Leticia Ablaza
For my last City Council interview for the 2013 cycle, I return to District I for a conversation with Leticia Ablaza. Ablaza turned her activism against the historic preservation ordinance into a filing-deadline candidacy for I in 2011, eventually getting 35.5% against CM James Rodriguez. She then spent four months as Chief of Staff to CM Helena Brown. A native of Mexico and a graduate of the University of St. Thomas, Ablaza has worked in the securities industry doing fraud investigations, and is currently the operations manager for a real estate firm. Here’s what we talked about:
You can see all of my interviews as well as finance reports and other information on candidates on my 2013 Election page.
Ablaza emits bad karma with every word she says.
She would be a disaster if she were to make it to city council! Those of us who have had the misfortune to be her neighbors know her as an extreme right wing ideologue who will say and do anything including outright lie to get her way. She has a caustic and divisive manner and doesn’t work well with others (couldn’t even get along with Helena Brown with whom she shares the same extreme ideology).
She and her husband ran an offensive blog titled “The Seething Republican” for years. Its content was so offensive they had to delete it and scrub the internet of its presence so she could not be held accountable for its vile content (with blog entries like “Tolerance and Diversity – Two Words That Are Not Worth Your Freedom” and others that railed against spending money on AIDS prevention and education).
She will shout down opponents and the truth to her is all relative. She tried to fight the Historic District designation in Glenbrook Valley with outright lies and exaggerations. I understand she is going around telling residents she won’t “burden” them by allowing deed restrictions to be enforced. No wonder her campaign signs are up on problem properties in District I neighborhoods.
If you want to get an idea of how smooth things run when Leticia is involved, Google “Grinch” and “Ablaza” to see how she ruined a Christmas Toy drive for a local Middle School.
http://texas.patriotstatesman.com/2011/12/the-grinch-who-stole-christmas-from-stevenson-middle-school-needy-families/
District I does not need a divisive character like her representing it. We need someone who can work with the Mayor and City Council to get things done for the district!
Prior to becoming a politician 2 years ago Ablaza frequently made slanderous remarks about city officials and her neighbors on local news stations that agreed to interview her. She called the civic club members from her neighborhood racists, forgers, and liars on a couple of news stations and in local publications. She created a facebook group called “Mike Sullivan is a Sham” in which she frequently slandered the fellow republican who was then a city council member. She and her followers on facebook called him “Sully-Sham”. When she decided to run for council this page was conveniently deleted. These examples barely scratch the surface of the bitterness and insincerity.
I don’t live in District I but I would hope the good people of that District would see through the “actress” and not elect her to represent our city in any way.
What I found interesting is her claims she is the most qualified simply by virtue of living there 30 years. If that is the yardstick, I think Robert Gallegos has her beat with his “tenure” of living in the district. If 4 months of working for Helena Brown is worth touting, then how does that compare with 10 years that Graci Garces has? As for her degree and all that, certainly that is something she should take pride in, however, it has never translated into any kind of stable, successful work career from what I can tell. Any real success seems to have eluded both her and her husband, who seems to have a new job every couple of years.
Leticia will be an excellent representative for District I. She is helpful and a problem-solver. She cares about making this area of Houston better than what it is. We need Leticia because of her tenacity and passion for doing what is fair. She will not let District I remain behind the other Districts in resources. I want Leticia Ablaza to be my Houston City Council representative. She will make sure District I is treated equally!
Doubt she gets the chance.
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She recently sent out mailer asking people to vote for her because she graduated from Milby in 1991. I wonder if she thinks everything from 1991 should be included on a post card, including case #2716539 from December of that year.
I am not able to find a case with that number in the Harris County records. I do see cases involving at least 4 different Leticia Gutierrez’s, one only 4 feet 11 inches, one much younger with recent drugs and prostitution charges, and one case 915015401010 in Dec. 1991 for a Leticia with birthdate 8/22/1973. The charge is theft of between $20 and $200, but I don’t see an indication of any conviction. If this is the candidate, and she was found guilty, it is a fair issue, although she would have been fairly young at the time.
The 91 theft case for the Leticia with the 8/22 birthdate resulted in a year’s probation according to what I have seen. I don’t know who isn’t found guilty and then has to serve probation. If this is the candidate, then clearly it is an issue. While she would have been young, that would have still been a legal adult and certainly old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Plus, you can’t tout your old High School status from ’91 as a reason to vote for you and then discount serious issues since as too old to be relevant.
Not my part of town. It is a good thing that most District I residents don’t blog, tweet or pay attention to the comment trolls. The real commentary will be on Election Day.
The real commentary has come in, with Garces in first place and Ablaza in last.
Last place Ablaza, again. 3 for 3 .
Last place Ablaza, again. 3 for 3 .
To paraphrase “Roma dicta, causa finita est,” the East End has spoken, the subject is closed.
Oh she will turn up again. She will convince herself that her last place showing and declining percentage of voters each times she runs is some kind of victory. She loves the attention too much & is too delusional to face reality. Pity she doesn’t actually do something productive for the east end instead of launching one self-serving campaign after another.
Leticia made her concession speech on her facebook page and performed some creative vote tallying so as not to emphasize the fact that she came in last, with the least amount of votes and that Graci, the main competitor she sought to derail came in first! She also crowed about how greater than 70% of voters did not vote for Graci, neglecting to mention that even less voted for her or any of the other candidates! She has lost repeatedly and can’t get broad support from her own neighborhood! Henceforth, she will be the perennial losing candidate, she has lost her chance at ever winning the seat.