In a turn of events for the Long Beach 9th District city council race, sole opposing candidate Mineo Gonzalez has stated he will not campaign against incumbent Rex Richardson.
Mineo Gonzalez
However, according to the Long Beach City Clerk’s office, Gonzalez’s name will remain on the April 10 primary election ballot because he submitted his intention to withdraw late on Jan. 26, two weeks past the deadline to make such a change.
Gonzalez is therefore still a candidate, said Myra Maravilla, city clerk specialist, in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune.
“He is still considered a candidate,” she said. “It’s up to him if he wants to have an active or inactive campaign. If he chooses to have an inactive campaign, he can.”
Maravilla indicated that Gonzalez still has to submit all forms required of candidates, including a semi-annual campaign statement due Jan. 31, based on campaign contributions received in 2017.
Gonzalez, a 41-year-old auditor, has based his campaign on more effective leadership, according to his campaign website, Keepitlongbeach.com.
“Leadership is about listening and speaking up when your constituents are on the wrong track,” his website reads.
He specifically indicates he would oppose the new land-use element of the General Plan, as well as the extension of bar opening times and establishment of recreational-marijuana outlets in District 9.
Rex Richardson
However, his current campaign site states that all references to the city council election have been removed as of Jan. 26, the day he filed to withdraw.
Gonzalez informed the Signal Tribune in a Jan. 30 email exchange that, though he knows he is still a candidate, he will no longer actively campaign because of his disappointment in politics.
“I am not looking to pursue campaigning for the office publicly at this time,” he stated. “My decision to withdraw from campaigning [is] based on my disillusionment with the process.”
Gonzalez also cited financial limitations as his reason to step back, having raised $2,000 in campaign funds compared to incumbent Richardson’s $70,000, according to media reports.
“When someone goes out of their way to purchase websites using your name to put out a narrative that is not yours, then I am fighting an uphill battle,” he stated. “I do not have the money to mount a mail campaign. My biggest resource was going to be people searching the Internet for information on my platform. The [fake] websites now come up first before my website in searches due to the SEO (search-engine optimization) company they are using.”
Gonzalez additionally referenced Richardson’s silence over the fake website as part of his bitterness toward the process.
“When my opponent was made aware of and did not admonish these types of acts, I completely lost faith in a fair political discourse,” Gonzalez stated.Â
For his part, Richardson told the Signal Tribune in a phone interview that he is proceeding as planned with his 9th District campaign.
“I am still going to run a positive campaign based on the things we’ve done and where we’re going,” he said, referring to the new development projects he initiated during his four-year term as council member.
Richardson also contradicted one of Gonzalez’s campaign platforms that implied Richardson was a career politician using Long Beach as a stepping stone by pointing out that he had already served four years as council member and was running for another four.
“It’s the best community to serve because we unanimously support progress,” he said of District 9. “They’re my friends, my neighbors.”
Richardson further expressed confusion over Gonzalez’s decision.
“He’s gotten more press by saying he’s dropped out,” he said. “I don’t know what the guy’s doing.”
Richardson surmised that Gonzalez may have irked some members of a public Facebook group called North Long Beach News (NLBN)— who clearly support Richardson, per their comments and posts— by engaging in a heated online debate in early January.
In fact, the fake website using Gonzalez’s name takes phrases out of context from that online exchange to create the impression that Gonzalez conceded the race to Richardson.
“I have!released my website because!I cannot continue election!I conceded the race,” the fake campaign website reads.
The online news outlet The Long Beach Post picked up the fake website information as real on Jan. 17 but corrected its story on Jan. 18 after Gonzalez posted an admonishment to the reporter for not vetting it properly.
On Jan. 19, Gonzalez indicated on the NLBN site that he was working on his actual campaign website but couldn’t release it until filing a campaign statement with the city on Jan 22.
On Jan. 23, Gonzalez was actively debating online with NLBN group members about his campaign positions.
Nevertheless, he filed to withdraw from the race on Jan. 26, as reported by the Press-Telegram newspaper and confirmed by the city clerk.
On Jan. 29, however, Gonzalez posted a reply to dismissive commentary about him by Dan Pressburg, an activist for District 9, on the NLBN site implying that he considered himself still in the race.
“What I really find interesting is that none of you have realized that my name is still on the ballot and what that means,” he wrote.
Despite his filing and media statements about not campaigning, Gonzalez’s campaign website is still up as of press time. The fake website using his name is also still up.
Though no one has claimed responsibility for the fake site, its fine print offers this disclaimer: “All quotes above are taken from Mineo Gonzalez'[s] posts & comments on the North Long Beach News Facebook Group. In addition, the material on this website may strike some readers as mean, offensive, or (worst of all) serious. It’s political satire. Please adjust your expectations and interpretations accordingly.”
The Long Beach primary election date is April 10.
