Antioch political maneuvering continues: Thorpe, allies move to take over council

Pulls out of council race, expected to run for mayor; Wilson to run for re-election;

Thorpe’s ally and employee pulls papers for District 3 council race;

Steffen withdraws from District 3 council race;

Another candidate pulls papers for Mayor;

Householder injects partisan politics into non-partisan mayor’s race

By Allen Payton

Video screenshot of Antioch Councilman Lamar Thorpe during a protest in Antioch on Sunday, June 7, 2020. From his Facebook page.

In what appears to be a coordinated effort, following the previous withdrawal of former Antioch Mayor Wade Harper, Antioch School Board Trustee Ellie Householder and Councilwoman Monica Wilson from the race for Mayor of Antioch, and the withdrawal of Councilman Lamar Thorpe from the District 3 city council race on Wednesday, it is expected he will instead run for mayor against Sean Wright.

In addition, in a comment by Householder, who qualified on Wednesday to run for City Clerk against Arne Simonsen, explained on her Facebook on Tuesday why she withdrew from the mayor’s race. “After meeting with local leaders, the reality is our community needs to rally around a Democratic candidate for mayor,” she wrote injecting partisan politics into a non-partisan race. “The last thing any of us want to be is a Ralph Nader…”

In addition, another ally of Householder, Wilson and Thorpe, who has been participating in some of the protests with Householder, this year including the one in front of the council members homes, Nichole Gardner, pulled papers to run for city council in District 3. She works as an administrative assistant at the Los Medanos Community Healthcare District in Pittsburg where Thorpe is executive director, and will challenge Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock who filed her papers, Antwon Webster who qualified and Marie Arce who also filed her papers all on Wednesday.

8/6/20 UPDATE: Asked if he was running for mayor Thorpe responded on Thursday, “Yes.” When asked why he switched and if a poll had been done, he responded, “No. Did you see Ellie’s post about running for city clerk? That pretty much captures it.”

In that post on her Facebook page, as mentioned in a previous article, Householder wrote, “After meeting with local leaders, the reality is our community needs to rally around a Democratic candidate for mayor.”

Asked if he was injecting partisan politics into a non-partisan race Thorpe responded, “No. Those are just facts based on voting patterns.” Asked if it is was planned all along with Wilson and Householder, he replied, “No” and that he was busy changing his filing paperwork and opening a new campaign account. Each political office requires a separate campaign title, state Fair Political Practices Commission identification number and bank account.

When reached for comment Antioch Board of Administrative Appeals Member Webster said, “I wish Nichole Gardner the best with her campaign. However, I am what Antioch needs. I represent genuine honesty and transparency for our residents. I’m for everyone, not just the homeless.”

When reached for comment Ogorchock responded, “This game of musical chairs is silly. I trust our voters to elect leaders who have all of Antioch’s interests at heart.”

Manny Soliz takes his oath of office as a candidate from City Clerk Arne Simonsen on Wed., Aug. 5, 2020. Photo by Mary Soliz.

Another candidate, Manuel Sidrian, took out his Nomination Papers on Wednesday to run for Mayor. It’s not clear if he is the son of the late Manuel Sidrian, Sr. whose family owns Little Manuel’s Restaurant on A Street in Antioch. The candidate, who is 45 years old, according to his Facebook page, wrote on Nikki Medoro – KGO Radio’s page on July 21, “The city of Antioch is going through the same thing I’ve been out and about work for housing program three month program to have the homeless come in the morning 6 in the morning for a couple hours a day to get him some kind of work ethic clean the front of businesses pick up around town in uniform so when that work the clothes to be washed and stuff and I’m going to get off work haven’t have a $20 voucher that they can’t use it any business that’s in the program and have him work towards getting a job within the three months so we could get him a Section 8 voucher and get him into a housing unit not it just put back on the street that’s a big problem that states doing and surface was going for not helping them then I’m not making them work ethic got to get him back on my feet and Kim’s are kind of work ethic and drug and alcohol abuse to get deal with later let’s get him in housing but we got to give him a job first that’s one of the platforming may be running on for mayor of Antioch.”

Finally, former Antioch Mayor Pro Tem and Councilman, and current Planning Commissioner Manny Soliz filed his papers to challenge current Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts in the District 1 council race. He is awaiting verification of his nomination signatures.

According to City Clerk Simonsen, the following Antioch residents have taken out Nomination Papers, Withdrawn, Filed or Qualified as of 5 p.m. August 5th, for the following City offices:

Mayor

Sean Wright (I) – Qualified on 8/4/20

Julio Mendez – Qualified on 7/31/20

Rakesh Kumar Christian – Qualified on 7/22/20

Kenneth Turnage II

Monica Wilson – Withdrawn 8/4/20

Wade Harper – Withdrawn 7/31/20

Gabriel Makinano

Elizabeth Householder – Withdrawn 8/3/20

Manuel Sidrian

Council District 1

Joyann Motts – Qualified on 8/5/20

Manuel Soliz – Filed on 8/5/20 (awaiting signature verification)

Fernando Navarrete

La Donna Norman

Tamisha Walker

Council District 3

Lori Ogorchock – Filed on 8/5/20 (awaiting signature verification)

Lamar Thorpe – Withdrawn 8/5/20

Wayne Steffen 

Antwon Webster – Qualified on 8/5/20

Marie Arce – Filed on 8/5/20 (awaiting signature verification)

Nichole Gardner

Council District 4

Alex Astorga

Sandra White – Qualified on 8/3/20

Monica Wilson

City Clerk

Arne Simonsen (I) – Qualified on 8/4/20

Dwayne Eubanks

Ellie Householder – Qualified on 8/5/20

There were no changes in any of the other city or school board races. This list will be updated when additional registered Antioch voters take out Nomination Papers, withdraw or become Qualified for the various city or school board races. To see the latest list of candidates for all 10 races visit www.antiochherald.com/election-2020.


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Manny Soliz candidate oath of office 08-05-20


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