Sending A Message With the Upcoming Council Elections

We urge 2nd, 4th and 8th district voters enduring this blizzard: be not afraid; be empowered. With your vote, you will send a message on whether such nonsense works...or fails.

At the end of the day, voters are more powerful than money, consultants, political mercenaries, zombie walkers, script-reading phone-bankers and robo calls. On the day after the election, the consultants, mercenaries and zombies will see whether they were smart, or just smug, to treat you and your neighbors as if you can be easily fooled.

Earlier this year, Assemblyman Warren Furutani, a decent fellow, relied on the usual suspects and their endorsements and machinery to elect him to a Los Angeles City Council seat. His campaign seriously misjudged the extent of voter disgust with all of this...and he lost badly.

This election is about how Long Beach elections are run now, and in the future, that will determine how our city is run. That has changed because of a lawsuit successfully pursued on First Amendment grounds by the LB Area Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's PAC ("Jobs PAC") -- as well as political action committees from whatever stripe including unions -- can now collect campaign contributions in amounts that far exceed LB's voter-enacted limits on candidates.

The PACs -- and those giving them money -- may think they hold the cards...but in our view voters hold the cards and deal the deck.

When you get a political mailer, look at the fine print and see who sent it. Regardless of whether it comes from a PAC (legally independent of the candidate) or a candidate's own campaign, ask yourself: does this communication insult your intelligence to try and get your vote?

We advise treating a candidate like a prospective mate. If they and their biggest supporters don't tell you the truth now, what will they do and say if they get power? If they treat you disrespectfully and insult your intelligence now, how will they treat you after you've tied the knot for the next four years? Will they do and say anything to try and get what they want from you now?

Past is prologue. Consider what the candidate did and said in the past. Whom does he/she list as endorsers now? Who contributed money to try and put them in office? Were they on the right side in neighborhood impacting battles and costly taxpayer actions?

In the privacy of your voting booth or at home before marking your ballot, ask yourself: what message will your vote send?

At the end of the day -- which will come shortly after 8:00 p.m. on April 10 -- voters in Long Beach's 2nd, 4th and 8th Council district will show what works in Long Beach and what doesn't.

And that's very much on LB's ballots now.