2 Members of Long Beach Council Seek Assembly Seat

Long Beach--California’s largest city without a member of the Assembly living within its borders--may benefit from the scramble in the South Bay touched off by U.S. Rep. Jane Harman’s decision to run for governor.

Two members of the Long Beach City Council, Democrat Alan Lowenthal and Republican Doug Drummond, announced Thursday that they are running in the June 2 primary election for the seat held by Assemblyman Steven T. Kuykendall (R-Rancho Palos Verdes).

Kuykendall, whose 54th Assembly District includes large parts of Long Beach, is running for Harman’s seat.

During the redrawing of legislative district boundary lines after the 1990 census, Long Beach was carved into four Assembly districts.

Lowenthal and Drummond said Long Beach is being shortchanged in the Legislature.

“We have tremendous unmet youth and education needs,” said Lowenthal, a professor of psychology at Cal State Long Beach and a neighborhood organizer. “It is going to be very important to have a Long Beach legislator in the Assembly.”

Drummond, a conservative Republican who has political ties to Kuykendall, has been active in organizations of southeast Los Angeles County cities trying to get a bigger slice of public transportation funds.

“Southeast cities represent 20% of the county’s population, but we get only 9.1% of the transportation money,” said Drummond, a retired Long Beach police commander.

The open Assembly seat is expected to draw a crowded primary on both sides. Marilyn Lyon, a member of the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, is running against Drummond in the Republican primary.

While Drummond and Lowenthal were announcing their plans, a third Long Beach council member considering an Assembly campaign, Jenny Oropeza, said she was planning to run for reelection to the city office.

Oropeza had been considering a run for the 55th Assembly District seat held by Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Wilmington), which includes small parts of Long Beach.

Floyd is studying a race for the state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ralph Dills (D-Gardena) because of term limits. Floyd also said Thursday that he is considering running for Harman’s congressional seat.

“I’ll probably be running for the Senate,” Floyd told The Times, although he said he wouldn’t make his decision until the March 6 deadline. Floyd’s plans appear to hinge on what Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), does. She is also a possible candidate for either Dills’ Senate seat or Harman’s congressional seat.

The late state filing deadline forced Oropeza, a Democratic activist, to make a decision because she must run in the Long Beach city primary April 14.