Long Beach Mayor to Seek 3rd Term With Write-In Candidacy

Citing an exception in the city’s term limits law, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill announced Wednesday that she will seek a third term in office as a write-in candidate in next year’s election.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle and a difficult campaign to educate the public,” O’Neill said, waving a bundle of pencils during a gathering of political backers at the Long Beach Hyatt Regency. “I feel it can be done, and my supporters feel it can be done.”

O’Neill, 68, who easily won a second four-year term in 1998, will run under a provision of the city’s term limits law that allows write-in candidacies for incumbents who have served two terms in the office they are seeking.

However, O’Neill must overcome strong public sentiment in favor of restricting elected officials to two terms, despite the write-in provisions of the law. Long Beach voters overwhelmingly passed those term limits, including the write-in exception, in 1992.

Last year, voters rejected Measure K, a ballot measure designed to ease some of the obstacles faced by incumbents who run as write-in candidates. The initiative, which was supported by O’Neill, would have allowed their names to be placed on ballots under certain circumstances.

In recent months, some community activists and business leaders have said that O’Neill should honor the intent of the city’s restrictions and leave office at the end of her term.

“We voted for term limits, and the public did not support Measure K,” said Tracy Wilson-KleeKamp, head of the Stearns Park Neighborhood Assn. in east Long Beach. “The voters will not back the mayor’s write-in candidacy. I don’t believe she is as popular as she has been made out to be.”

At least four other people are considering running for mayor: Vice Mayor Dan Baker, City Councilmen Ray Grabinski and Frank Colonna, and former City Councilman Doug Drummond. They have until December to declare their candidacies.

A primary election is scheduled for April 2002. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a runoff will be held in June for the two candidates with the most votes from the primary.

O’Neill said she decided to run for a third term after conducting a telephone poll of 400 Long Beach residents. Although she did not release the results of the poll, the mayor said she was encouraged by strong indications of support.

But the upcoming campaign will be difficult and expensive, the mayor said, because the public will have to be educated about the law and the voting procedure for write-ins. She estimated that her campaign will cost up to $400,000.

“The hardest thing will be getting the voters to write in my name and then vote,” O’Neill said. “The public needs to understand the write-in provisions of the law. We need to let them know that my candidacy is not in violation of term limits.”

O’Neill, a former teacher and community college president, was first elected mayor of the state’s fifth-largest city in 1994. She came to power as the worst recession in state history conspired with cutbacks in defense spending to gut the local economy.

In the last seven years, she has supported industrial development, new retail centers and redevelopment projects aimed at restoring Long Beach as a major tourist destination in Southern California.

The local economy improved as California emerged from the recession, but the record of local development projects has been mixed. Although some retail centers have been successful, other projects have not, particularly in the downtown area, where proposals have been delayed or have not performed as expected. Attendance at the Aquarium of the Pacific has been half its projected level, and a nearby $100-million entertainment and retail complex known as Queensway Bay has been delayed for a year and may be scaled back.

“It is hard to change directions and our image,” O’Neill said. “We haven’t reached the point where we are economically stable. I want to help rebuild our tax base and give Long Beach its rightful place in the state.”

O’Neill’s potential challengers said Wednesday that they are undeterred by the mayor’s announcement and stressed that write-in candidacies are probably more of a campaign liability than an asset.

“Anybody would have a hard time,” said Grabinski. “I would be in the same position. Beverly has been popular. . . . But being popular does not mean you are golden.”

Colonna agreed. “The mayor has done an outstanding job,” the councilman said. “But the people voted for term limits. The outcome will depend on how eager people are for new ideas and new leadership. Sometimes, I think people want to see change.”