Cal State Long Beach health and administration professor and local Democratic leader Gerrie Schipske will be running for office in the November 2012 election of the 70th district assembly.
The nurse, lawyer and professor aim to make needed reform in the Long Beach community. Schipske said timing will play in her favor when running.
“This is the best time to run as the seat is open and there will be no incumbent,” Schipske said.
It is unknown if council member Patrick O’Donnell, a full-time teacher in the Paramount School District, will be running against Schipske since he is currently considered a part of the 54th assembly district.
“As redistricting is something that happens every 10 years, the decision to run was planned out about a year ago,” Schipske said.
If elected, Schipske plans to treat the job very seriously, considering it a full-time job. The assembly is a low-paying position with a paycheck of roughly $30,000 annually.
Schipske’s dedication and enthusiasm to Long Beach is obvious and coworkers at the city council do not want to see her leave. Her response was, “I’m not leaving Long Beach, I’ll just be representing at a different level of government.”
Schipske said many of the difficulties cities are facing today are a direct result of what’s happening in Sacramento.
People from Long Beach need to go to Sacramento and represent the cities from which they were sent, instead of representing Sacramento, she said. Schipske is concerned that the state has taken away redevelopment money and is now transferring prisoners who will predominately come to L.A County without additional money.
Schipske said Sacramento too often uses cities like Long Beach as an ATM and this is something she would like to see reformed, along with the high unemployment rate.
She could not stress enough how problematic it is that Long Beach, a city with a 43 percent redevelopment rate, has to suffer from the swiping of Sacramento’s debit card.
“So many current projects in Long Beach are aimed to improve the quality of our community and are on hold as the state has taken the money,” Schipske said.
Not all the jobs pertaining to the port are directly affecting Long Beach.
“The port creates thousands and thousands of jobs for Southern California,” she said, “including truckers, shippers, rail-docks, etc. Without the need to move cargo, there would be no jobs.”
If elected, Schipske hopes she will return to CSULB because she loves teaching.
She said it’s a good way for someone in elected office to keep in touch with what is really going on.
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