Mayoral Candidates Ponder Votes That Went to Loser Pryor

Luanne Pryor lost the race for mayor, but the dark-horse candidate took nearly a quarter of the votes in last week’s balloting. Now the winners heading for the June runoff have to figure out how to unlock the Pryor vote.

A breakdown of the vote by City Council districts shows some weaknesses for both Ernie Kell and Jan Hall, the top two vote-getters in the nine-person race.

Hall’s strongest support came in her own District 3, which she has represented for 10 years. But even there she was not able to garner more than 40% of the votes. In every other district, Kell beat Hall.

Support Totaled 42.8%

But while Kell netted 60% of the votes in District 5--which he has represented for 13 years--his overall support totaled 42.8% of the ballots cast.

“Anytime an incumbent is under 50%, the incumbent is in trouble,” said Larry Remer, a San Diego-based political consultant for Pryor.

Granted, Kell is only an appointed part-time mayor who is running for the new full-time elected position. But he is using his ceremonial title of mayor wherever he goes and is thus considered an incumbent by some voters, Remer pointed out.

A political newcomer, Pryor surprised many observers with her strong showing. Hall nosed her out of second place by just over one percentage point.

Pryor not only carried her home turf in the city’s southern District 2--with 46.3%--but she made a strong showing far from home. For example, she got 23.8% of the votes in District 7 and 20.5% in District 9--both considered pro-Kell territory. (Hall got 21.7% in District 7 and 20.5% in District 9. Kell got 45.3% in District 7 and 48.1% in District 9.)

Votes From Mobile Home Parks

Where some of those votes came from was obvious: Mobile home owners in several parks came out strong to support her. For example, in Precinct 15 in District 9, which consists of the large Villa Park Mobile Homes, Pryor received 193 votes while Kell polled 37 and Hall received 6. (Pryor was the only one of the three to support rent stabilization for mobile home parks.)

But the obvious became the unexpected in other areas, and one surprise may have cost Pryor the runoff, Remer said. Voters in the inner-city District 6, which is considered the most ethnically diverse in Long Beach, overwhelmingly supported Kell with 60% of the votes. Pryor received 14.5% and Hall got 15.7%.

“That’s where she lost the election. The 6th District was supposed to be hers,” said Sid Solomon, president of the Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, which endorsed Pryor.

Solomon said the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People distributed a flyer endorsing Pryor, but NAACP officials had said that they would do little else for the April 12 race. Most of the voter registration and turn-out effort in the black community, they said, would be geared toward June election when black presidential candidate Jesse Jackson will be on the California ballot.

Although Kell did not have the NAACP support, he did have the endorsement of several black ministers and ran advertising about those endorsements in a local paper aimed at the black community.

Solomon said he does not expect his 650-member group to endorse either Hall or Kell in the runoff unless one of the two changes his or her platform.

Pryor, too, says she will not endorse. But she does have advice for the two veteran officeholders.

“The game is over. Ernie and Jan are going to have to be on the level,” she said. “They’re going to have to discuss the issues. What they’ve been doing won’t work.”

Pryor said she thinks Kell and Hall are interchangeable in voters’ minds. Neither is addressing residents’ concerns about overdevelopment, traffic and parking problems, according to Pryor. And neither supports reforms such rent stabilization for mobile home parks or a police civilian review board, she continued.

“I went to bat on a lot of issues, and I didn’t hear Ernie or Jan address those issues. So how could I endorse them?” Pryor asked.

Hall disagreed with Pryor’s conclusion. Hall said she has addressed issues during 50 forums held throughout the city: “In every one, we addressed issues that people were interested in in those geographical areas.” Hall also said she does not expect to change her stand on issues where she and Pryor take opposite views.

Rebuffed Contention

Rose King, Kell’s campaign consultant, also rebuffed Pryor’s contention that her candidate has avoided issues. Kell, for example, has suggested establishing an office of education, which would coordinate the business community and the school district in hopes of establishing new programs for youth, King noted. Kell has associated himself with what he says is positive about Long Beach: new buildings going up in downtown, an increase in tourism and a decline in crime.

King said she expects her candidate’s strategy to be the same for the runoff as it was in the primary: sending out mailers, holding neighborhood meetings and knocking on doors.

“He built up a community campaign team in every neighborhood in the city. We divided the city into 11 neighborhoods and had pancake breakfasts or other public forums. We’re just going to keep that going,” King said.

In looking at the vote returns from the city’s nine council districts, King emphasized Kell’s strong showing over Hall in every district except her own. And even there, Kell received 30.66% of the votes.

“One very significant figure is how Kell and Hall did in their own districts. Kell was at least competitive with Hall in her own district. The fact that she got less than a majority in her own district is a real measurement of their rating of her performance in office,” King said.

Bob Gouty, Hall’s campaign consultant, said he could not fully comment on what the numbers mean or what the next step will be until they study the figure breakdown. One thing Hall and her campaign consultant do know is that the councilwoman wants to debate Kell, who has not committed himself one way or another to debates.

“I think we all realize this is going to be a tough campaign,” Gouty said.

Gouty attributed Pryor’s success in the election to her lack of elected office background.

“Luanne Pryor was the individual who was sort of the populist. She was not blamed for any problems in Long Beach. She was just the dedicated citizen,” Gouty said. “She became a good spot for the people who didn’t like Jan Hall or Ernie Kell. . . . She was very bright and understanding for a large group of people who didn’t know where else to go.”