If you check out the City of Long Beach’s Election Results Page for yesterday’s primary, this is what you’ll see — except that it scrolls, slo-o-o-o-o-o-wly, up the page, and there’s no apparent way to go back and look at a result if you miss it or are trying to write things down. I’ve seen some screwed up results reporting in my time, but this one is among the most infuriating, as my politically minded Facebook friends were complaining for much of the night. So, I sat there for minutes with my finger on the shift-key, highlighting the whole thing as is scrolled by, so that I could copy and paste and put our coastal friends to the northwest out of their misery.
Congratulations to the winners (those who got over 50%) and the survivors (the top two for each race if none exceeded 50%), the latter of whom go to a runoff on June 3.
And hey, City Clerk of Long Beach! Fix this!
| Registration and Turnout |
| Completed Precincts: 295 of 295 |
|
Reg/Turnout |
Percentage |
| Total Registered Voters |
285,029 |
|
| Precinct Registration |
285,029 |
|
| Precinct Ballots Cast |
19,459 |
6.8% |
| Vote By Mail Ballots Cast |
21,130 |
7.4% |
| Total Ballots Cast |
40,589 |
14.2% |
| Mayor |
| Completed Precincts: 268 of 268 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| ROBERT GARCIA |
9,670 |
25.4% |
| DAMON DUNN |
8,478 |
22.3% |
| BONNIE LOWENTHAL |
7,453 |
19.6% |
| GERRIE SCHIPSKE |
5,889 |
15.5% |
| DOUG OTTO |
5,186 |
13.6% |
| JANA SHIELDS |
840 |
2.2% |
| STEVEN PAUL MOZENA |
182 |
0.5% |
| MINEO L. GONZALEZ |
150 |
0.4% |
| ERIC ROCK |
149 |
0.4% |
| RICHARD ANTHONY CAMP |
90 |
0.2% |
| City Attorney |
| Completed Precincts: 268 of 268 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| CHARLES PARKIN |
16,403 |
45.1% |
| JAMES JOHNSON |
13,735 |
37.8% |
| MATTHEW PAPPAS |
6,223 |
17.1% |
| City Auditor |
| Completed Precincts: 268 of 268 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| LAURA L. DOUD |
31,706 |
100.0% |
| City Prosecutor |
| Completed Precincts: 268 of 268 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| DOUG HAUBERT |
26,052 |
73.9% |
| ROSEMARY CHAVEZ |
9,223 |
26.1% |
| Council Member, District 1 |
| Completed Precincts: 18 of 18 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| LENA GONZALEZ |
874 |
45.5% |
| MISI TAGALOA |
585 |
30.5% |
| RICARDO LINAREZ |
310 |
16.1% |
| PILAR PINEL |
152 |
7.9% |
| Council Member, District 3 |
| Completed Precincts: 36 of 36 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| SUZIE PRICE |
4,559 |
54.9% |
| JACK ROSENBERG |
1,090 |
13.1% |
| JIM LEWIS |
957 |
11.5% |
| STEPHEN BELLO |
886 |
10.7% |
| MARTHA FLORES GIBSON |
818 |
9.8% |
| Council Member, District 5 |
| Completed Precincts: 44 of 44 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| STACY MUNGO |
3,217 |
37.7% |
| CARL KEMP |
2,679 |
31.4% |
| JOSEPH D. LUYBEN |
1,988 |
23.3% |
| THOMAS SUTFIN |
640 |
7.5% |
| Council Member, District 7 |
| Completed Precincts: 32 of 32 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| ROBERTO URANGA |
2,355 |
50.2% |
| JOAN V. GREENWOOD |
1,150 |
24.5% |
| TEER STRICKLAND |
871 |
18.6% |
| LEE H. CHAUSER |
311 |
6.6% |
| Council Member, District 9 |
| Completed Precincts: 27 of 27 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| REX RICHARDSON |
1,622 |
72.4% |
| BEN DAUGHERTY |
618 |
27.6% |
| Long Beach Community College District Governing Board, Trustee Area 1 |
| Completed Precincts: 48 of 48 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| JEFFREY A. KELLOGG |
3,348 |
55.6% |
| MARSHALL E. BLESOFSKY |
2,674 |
44.4% |
| Long Beach Community College District Governing Board, Trustee Area 3 |
| Completed Precincts: 46 of 46 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| SUNNY ZIA |
2,551 |
59.8% |
| STELLA M. URSUA |
1,718 |
40.2% |
| Long Beach Community College District Governing Board, Trustee Area 5 |
| Completed Precincts: 80 of 80 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| VIRGINIA L. BAXTER |
6,253 |
55.7% |
| GREGORY “GREG” SLAUGHTER |
4,973 |
44.3% |
| Long Beach Unified School District Board Member, District 1 |
| Completed Precincts: 49 of 49 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| MEGAN M. KERR |
3,209 |
51.3% |
| UDUAK-JOE “JOEY” NTUK |
3,044 |
48.7% |
| Long Beach Unified School District Board Member, District 3 |
| Completed Precincts: 45 of 45 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| JOHN MCGINNIS |
2,183 |
52.9% |
| JUAN BENITEZ |
1,944 |
47.1% |
| Measure A: General Tax on Medical Marijuana Sales |
| Completed Precincts: 268 of 268 |
|
Vote Count |
Percentage |
| Yes |
26,017 |
74.0% |
| No |
9,129 |
26.0% |
About Greg Diamond
Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that.
Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too.
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)
His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)
Some highlights:
I’d heard that the top five candidates for Mayor were tightly packed. Good polling, there! Bonnie Lowenthal was probably somewhat hurt by her gaffe of campaign’s posting a waterfront photo of San Diego and calling it Long Beach; that that mistake, not her own doing could have been decisive is the sort of thing that keeps campaign manager continually medicated (with ethanol.)
The result of (former Young Republican leader) Garcia versus (former Republican candidate for Secretary of State) Dunn in the runoff — that’s a Democrat vs. a No Party Preference candidate — wasn’t too surprising in this highly Democratic city. Schipske or Otto making the runoff would have been somewhat surprising, but not shocking. (The only shock among those top five would have been anyone getting 50%+1.) I’d thought that it would be either that or Garcia vs. Lowenthal, but I’ve heard that Dunn put together a strong coalition of Republicans and African American voters.
Now we have a contest between the Mayor-endorsed candidate and the former professional athlete, to be conducted along not only racial but de facto partisan lines. Lowenthal, Schipske, and Otto are all in positions to make demands in exchange for support — and those demands will likely to conflict. If Garcia can navigate this next two months, he’ll have truly earned the position of Mayor.
Other points of note: Marijuana Defense lawyer Matt Pappas finished a distant third in the primary for City Attorney after being lambasted by well-funded law enforcement groups. I’m sure glad that that would never happen to a progressive candidate in Orange County!
Sunny Zia, until recently of Irvine, won a community college board seat.
And finally — Long Beach will be taxing proceeds of medical marijuana. That tax money could have belonged to Orange County. But I guess that instead we’d rather have higher sales taxes or property taxes or whatever. Sigh.
Turnout: 14.2% – Pathetic! Is anyone going to complain about “under-representation”?
And, please explain the last sentence. Does it lament OC’s failure to tax its OWN weed sales, or is there some taxation nexus between LB and OC that I missed? (OK, THIRD to last sentence! – or last paragraph! Yeah, that fixes it!). The LAST sentence is, unfortunately, spot on!
It’s a lament: we should be doing exactly what Long Beach is doing here.
Somewhat probably I think voters want new blood. Not recycled pol’s who can’t be content with a position/term or a back and forth line jumper.