So, who’s running in the Torrance Mayor’s race so far? Yes, I live in Pat’s head rent-free.
1. Evil, Crooked Pat Furey, who should be in a jail cell. This man reeks of an embittered arrogance which bothers many people. There are men and women in the city of Torrance who are as liberal as I am conservative, but they want Pat Furey gone because he is corrupt, enabling the labor unions to have everything and make everyone else pay for it.
2. Ron Riggs, a real estate agent, advisor, with a lot of money, but little else. He is not as well-connected to the inner workings of the community, but he is keenly interested in shaking things up in the city of Torrance. He has a number of business and other community contacts, of course, and has raised money, too. He has energy, and he is an outside voice, but he seems more hot air than ballast and balance.
3. Tom Brewer, whom I liken to low-energy Jeb Bush. He is very much an establishment candidate at this point. He served on the Torrance City Council for 8 years, and he has commensurate experience to run the city. Yet at the same time he isn’t committed to changing much of the city’s culture of spending and accommodating basic interests in the city. I supported Tom Brewer for mayor in 2014, and so did the Daily Breeze. He took a serious stance on dealing with the labor unions and reining in the pension and liability debt looming over the city.
I have a feeling that the Daily Breeze will endorse Tom Brewer for mayor–again, in part because left-wing journalist Nick Green has written one glaring hit piece after another against the mayor. Don’t get me wrong. I am glad that he has gone after Furey with fury, and of course he has smeared conservatives, too.
So far, this election is ho-hum. I don’t want Furey in office again, but the two candidates running against him are bound to cancel each other out and hand another victory to the incumbent. The public integrity and corruption issues have not excited enough outrage or interest from the public, it seems. The quality of life issues are on course.
One of the two candidates needs to step out of the race, and then ensure that there is one candidate who can grab the ongoing discontent with the city leadership and challenge Furey. Besides the fact that he is a progressive Leftist more interested in shaming his opposition and critical citizens in general
I wish that there was more excitement from the city to do something about the excessive pensions, benefits, etc swallowing the city whole, but nothing has come forward. It looks like there are too many people who are not paying attention, and because of that, we may see a replay of 2014, where all the elected officials get re-elected, and the nicest candidates are the ones who win any open seats.
Except this time around, there are no open seats at all. Gosh, can’t we get this race into gear or what? Please, Torrance, we can do better for our mayorship than what we have now!