Over 950,000 California voters in the June 5 primary election included residents of Long Beach who, along with voting on statewide contests, made final decisions on local matters.
Long Beach City Council members Stacy Mungo and Roberto Uranga both retained their positions after each won slightly above 53 percent of votes from residents in the fifth district and the seventh district, respectively.
Both won the highest amount of votes in their April 10 primary elections, but runoff elections occurred because neither initially received more than 50 percent of their constituents’ votes.
A seat on the Long Beach Unified School District’s Board of Education was also on some resident’s ballots and sought by newcomers. That seat, to represent the board’s third district, was won by Cal State Long Beach professor Juan Benitez.
Like Mungo and Uranga, Benitez gained more votes than his opponents in the primary election, but not enough to avoid a runoff election. Benitez and high school teacher Cesar Armendariz advanced to the June 5 runoff, in which 62.38 percent of ballots were cast in Benitez’s favor.
Recently, Benitez was named in a complaint filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission by two CSULB student organizations.
The complaint asks that the FPPC investigate if Benitez and professor Rigoberto Rodriguez violated laws when Rodriguez gave a class an assignment which offered credit in exchange for volunteer work promoting Benitez’s campaign.
On ballots for all Long Beach residents was Measure M, which was approved by 20,684 voters and had 18,258 cast votes against it.
The measure allows the city to transfer money from water, sewer and gas utilities to the General Fund, which is used to pay for services such as public libraries, fire and police departments. The amount transferable from each utility is not to exceed 12 percent.
Contenders for positions such as governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state were decided. The two candidates who gained the most votes for each state representative position in the June 5 primary will move on to the Nov. 6 general elections.
State Assembly districts which represent portions of Long Beach and were on ballots are those representing districts 63, 64 and 70.
The top two candidates for the 63rd district are Speaker of the California State Assembly Anthony Rendon with 12,614 votes and Maria Estrada with 7,590 votes. Assemblyman Mike Gipson was the only candidate running for the 64th district. All three are Democrats.
In the 70th State Assembly District, Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell received 24,539 and second place Honor “Mimi” Robson got 7,253 votes.
The 34th State Senate district was the sole State Senate position which represents Long Beach and was on ballots. Incumbent Janet Nguyen won 6,045 votes, followed Tom Umberg with 2,798 votes.
Full results in the California primaries can be found here. The deadline to register to vote for the Nov. 6 election is Oct. 22. You can register to vote online here.