Candidate for Porterville
Taha Saleh
Evidence that proves Taha is running a deceptive, divisive smear campaign that has hurt Main Street.
Not a leader. An evil divider.
One Porterville
He campaigns as the peacemaker. The record shows a coordinated smear.
For months, an anonymous Facebook page called Porterville First has been used to smear Greg Meister—Taha Saleh’s opponent—and to destroy reputations. It does not stop with Meister. It smears his political allies and supporters, and it targets family members of elected officials and of the people around them. The page’s work is simple: paint Meister as hateful, racist, and cruel, while Saleh stands apart as the unifier. His slogan is “One Porterville.”
They regularly claim to have “receipts.” What they post is a sliver: a line from a document, a clip from a video, cut free of the context that would let anyone judge it. Ask for the rest of the record and they refuse to produce it. Ask a question, and they dismiss you with “do your own research.”
The files on this site show something else. That vicious, divisive page was not a stray activist account. It was part of a campaign strategy: Saleh requested Meister’s filings, received them, called them “perfect,” and about an hour later those records were on Porterville First—among the very first posts after the page was created. He runs it with others as a coordinated plan to influence an election.
The connection is not rumor. It is a documented sequence—City emails and screenshots taken at the time.
- March 19 Saleh requests campaign statements and prioritizes Greg Meister’s records.
- March 22 Porterville First appears.
- March 24, 1:50 p.m. The City sends the requested records to Saleh.
- March 24, 8:18 p.m. Saleh replies, “This is perfect.”
- About 9:21 p.m. Porterville First publishes material from Meister’s campaign statement.
March 19, 2026
Saleh requests the records
At 12:44 p.m. on March 19, Saleh contacted the Porterville City Clerk’s Office for past campaign-finance statements.
At 4:26 p.m., after the City asked whose records he wanted, he requested filings for all City Council candidates from 2022 and 2024.
At 4:52 p.m., he said whose records should come first:
“If time becomes an issue, we can prioritize the records for Greg Meister and Ed to start.”
March 22, 2026
Porterville First appears
Three days after Saleh requested the records—and after he specifically prioritized Greg Meister—the Porterville First Facebook page appeared. Its first post is dated March 22. When the page first started, the Meister records were among the very first things it published.
March 24, 2026
Saleh receives Meister’s records
At 1:50 p.m. on March 24, the City Clerk’s Office emailed Saleh the requested campaign-finance documents.
At 8:18 p.m., Saleh replied:
“This is perfect, thank you so much!”
Those messages are in the same email chain.
About one hour later
The records appear on Porterville First
A screenshot taken at 4:21 a.m. on March 25 shows Porterville First displaying information from Meister’s campaign statement. Facebook marked the post as seven hours old.
That puts publication at about 9:21 p.m. on March 24—roughly one hour after Saleh wrote that the records were “perfect.”
Within about an hour of Saleh praising the records he had received, those records were being used by Porterville First to attack a political figure whose filings he had specifically asked the City to prioritize.
That timing is not speculation. It is in the files.
What the record shows
What this evidence establishes—and what it raises
The documents show that Saleh requested the records, prioritized Meister’s filings, received them, called them “perfect,” and that material from those records appeared on Porterville First about an hour later.
The records do not, by themselves, name who pressed “publish” or prove who controls the page. They do raise a question that does not go away:
How did material requested and received by Saleh appear on a newly created anonymous political page about an hour after he called it “perfect”?
Saleh and the operators of Porterville First should answer that.
Until they do, Porterville residents can weigh the timing, the content, the political benefit, and Saleh’s later denial—and decide for themselves.
Why it matters
That is not a peacemaker. That is not a leader.
Porterville First does not invite debate. It beleaguers and silences anyone who dissents. It smears people. It blocks those who ask questions. It acts as an enforcer of its own “truth.”
Taha Saleh is the divider. He is running a dirty campaign. From a seat on the Chamber of Commerce board—alongside Scott Bowler, a candidate in another district—he has used that position to intimidate businesses on Main Street. Friendships have been broken. Chamber board members have resigned. Business membership has declined. He has worked with Councilmember Raymond Beltran in a bid for power that treats disagreement as something to crush.
They bully. They intimidate. They call it unity.
It is Evil.
Porterville deserves better.