LBCC Candidate Ntuk's Mindless Mailer Invites 2016 Party-Over-Principle Politics For <nobr>Non-Partisan</nobr> LBCC Board

' LBCC Candidate Ntuk's Mindless Mailer Invites 2016 Party-Over-Principle Politics For <nobr>Non-Partisan</nobr> LBCC Board

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LBCC Candidate Ntuk's Mindless Mailer Invites 2016 Party-Over-Principle Politics For Non-Partisan LBCC Board

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(March 26, 2018, 10:08 a.m.) -- A political attack mailer recently landed in some LB mailboxes from Uduak ("call me Joe") Ntuk, who wants to become an LBCC Trustee. Mr. Ntuk chairs the Dem Party's 70th Assembly district delegation and four years ago sought a seat on LB's School Board (narrowly losing to fellow-Dem Megan Kerr.)

In seeking the LBCC seat now, Mr. Ntuk's mailer doesn't attack longtime LBCC Trustee (former 8th dist. Councilman) Jeff Kellogg for his actions on the LBCC board. Instead it tells voters that Jeff's brother, Keith (a retired U.S. Army Three-Star General and combat veteran), advised candidate Donald Trump on national security matters and is now part of the White House national security team, and says Jeff's son holds an administration appointive position.

In the mailer, Mr. Ntuk says: "As someone actively engaged in the battle against the Trump Administration agenda, I will work hard as your Community College Board Member to defend our Democratic [uses capital D to stress Dem Party] values, ideals and educational policies."

So...based on Mr. Ntuk's actions, what are those?

[Scroll down for further.]

Two years ago, Mr. Ntuk was a delegate to the Democrats' 2016 National Convention. In that position, he voted to nominate Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. The nomination process disgusted many Dems and her entitlement-minded trainwreck campaign is history.

During the same period, Jeff Kellogg says he wasn't involved with the campaigns of either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Period.

Millions of Americans of all political stripes were repelled by the 2016 election cycle. Unless one mindlessly believes Jeff Kellogg is somehow responsible through his brother's and son's DNA, he wasn't part of it. In contrast, Mr. Ntuk was a demonstrable accomplice to it.

When given a Party position of power, he used it to nominate a candidate who held one of the country's highest federal positions, attempted to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act, mishandled and destroyed public records and when confronted offered the public and the press a misleading, arguably mendacious narrative. Sorry, these sorts of things matter to us, especially in our line of work. Since Mr. Ntuk found such actions acceptable for the nation's highest office, exactly what assurance do LB voters have that he wouldn't shrug similar conduct if he were to encounter it locally and it was politically expedient?

We don't admire lockstep party-line orthodoxy. We prefer individuals who put principle over party.

Mr. Ntuk's mailer displays the type a mindless politics that voters of multiple political stripes hoped would end in 2016. Instead of sensible arguments on the merits, he offers voters an ad hominem tantrum using the officeholder's brother and son. And candidate Ntuk offers to bring this type of robotic partisanship to LBCC's non-partisan governing board now.

Long Beach area voters will decide whether our community college deserves better.

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