Long Beach Voters need to read and see on the go:

Rex Richardson has risen above adversity in his life and knows firsthand the work and determination needed for families to climb into the middle class. He's among the first generation of his family to attend college, worked as a community organizer, and dedicated his career to serving the needs of the Long Beach community.

As Long Beach's Vice Mayor, Rex has tackled the city's biggest challenges and delivered results for our city including: 

• Restoring vital public safety services — like Paramedic Rescue 12 in North Long Beach — that led to reducing the time it takes for firefighters to reach people who need their help.

• Leading the effort to build Long Beach's first municipal homeless shelter, which has helped unhoused individuals move off the streets.

• Investing in mental health and domestic violence services to address the root causes of homelessness.

Rex Richardson believes in trusting women with the freedom to make their own decisions around their reproductive health. In Long Beach, he's worked to increase survival rates for mothers and infants.

He is endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood Action Project Los Angeles, California Environmental Voters, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and Long Beach Firefighters Association.

Long Beach Voters also need to read and see on the go:

Suzie Price broke campaign finance rules and used your taxpayer dollars and City Hall resources to pay for her political ambitions to win this campaign for mayor. If that’s where your tax dollars are going now, where do you think they’ll go if she wins? 

FPPC launches investigation into Suzie Price mayoral campaign

August 27, 2022

A state-run election watchdog group has launched an investigation into current Long Beach City Councilmember Suzie Price’s campaign for mayor — to determine whether the candidate misused her position in city government to promote her mayoral campaign.

That investigation will determine whether Price violated election regulations by promoting a link to her mayoral campaign website on city-run websites, at city events, and in her official District 3 newsletter — allegations that the Price campaigns categorically denied in an Aug. 26 statement, arguing they are a political tactic aimed at keeping the Councilwoman out of the mayoral seat.

The Fair Political Practices Commission, an independent regulatory body responsible for investigating election corruption under the Political Reform Act, officially opened its probe into Price’s campaign on Aug. 25 — after receiving a citizen complaint alleging that Price, on more than occasion, used city resources to promote her mayoral campaign — in a potential violation of California election law...

...Before Tushnet took her concerns to the FPPC, she presented them to the Long Beach City Attorney’s office on July 27. Because there is an ongoing election for the city attorney position, that office sent the complaint to an external attorney for review to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

“We had outside counsel to look at complaints about conflicts during the election that could impact our office,” said City Attorney Charles Parkin in an Aug. 26 interview, “We did send it (Tushnet’s complaint) out to a third party law firm to look at.”

That firm, Best Best & Krieger, submitted their analysis of Tushnet’s complaint back to the City Attorney’s office on Aug. 5.

The law firm’s assessment found that two of Tushnet’s allegations — supported by social media posts, Suzie Price’s council district newsletters, and a now-dead link to her own website — likely merit violations of campaign law.

Much of the concern relates to Price’s use of the now deactivated website, suzieaprice.com, on her official social media accounts, at city-sponsored events, and in her weekly District 3 city newsletters.

The suzieaprice.com link automatically redirected users to Price’s campaign website — suzieprice4mayor.com.

“State law precludes the use of public resources, including the use of a city-managed website, for campaign activity,” wrote attorney Ruben Duran, who conducted the third-party review, in the Aug. 5 memo.

The “suzieaprice.com” link appeared across Price’s City Council communications for months — including on her official Long Beach government page, and her official Instagram and Facebook pages.

Although the use of Price’s campaign link on the city’s website could indicate a more serious misuse of Long Beach’s resources, the memo said, Price’s social media accounts are self-run — meaning that the Councilmember’s likely didn’t commit campaign violations in those instances.

“However, since those accounts pertain to (Price’s) activities as the District 3 Councilmember, there should be a clear distinction made between the Councilmember’s public official account, campaign account, and personal account,” the memo said, “to ensure that City-run accounts are not being used for campaign-related purposes in violation of state law.”

Price also displayed her campaign link on a pop-up tent at a city-sponsored Long Beach Municipal Band concert on July 28.

Though the link itself doesn’t contain any phrases outright advocating in favor of Price’s campaign, the memo said, the fact that the link automatically redirected users to the suziprice4mayor.com website — and was displayed at a city event — is likely a campaign law violation.

“The Councilmember is essentially engaging in express advocacy of her candidacy through the promotion of her campaign website,” the memo said, “which clearly identifies her candidacy for elective office during the course of the event.”

And, the memo continued, Price could be in further trouble on that front if any city staff expended time or costs to assemble the pop-up tent — assuming the mayoral hopeful didn’t pay for it out-of-pocket herself.

The link also appeared in Price’s official City Council newsletters over a seven-month period.

A hyperlinked phrase contained within the newsletters urged readers to “visit our website.” But instead of linking to Price’s City Council homepage, it again linked to her campaign website.

“This communication would likely not be considered informational, but impermissible campaign activity,” the memo said, “and an unauthorized use of city resources.”

The external counsel advised Price to remove her campaign link from all city-related communications — noting that the councilmember’s apparent violations could warrant both civil and criminal penalties.

“The city may consider referring this matter to the District Attorney for further investigation,” the memo said, in order to enforce proper campaign conduct.