Benjamin Vasquez, Steve Rocco and incumbent Miguel Pulido, are running for Santa Ana City Mayor; city residents will vote on November 8 and decide who will fill that roll.

Pulido, a business owner who is currently serving his eleventh two-year term, has been involved with the City of Santa Ana for many years and has been in office since 1994. One of his biggest goals for the city is to improve public safety and lessen the amount of crime by spending more on police forces.

“I want to get public safety back under control,” Pulido said at the mayoral debate, commenting on the City’s loss of 30 patrol officers. “We can increase it and we should.”

His top challenger, Benjamin Vasquez, is a teacher at Valley High School and a community activist. If elected mayor, Vasquez would invest in the youth of Santa Ana by improving youth programs throughout the City, such as libraries. His goal is to eventually create more trust between police and the youth of the city.

“Public safety is about giving people hope,” Vazquez said at the mayoral debate. “If we just hire more police and we try to arrest our way out of the situation, it’s not going to help anybody.”

The third candidate running for this office, Steve Rocco, is a retired teacher and writer. He has not released a statement on his platform, participated in any debates, nor has he created a website to share his views.

The election will take place on Tuesday, November 8.