Mayor Voepel to 20% of Voters Who Opposed Him: ‘I Won’t Be Hearing You’

Randy Voepel, who was re-elected mayor of Santee with nearly 80 percent of the vote Tuesday, was grateful to supporters giving him a fourth four-year term.

But his opinion of the 3,410 who backed opponent Rudy Reyes?

Not as gracious.

“I will be representing my 80 percent friends to the best of my ability, as I always have,” Voepel said Thursday. “If you happen to be in the 20 percent that did not vote for me... you didn’t hear me, so I won’t be hearing you.”

Voepel—who in 2010 changed party affiliation, saying the GOP became too “liberal” for him—has a history of colorful remarks.

In April 2011, he responded to the city’s F grade by the American Lung Association by saying: “I see this grade of "F" from our perspective as being the highest grade for "FREEDOM" we could earn.”

Tuesday night, he was quoted by U-T San Diego as saying: “Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. As Julius Caesar once said.”

Voepel, who has said he identifies more with the tea party movement than the Republicans, had 13,305 ballots cast with his name.

“I appreciate the fact that four out of five Santee voters (80 percent of the vote) trust me to represent their concerns,” Voepel told Patch.

Voepel is a U.S. Navy veteran with two combat tours of duty in Vietnam, according to his city biography.

“A graduate from Saint Leo University, he is a businessman in financial services specializing in corporate benefits,” his biography says.  “He is also active in his church, four service clubs and the Boy Scouts.  His wife, Susan, is the woman he is holding hands with and walking with through life.  They have two adult children and three grandchildren.

Comment below: What do you think about Voepel’s re-election and comments?