Hector Gastelum, 43, ran in five different elections before finally being elected to public office.
His first campaign was in 2013 running in a special election for state senate. When he failed in that race he made himself a Chula Vista city council candidate in the 2014 primary election. When he lost that race, he made himself a candidate in the 2014 general election for the Chula Vista Elementary School board. After another unsuccessful bid, he ran for the Republican Central Committee in 2016.
In his fifth try Gastelum was finally elected in 2016 to the Otay Water District.
“I don’t quit. I just don’t quit,” he said. “Sometimes when things are not going your way you just have to work harder, pray harder and try to convince God to edit his plan.”
In just his second year at the water board Gastelum, is already seeking higher office as he is a Chula Vista mayoral candidate against incumbent Mary Casillas Salas.
“There were no serious, credible challengers,” he said about the two other candidates running for mayor in June’s primary.
Recent campaign filings indicate Gastelum has raised less than $2,000 for his mayoral campaign. Nevertheless, he said he feels he can defeat Casillas Salas because he is an elected official with name recognition. Casillas Salas has raised slightly more than $33,000.
“I think it [is] very important in a Democracy to have this conversation about the two different philosophies,” he said. “I believe in the American citizen; she believes in government. I want smaller government, she wants big government. I want government so small, you can’t feel it. [Casillas Salas] is for the type of government that micromanages our lives and businesses. ”
Gastelum is running on a platform of what he says is a “no-tax pledge.”
He said he’s tired of the current mayor and city council ignoring Chula Vista taxpayers. He cites the two sales tax increases in the last two-years as the city not showing any regard for taxpayers.
He said if elected he will put Measure A, a half-cent general sales tax that is used for public safety, back on the ballot so residents can vote to repeal it.
“We have to give money back to the people who earn it, not the politicians or special interest,” he said. “The people of Chula Vista are taxed enough already.”
If elected, he said he will never impose tax increases on Chula Vista tax payers.
In 2012 Gastelum filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after receiving and listening to what turned out to be bad investment advice.
In 2017 legal action was taken against him by Eastlake 1 Community Association for not paying thousands of dollars in homeowners association fees and in February this year Camelot at Eastlake Shores Association placed a near $10,000 lien on his property. He said he stopped paying his HOA fees so he could pay other debts.
Gastelum’s plans extend beyond the fiscal realm. He said one of his first orders of business will be repealing Welcoming City status in Chula Vista and getting rid of the Planned Parenthood on Broadway.
Gastelum said he is a Catholic and called Planned Parenthood a racist organization because they kill babies of color.
He said there is a reason why Planned Parenthood is in Chula Vista and not in affluent areas.
“That’s the racist intent of Planned Parenthood,” he said about the reasons why there are not Planned Parenthoods in more affluent communities.
“Google Margaret Sanger and her philosophy on eugenics, which is social engineering trying to get rid of the blacks, trying to get rid of the Latinos, trying to get rid of the weak, of the disabled, that’s how Planned Parenthood started. I’m not going to stand and take money from our hardworking Chula Vista citizens to give it to a racist organization like that. That will stop and we’re going to end that practice here in Chula Vista.”
He said he plans to help the economy in Chula Vista by reducing the bureaucracy in the permitting process for businesses.
On the Otay Water Board, Gastelum said he takes a lot of pride that he and his board members have not raised water rates for their rate payers.
However, the water district’s budget for Fiscal Year 2019, show that the overall average water rate will increase to 3.2 percent.
Gastelum was censured in April 2017 by his colleagues on the Otay Water Board for controversial comments he made on social media about Muslims.
In February 2017, he posted a series of tweets in which he called for more countries to be included in President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. Gastelum’s tweets referred to Muslims in those countries as “subhuman” and “scum.” In other posts he called Muslims rapists and murderers.
Gastelum has always maintained the position that he was not painting all Muslims with the same brush, just the ones that rape, murder and throw gay people off roofs. He said he included a link in his Tweet that he says shows he was just talking about a segment of the Muslim population who do those things.
