(Sept. 9, 2004) -- Former Long Beach City Councilman Edd Tuttle has announced he is running for the United States Senate -- from Arkansas.
The former 8th district LB city lawmaker, who has made his home in Harrison, Arkansas for the past five years, said he is seeking the U.S. Senate seat lost by Republican Sen. Tim Hutchison in 2002...meaning it won't be contested until 2008.
"I am getting in real early...got lots of walking to do!" said Mr. Tuttle, a Republican, in a written release.
Mr. Tuttle, 57, said in the release that the government is doing "an embarrassing job" with the war on drugs ("way too many of the wrong folks going to jail...Let's get the real crooks and quit putting our kids away for non victim crimes") and criticized the Bureau of Land Management's recent efforts to limit public access to national parks and lands ("a planned and capricious land grab").
Mr. Tuttle served on the LB City Council for ten years during which he was an outspoken supporter of homeowners resisting increased flights at LB Airport. Named Vice-Mayor by his Council colleagues, Mr. Tuttle was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve on a White House Families Conference. He was also a member of the Los Angeles Transportation Commission (before it "ran into financial disaster" he says) and chaired the L.A. County Sanitation District, which built one of the first waste to energy plants on the west coast. He attended Pepperdine, LBCC, UCLA, CSU Chico and Cal Berkeley, earning his teaching credential from Cal.
The release said Mr. Tuttle and his wife Kay of two years "are highly active in Republican politics."
Mr. Tuttle said his campaign "is going to be in the grand tradition of former Senator Wilber Mills," adding "We both know how to skin a mule perfectly."