With incumbent Mayor Robert Garcia running for a seat in Congress, voters in Long Beach are about to decide which candidates will succeed him.
In what most campaign observers expect to be a close race, Vice Mayor Rex Richardson is squared off against Councilwoman Susie Price to be the city’s next Mayor.
Garcia announced his bid for Congress earlier this year, leaving the mayoral seat open.
Courtesy photo
Price represents the Third District in southeast Long Beach and works as a senior assistant district attorney in Orange County, while Richardson is the Ninth District councilman in North Long Beach and has been elected twice by the council to serve as vice mayor. Both were first elected to the City Council in 2014.
Price and Richardson emerged from a crowded field as the top two candidates following the June 7 primary, prompting the Nov. 8 runoff.
Richardson ran first with 44 percent of the vote with Price not far behind at 37 percent.
Price represents the more affluent Third District (Belmont Shore area) while Richardson represents the Ninth District, which has among its residents the lowest average incomes in Long Beach.
Both mayoral hopefuls, though, agreed that homelessness and public safety are among Long Beach’s top issues — though their plans to address those problems are vastly different.
“I really try to place a real focus on both root causes and changing our systems to have more capacity to deal with it locally,” Richardson said of his work to address Long Beach’s homeless crisis. “It’s very difficult to hold another agency accountable, so I’m a supporter of local control,” he has said in interviews with the Long Beach-based Press-Telegram.
Richardson spearheaded efforts to establish the city’s first municipal homeless shelter, the Atlantic Farms Bridge Housing Community, which opened in North Long Beach in 2020, has put forward plans to deal with both the homeless and the affordable housing crisis.
Price, for her part, agreed that consistent street outreach is a crucial component of helping unhoused individuals accept social services. But, Price said, she wants to establish a dedicated outreach squad in each district.
“My proposal has been that we expand the capacity of the city to do street outreach by working with nonprofits,” Price was quoted as saying in Press-Telegram interviews. Price said it would be much more effective to establish nine outreach teams compromised of nonprofits and previously homeless residents.
She said that would allow for daily, consistent outreach and relationship building, which Price claims is necessary to make the program sustainable and would make it more acceptable to those without a current home.
Price also credits her single mom for the values she now extolls as a prosecutor and as a public servant. “When Suzie found City Hall unwilling to build a crosswalk to keep her kids safe, she ran for Long Beach City Council and won. As Councilwoman, Suzie has used her experience as a criminal prosecutor and working mom to move past empty rhetoric and deliver results,” according to her website.
“Now Suzie is running for Mayor because if Long Beach is going to remain a place where you can afford to raise a family, buy a home, and start a business, we can’t afford empty promises; we need someone who gets the job done.”
And when it comes to public safety, both Richardson and Price agreed that ensuring the Long Beach Police and Fire departments are well-resourced is crucial.
For Richardson, though, making Long Beach a safer place to live also requires robust investment in the community. He claims there is a direct correlation between areas of crime and the lack of community investment.
Without a significant investment into communities awash in poverty and devoid of investment, there should be no expectation that the community will be safe.
According to reports filed by Sept. 29, Price has raised $1.1 million for her campaign, while Richardson has raised slightly more than $865,000.
Both have independent campaign committees supporting them and both have been endorsed by various groups and organizations.
For more information, visit https://suzieprice4mayor.com/ and https://www.joinrexrichardson.com.
