Recent Words By Mayor Garcia May Signal He Doesn't Plan To Serve Next Four Years If Re-Elected

' Recent Words By Mayor Garcia May Signal He Doesn't Plan To Serve Next Four Years If Re-Elected

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(March 30, 2018, 9:50 a.m.) -- In a video recorded message to the Bluff Parking Neighborhood Association, Mayor Robert Garcia may have signaled -- either intentionally or in a Freudian slip -- that he isn't planning to serve the full four year term to which he's seeking re-election. In the pre-recorded video screened at the group's March 28 meeting, Mayor Garcia [who from our experience is quite careful in choosing his public words] stated:

"I'm running for re-election. I'm asking for your support. I am really, really proud of the work that we've done together in these last years, and I'm looking forward to doing the same thing in the next couple of years. So what are we proud of..." [begins citing campaign bullet points.]

To our knowledge, Mayor Garcia hasn't categorically ruled out exiting his office before completing the four year term for which he's seeking re-election. Exiting his office early could trigger various potential political scenarios, with all of them ultimately paid for by LB taxpayers.

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LBREPORT.com has previously speculated that Garcia, faced with term limits if he's re-elected, may exit within months to seek the LB-area state Senate seat that will become vacant if incumbent state Senator Ricardo Lara (D, LB-Huntington Park) is elected statewide Insurance Commissioner in November 2018. Garcia was among the first to endorse Sen. Lara's pursuit of the statewide office (within weeks of his re-election to the state Senate seat) and near instantly endorsed Sen. Lara's proposed state government run ("single payer") health care system. However Garcia isn't the only local pol potentially eyeing the state Senate seat. 8th dist. Councilman Al Austin, also facing term limits, signaled last year that he's considering a run for state Senate [no specifics offered at the time.]

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Others tell LBREPORT.com that Garcia has long been angling to replace Congressman Alan Lowenthal (D, LB-west OC), now in his 70s. Lowenthal is currently relegated to the House minority but may choose to remain longer than some expected if voters in Novermber 2018 flip-the-House to a Dem majority. That could put Lowenthal in an enviable position as a possible House Committee chair in addition to playing a role in speculated Dem-led Trump impeachment proceedings if Dems get a House majority.

Garcia may have been positioning himself to exit for D.C. as early as nearly two years ago in what conventional wisdom assumed would be a Clinton administration. Garcia made multiple trips to Washington for Obama White House-organized events; voted with Dem Party machinery to nominate Clinton for president over Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Dems' 2016 National Convention; was allowed by the Clinton campaign to serve as the prominent final photo-op speaker introducing Clinton at an LBCC campaign rally, and Garcia traveled to Nevada to help Clinton's presidential campaign.

Just hours before the polls closed in November 2016, Garcia published a statement that a number of LB political observers viewed as handing his resume to an incoming Clinton administration, declaring that he wasn't just voting for Clinton as an alternative to Trump but because he genuinely liked her as a candidate. [LBREPORT.com coverage, here]

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If, for whatever reason, Garcia were to exit the Mayor's office prior to completing a second term, the vacancy will trigger a citywide, taxpayer-paid special election. Anyone could run for Mayor in the no-runoff special election, but if an incumbent LB Councilmember does so and wins, it would in turn create a Council vacancy with another costly special election needed to fill the Council seat.

Developing.

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