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The attack mailer that started it all
Remember former School Board member Nury Martinez? She’s locked in a tough runoff with Cindy Montanez for the last open City Council seat. Whoever wins will be the only woman on the 15-member body.
Montanez, who finished 19 points ahead of Martinez in the May primary, stepped up her attacks on Martinez this week, sending out a campaign mailer accusing Martinez and the rest of the school board of hiding “the existence and arrest of a serial child molester from parents and teachers at Telfair Elementary School.” That was the school where third-grade teacher Paul Chapel molested 13 former students. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Martinez then came forward with a startling revelation: she “was repeatedly sexually abused as a child,” according to the LA Times, which said she was going public about it now “to counter attack ads being circulated by her opponent” in the run-up to the July 23 special election to fill an open council seat.
“She is accusing me of covering these things up. That’s where I draw the line,” said Martinez, who denied any knowledge of the Chapel case before the Daily News broke the story more than 18 months ago.
Previous posts: East Valley Power Politics Shaped District 6 Runoff; Marathon Board Meeting Signals Changes to Come; Board Member Martinez Touts Union Support & Public Choice