Long Beach’s primary election next April may seem far off, but there’s already one thing constituents in odd-numbered districts considering a run for city council can count on: squaring off against an incumbent.
All current councilmembers in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th districts have filed paperwork to seek re-election in the April 10, 2018 primary election. Additionally, Mayor Robert Garcia and City Prosecutor Doug Haubert have both filed to seek re-election, according to the city clerk’s office.
At press time, according to the city clerk’s website, all the aforementioned candidates are running unopposed, with the exception of 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, who, thus far, has a single competitor— one Carmen A. Huxley.
The other two seats that will be on next year’s ballot are city auditor and city attorney, but, despite some media reports to the contrary, Laura Doud and Charles Parkin have not filed paperwork to reclaim their respective seats.
As if early filing and a term of experience weren’t advantage enough, some incumbents have also been publicizing their successful fundraising efforts thus far.
On June 2, Garcia announced he would be seeking another term as the city’s figurehead, and his announcement was quickly followed by fundraising emails to constituents.
On June 19, his campaign issued another email regarding a fundraiser at a private residence near the Virginia Country Club.
“It’s been an honor serving as your mayor for the last three years,” he wrote, from his Robert Garcia for Mayor campaign email address. “Together we’ve moved Long Beach forward, and I hope I can count on your support for my reelection in 2018.”
On June 23 and 26, another email from his campaign asked for support— not for his own re-election efforts— but for those of three current council members.
“I hope you can join me to support Vice Mayor [and 9th District Councilmember] Rex Richardson, Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez and [5th District] Councilwoman Stacy Mungo,” Garcia wrote of a fundraiser scheduled for June 27. “It has been a pleasure to work with these council members the last three years, and I look forward to continuing all the good work we’ve done together.”
The email also included a contribution form so that donations could be made to any or all of the three incumbents.
Perhaps due in part to that event and the donation form, one of those council members allegedly broke a fundraising record the following month.
In a July 31 email blast from the “Rex Richardson for City Council 2018″ campaign, the 9th District councilmember announced “great news” about his fundraising efforts.
“My re-election campaign for Long Beach City Council is off to an incredible start. Thanks to your efforts, we’ve raised more than $70,000,” he wrote. “Additionally, we broke the record for money raised in the first reporting period in Long Beach City Council history.”
Those incumbents who weren’t the beneficiaries of Garcia’s late-June endorsement have also begun their fundraising.
According to her campaign’s Facebook page, 3rd District Councilmember Suzie Price hosted a kickoff of her re-election efforts on May 17, and a fundraiser for her took place at a residence on June 30.
In the 7th District, Councilmember Roberto Uranga announced his campaign kickoff during a June 1 fundraiser at a business in his district.
Money-raising efforts for incumbents— and their personal-favorite candidates— will further be eased by an ordinance the council passed in April.
In a 5-3 vote, the council approved the ordinance that changes the campaign-finance rules that formerly did not allow money from a city councilmember’s officeholder account to be transferred to the account of another candidate running for a local, state or federal office.
The rule dates back to the late 1990s, and it had been amended in 2014, according to the city attorney’s office. The new ordinance allows key city officials to take money from their own officeholder accounts and transfer or donate that money to another candidate’s campaign. Citing the municipal code, City Attorney Charles Parkin confirmed in a statement to the Signal Tribune in May that there are still rules that apply to donations in a calendar year, including contribution limits of $750 toward councilmember officeholder expense funds as well as limits of $1,000 toward officeholder expense funds for the offices of the city attorney, city auditor, city prosecutor and the mayor.
Fourth District Councilmember Daryl Supernaw, as well as Price and Mungo, voted against it when the time came for a final reading of the ordinance on April 18. Richardson was not present for the vote because of the birth of his daughter, according to his office.
Price issued a statement to her constituents the night the council took the vote, indicating that the funds raised for her district would stay local and not be used to contribute to another candidate’s campaign. She emphasized, both in her statement and in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune, that if she wanted to support a candidate running for office, she would write a personal check to their campaign.
“It’s my own personal value,” Price told the Signal Tribune, “that if people are going to donate money to the officeholder account, they should have faith in knowing that that money is going to be recycled right back [!] into the community that they’re designating the money to be used in.”
As early as last week, reports began surfacing of current elected officials making use of that new ordinance.
On Aug. 6, LBReport.com published a story entitled “Follow the Money,” in which publisher Bill Pearl indicated that Garcia and Richardson were the first two incumbents to use their contributor-fueled officeholder accounts to help fund others’ campaigns.
The local news website reported that those who gave money to the officeholder accounts of the mayor and vice mayor, thinking it would allow them to offset costs of holding office and perhaps help present district events and neighborhood groups, should now realize that Richardson directed part of that money toward helping to re-elect two of his fellow incumbents and an incumbent school board member and that Garcia applied part of the funds to helping get a new member of Congress elected, as well as toward the campaign of a Signal Hill City Council candidate.
Records filed with the Long Beach City Clerk’s office indicate that on June 30— the final day of the first half of 2017 reporting period— Richardson used his officeholder account to donate $250 each to the re-election campaigns of Gonzalez, Uranga and 1st District School Board Member Megan Kerr. Garcia used his officeholder-account funds to give $1,000 to the campaign for Jimmy Gomez for Congress and $500 to Keir Jones for his campaign for Signal Hill City Council. Gomez, who had previously served in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2017, was elected to the United States House of Representatives for California’s 34th Congressional District. Jones was narrowly defeated in his bid for council but was appointed May 9 as the new Signal Hill city clerk, replacing Robert Copeland, who had been elected as a councilmember in March.
(To read the full story, visit lbreport.com/news/aug17/ofchold.htm.)
According to the city clerk’s office, candidates must be registered voters in Long Beach who have lived in the council district for which they plan to run for at least 30 days prior to the end of the nomination period.
Long Beach residents interested in running for one of the open seats can find more information about the requirements and process at longbeach.gov/cityclerk/elections/election-home-page.
