen for us by secretive and quiet bodies like the Truax Development folks, SCLC, and others. We all basically just go with the flow because let’s be real- connecting the strands of this money web is hard and time consuming and we all have K-12 online school to deal with right now and everything is nuts. What's burning?

However, I strongly believe that it’s extremely important to understand campaign finance transparency and where all the pieces fit. I plan to continue my research into our local candidates and publish similar small but easily digestible synopses that you can share to other votes to help understand who pulls the hidden strings of our local government’s puppets.

That being said, I don’t care who you are or what political party you’re part of. If you have dirty laundry, I am telling on all of you. Campaign financial filings are all public record and Temecula's candidates' filings can be found here.

And here are the receipts.

*This is pure speculation and is in no way an accusation, before you get all legally and try to send figure out a way to send me a cute little cease and desist letter.