Long Beach debate displays big differences between state Senate candidates Gonzalez, Guerrero

LONG BEACH — State Senate candidates Lena Gonzalez and Jack Guerrero took advantage of their only scheduled debate to show off sharp disagreements about how to lift up their south Los Angeles County district.

Gonzalez, a Democrat and a Long Beach city councilwoman, and Guerrero, a Republican and Cudahy councilman, are campaigning for a June 4 special-election runoff for the 33rd state Senate district seat left vacant when Democrat Ricardo Lara was elected California insurance commissioner last November.

Taking turns answering audience questions Monday in the Veterans Park community center before a crowd of about 200 that cheered and booed raucously, neither candidate held back.

Gonzalez said she supports “California values that are progressive and inclusive,” and stood up for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, the state’s recently enacted gas tax and immigrant “sanctuary” laws. She proposed an activist government agenda to protect the environment, promote public schools, hold down rent and make health care available to everybody “whether documented or not.”

“Over the last 10 years I’ve been a great public servant. And over the last five years I’ve worked very hard on a few key issues, one in particular,” Gonzalez said, touting her environmental work to ban Styrofoam in Long Beach.

Guerrero led off by labeling Sacramento a “swamp” of pay-to-play corruption, and called public employee pensions a threat to California’s future. The conservative economist warned against “well-intentioned” government projects that he said encourage fiscal mismanagement by sending more tax money to the state’s general fund instead of directly to troubled areas. He said immigrant-friendly laws “help people with shady backgrounds,” opposed SB50 (a proposed state zoning rule that would make it easier to build low-cost housing in suburban and upscale neighborhoods) for dictating housing policy to local communities, and vowed to stand against weakening the property-tax limits of Proposition 13.

“Time and again, we send the same class of politicians to Sacramento who turn their backs on the people and propitiate themselves to the highest bidder,” said Guerrero, who said he offers a “new direction.”

Guerrero, 44, said his “real world” experience — as a Harvard and Stanford educated economist and CPA in the private sector — and roots in the poor area south of downtown L.A. would make him a fresh voice in the state capitol.

Gonzalez, 38, said her work for Long Beach as a City Council staffer and member, her private-sector work as a civic engagement manager for Microsoft, and her experience as a mother of three boys gives her perspective that would be valuable in state government.

The debate, put on by the Wrigley Neighborhood Association, came on the first day that absentee ballots were mailed to voters in the only state legislative election scheduled in Southern California this year.

The contenders advanced to the June 4 election by finishing first and second among 12 candidates in a March 26 primary in which only 8.1% of registered voters cast ballots. Gonzalez received 10,984 votes (31.6%), while eight other Democrats split 16,113 votes. Guerrero received 4,860 (14%), while the one other Republican in the race received 2,225.

Before the primary, Gonzalez came under fire from environmentalists when an oil and gas industry political action committee made an independent expenditure of more than $1 million to support Gonzalez.

Addressing what she called “the elephant in the room” Monday, Gonzalez explained that she disavowed the oil industry’s support “because I am a supporter of a clean environment.”

Gonzalez is widely seen as the likely winner of the runoff in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 4 to 1 in the latest voter registration data.

But Guerrero noted that he has been elected and re-elected to the Cudahy City Council even though he’s a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. (That cross-partisan appeal has not extended to his previous bids for higher office, a 2012 run for the Assembly and a 2018 try for state treasurer.)

One listener, Guerrero campaign volunteer Peter Sheridan, said he realizes Guerrero is a long shot but likes his pro-business positions, and said he hopes an old NFL motto applies to elections: “On any given day, any team can beat any other team.”

Another, Gonzalez supporter Chris Padon, said he was encouraged by seeing the relatively large crowd for a state legislative candidates debate.

“It shows the community is involved,” Padon said.

Guerrero has challenged Gonzalez to more debates, and suggested one be conducted in Spanish in the top the district in that runs from Long Beach north along the 710 Freeway. But none has been announced.