By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Does school board hopeful know where she lives?
Placeholder Image

Does Manteca Unified School District board candidate Ashley Drain know the way home?

According to the paper trail, that answer is no. 

The political newcomer, who is challenging incumbent Manuel Medeiros for representation of the district’s largest geographic area – encompassing all of Lathrop, its surrounding area and a portion of Weston Ranch – has once again officially changed her address amidst a controversial political campaign. 

According to records filed with the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, on Sept. 8 – or Sept. 10 depending on how the record is interpreted – Drain changed her address from a home just behind Lathrop High School to one further back against the San Joaquin River levee.

But she hasn’t made it official. 

Despite changing the address on her voter registration card, Drain still hasn’t come in to the Registrar’s office and updated her candidate’s nomination papers. She has been contacted numerous times about the need to come in, and has yet to do so. 

Drain’s campaign has already raised red flags. 

At least one formal complaint has been filed against her with the California Secretary of State’s office for improperly claiming to live at an address to establish residency, and several more are either in the works or have been submitted. 

The issue, which was mostly speculation, focused on a video that Drain posted to Facebook that outlined her displeasure with the reaction of Mercy Housing – a non-profit providing low-income housing for families in Downtown Stockton. On the surface the video wasn’t an issue, but Drain, who had filed paperwork claiming she lived in Weston Ranch, made it appear in the video that she lived in Downtown Stockton and had essentially provided evidence as such. 

Then more issues started to stack up. 

Another school board candidate, Alexander Bronson, was found to also claim residence at a home he reportedly isn’t living at, and a check of both his and Drain’s nomination papers show two things in common – the first, and the most damning, being the ringer address in Manteca. 

Bronson wrote the address that the landlord and the current occupant claim he has never set foot in on his paperwork while Drain, oddly, wrote the same address on her paperwork before crossing it out and writing in the original Weston Ranch address that she used when she registered to vote the day before she declared her candidacy. 

Both also have ties to sitting board member Sam Fant – a witness that both listed on their candidate nomination paperwork.

And Fant just took a political cue from one of his understudies. 

On Sept. 9, the day in between the two dates that Drain had on her paperwork, Fant came in to register to vote under a new address. His paperwork also included an early mistake – the date of June 15, 2014 that was crossed out before Sept. 9, 2014 was added – before including an address that put him just a block away from the Food-4-Less plaza near the intersection of Carolyn Weston Blvd. and Manthey Road.