Editorials, Opinions

Our View: Come June, Dunn is done

Go to school, eat your greens, grow up and become President of the United States — that’s the dream, right? Maybe not. Perhaps, in 2014, there is a more practical dream afloat in Long Beach — the dream of becoming a leader of the city Cal State Long Beach calls home.

The Long Beach voting polls closed on Tuesday night at 8 p.m., and the results of the mayoral race will play out in a run-off between Robert Garcia, current Vice Mayor and City Councilmember for District 1, and Damon Dunn, a businessman and real estate investor.

Garcia was one of three candidates, not all running for the same office, who are former CSULB ASI Presidents. We feel that this is a testament to the inspiration and motivation provided to students by the opportunities and experiences at The Beach.

We support Garcia as he heads to the final vote on June 3, and our endorsement stems from more than a sense of loyalty or emotional attachment to our former campus leader.

His background indicates that he has stronger ties to the Long Beach community than his opponent.  Garcia’s campaign web page features his sincere love and appreciation for Long Beach.

We trust that Garcia has a stronger sense of direction and a stronger sense of commitment to our city, especially because of his years already spent serving Long Beach in leadership positions. We think that Garcia’s experience of serving Long Beach in lowel-level official positions has better equipped him to lead the city as mayor.

Garcia’s opponent has not served in any official capacity, and we don’t have much faith in his ability to take such a large leadership role as the start of his political career. We feel that Dunn’s emphasis on economic growth and job creation reflects a lack of accurate understanding of the more complicated needs of our city.

Dunn’s campaign messages have been indicative of the kind of surface-level goals he will bring to the table should he win the mayoral race.

It’s easy to say, ‘let’s make more jobs,’ ‘let’s work together,’ etc., but we would have liked to see a businessman focus his efforts on something other than bringing in more money.

We would assume that a quality businessman would obviously be able to work towards stimulating the economy through job creation, so emphasizing that as his mission for the city makes Dunn seem less well-rounded than his opponent.

Long Beach has seen Garcia transition from president of Long Beach Young Republicans in college, to modern-day member of the Democratic Party and strong leader of Long Beach. Despite his youth, Garcia has racked up more experience and has developed his political ideologies to a more sophisticated capacity than can be said of Dunn.

Our endorsement is more than simply supporting one of our own, it is trusting that Garcia’s years on campus, his years as a teacher and his years as a city leader have prepared him for the position he seeks. Vote Robert Garcia for Long Beach on June 3.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram