After two years of controversy, 2nd District Councilmember, Jeannine Pearce, has announced that she will not be running for re-election.
In an e-mail announcing the news, Pearce stated that serving has been an honor, but that she will not be running for a second term in 2020. She was elected to her position in 2016.
In her announcement, Pearce stated that her “daughter, health, and my commitment to advocate and build power for a progressive community,” were behind her decision.
Pearce also highlighted the positives that happened during her term, such as improving safety measures for hotel workers, low crime rates and body-cameras for officers.
“So it is with this context, the personal and the history of successes that I feel confident about where our city and where our district is. I have accomplished what I have set out to do, which is structurally shift the path to equity for all residents in our city,” Pearce said in the statement.
The news comes after Pearce faced a series of scandals in office, including being censured by the Long Beach City Council in 2018 for alleged misconduct.
Ian Patton, who helped organize the Committee to Recall Councilmember Jeannine Pearce, said in a statement that he was “pleased” to hear that the councilmember was not seeking re-election. However, he stated that he believed that Pearce should re-sign immediately rather than choose to not seek re-election.
“The reason we started the recall was because we could not sit quietly by and allow a culture of ‘sweeping’ scandal ‘under the rug’ to pervade Long Beach City Hall,” Patton said in the statement.
