1st District candidates kick off campaigns

Want to get an early look at some of the candidates vying for the 1st District City Council seat? This week, three of them are planning to officially announce their candidacies.

• First, the Rev. Misi Tagaloa of the Second Samoan Church is to officially announce his candidacy at 7 p.m. Tuesday during a service at Peteli Christian Church, 1204 Plymouth St.
• On Friday, Jana Shields, a linguist and president of the Willmore City Heritage Association, plans to make her official campaign announcement at 7 p.m. at 640 W. 9th St. near Drake Park.
• Robert Garcia, interim dean of student affairs at Long Beach City College and president of the North Pine Neighborhood Alliance, will officially announce his candidacy at 2 p.m. Sunday at 1255 N. Loma Vista Drive.

Garcia -- taking a page out of president-elect Barack Obama's book, no doubt -- has placed a video invitation to his campaign event on his Web site. Here it is:

 

 

No official campaign events have been announced by the other likely candidates in the race -- attorney Evan Braude, president of the Historical Society of Long Beach and a former 1st District council member; Harvey Cochran, a council gadfly and movie theater employee; and Bill Grisolia, a legal and policy specialist and homeless advocate.

In fact, Braude has yet to definitively say he is running for office. He also happens to be in a 20-year relationship and lives with Bonnie Lowenthal, who represented the 1st District until she took a seat in the state Assembly Dec. 1. What could make the race interesting, or tense in some quarters, is the rumor that most of the politically powerful Lowenthal clan -- Bonnie Lowenthal's sons and ex-husband, state Sen. Alan Lowenthal -- are backing Garcia. If Braude were to run, presumably Bonnie Lowenthal would endorse him in the April 7 special election.