LONG BEACH – Stevie Merino isn’t your typical mayoral candidate.
The 21-year-old Cerritos College student, born and raised in Long Beach, is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
She also doesn’t have the typical campaign message.
Her campaign platform is focused on providing more educational funding – a responsibility in which municipal government has a legally limited role – and drastically cutting the police budget – a stance that is the antithesis of that of virtually every other candidate in every race in the April 13 election.
In interviews with the Press-Telegram, Merino demonstrated intelligence and clear passion about her beliefs and the tenets of socialism, which she said values “people over profits.”
Still, why would a novice in Long Beach politics whose grass-roots campaign has few financial resources take on a politically savvy, well-connected and well-funded incumbent?
“One, because (Mayor) Bob Foster is unopposed, which I think is always bad in an election,” Merino said.
Two, because she wants to take new ideas to City Hall, empower those in the minority and improve quality of life, she said.
The candidate explained her education-over-police strategy as a way to stop crime before it happens with more classes, training and educational resources.
“If people have access to these things, then, really, crime wouldn’t be necessary,” Merino said.
She also criticized the Long Beach Police Department, which she said is like “an occupational force” that isn’t trusted in many minority communities.
“They’re strangers that go into the community with guns, and often they don’t act their best,” Merino said.
When asked about how realistic her mayoral campaign is, given her age, lack of experience and the political powerhouse she is up against, Merino shrugged it off. She would take something new, different and untried to City Hall, she said.
“So far, the people who have been in haven’t worked,” Merino said.
At her age, it is a given that Merino would have a limited resume.
The Lakewood High School graduate has been a retail manager, worked in sales and worked at an AT&T call center, she said. She is now pursuing international studies and anthropology, and she is an activist in social causes.
Contrast that with Foster, a former Sacramento lobbyist and former head of Southern California Edison, one of the largest electrical utilities in the country.
Yet Foster has had his challenges in his first term as mayor.
Like most cities, Long Beach has struggled to make ends meet and has been forced to cut back staff and services.
Foster has been criticized for his role in planning controversial measures such as the closing of the Main Library, which never went into effect, and the proposal to exchange city properties for Los Cerritos Wetlands.
The mayor’s attempt to fund badly needed infrastructure repairs with the Measure I parcel tax in 2008 also wasn’t well received. Although more than half of voters supported it, the measure didn’t receive the two-thirds vote it needed.
On the other hand, one of Foster’s greatest victories in his first term was the Clean Trucks Program at the Port of Long Beach.
Despite the speed bumps in Foster’s term, Merino still faces an uphill battle – and that’s the understatement of the decade – to get anywhere near the number of votes that Foster is likely to receive.
The mayor had a campaign war chest of $250,000 at the end of February. Merino hasn’t established a campaign committee, which indicates she doesn’t intend to raise more than $1,000.
Merino said that some of Foster’s qualifications are part of the problem. Long Beach, and government in general, are too tightly controlled by big business, and Foster’s previous role with SCE illustrates that, she said.
She is also against the proposed wetlands deal, which she said just benefits another rich developer, and indicated she leans toward the Port of Los Angeles’s truck program over the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Trucks Program. Instead of requiring truck drivers to buy new, low-polluting trucks, as Long Beach does, the L.A. program requires the companies to do so.
Merino said she wants to create more affordable housing and would like to see a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.
To do all of this, she is trying to spread the word, and in the process is learning how disconnected most residents are from their city government.
“People are so shocked that a mayor candidate is knocking on their door,” Merino said.
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