NY Times Writer Mentions LB Mayor Garcia In Final Paragraph Among Second-Tier "Some Others To Keep An Eye On" In Piece Forecasting Dem Party's Future

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NY Times Writer Mentions LB Mayor Garcia In Final Paragraph Among Second-Tier "Some Others To Keep An Eye On" In Piece Forecasting Dem Party's Future

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(Dec. 8, 2016, 11:30 a.m.) -- In the final paragraph of a story it titles "The Next Class of California Political Leaders," a Dec. 7 New York Times story briefly mentions LB Mayor Robert Garcia among a group of "some others to keep an eye on."

The NYT piece by Adam Nagourney (NYT LA Bureau Chief) describes Garcia as "a Republican turned Democratic mayor of Long Beach" and doesn't cite any details of Garcia's record.

[Scroll down for further.]

The article's stated premise is that "Democrats are reeling after Republicans captured the White House and Congress" while "there is a paucity of younger Democrats ready to run for office" and the "answer for Democrats may be to look West" where a "new class of Democratic leaders seems likely to reshape the political face of California for a generation" and "represent a potential talent pool of leaders who can help pull the party out of the worst crisis it has faced since 2005..."

Mayor Garcia was an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton and a delegate to the 2016 Dem Nat'l Convention who voted to nominate her (and not Bernie Sanders.) The day before the November 8 election, Garcia published a Facebook dispatch stating that he'd voted for Mrs. Clinton not as a protest against Donald Trump but for reasons that recited several of her campaign themes. [LBREPORT.com coverage here.] [Garcia's words prompted some local speculation that he was aiming for an appointive position in a Hillary Clinton administration.]

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In September 2005, while working as a City Hall aide to a Republican LB Councilmember, Garcia was a co-founder among a group of LB young professionals who launched a drive to create a new local chapter of Young Republicans for individuals aged 18-40. He told LBREPORT.com at the time: "It's going to be huge. I honestly believe that within a year or two, this is going to be the most influential Republican organization in the city." [LBREPORT.com coverage here] Garcia has since offered a public narrative that his Republican background is a vestige of his arrival in the U.S. as an immigrant child during a Republican administration.]

When the Republican LB Councilman for whom Garcia worked finished second in the 2006 Mayoral race, Garcia moved into LB's heavily Dem-registered 1st Council district where the Dem incumbent was expected to win state office and create a Council vacancy. Garcia changed his declared Repub party preference, began to re-invent himself as a Dem and announced his candidacy (Dec. 2008) with a public pledge that his highest priority would be clean and safe streets. He won election to the City Council with less than a majority vote and on taking office, proceeded to vote for budgets that resulted in the largest reductions in citywide police officers for LB taxpayers within a five year period in the more than 100 year history of the City of Long Beach. The result has left L.A. County's second largest city with a thin budgeted police level for citywide deployment roughly equivalent per capita to eliminating over 30% of L.A.P.D.'s budgeted officers.

Elected non-voting Mayor in 2014, Garcia spearheaded a campaign to raise the city's sales tax to among the highest in California and higher than adjoining cities, using a roughly $700,000 campaign funded mainly by LB's police and firefighter unions plus corporate contributions. The measure's ballot/title text shown to voters stated [all caps in original] "PUBLIC SAFETY, INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR AND NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES MEASURE. To maintain 911 emergency response services; increase police, firefighter/paramedic staffing; repair potholes/streets; improve water supplies; and maintain general services..." Two months after LB voters approved the measure (roughly 60% to 40%), Mayor Garcia recommended funding multiple infrastructure projects, restoring one fire engine (leaving some fire stations without fire engines) and restoring eight police officers (which the Council raised to 10) out of roughly 200 officers that LB no longer has as a result of Council votes in which he'd joined.

Garcia's now-former Deputy Chief of Staff recently exited the Mayor's office to focus on a www.change.org petition which to date has collected over 4.7 million signatures in urging members of the Electoral College to elect Hillary Clinton (the national popular vote winner.)