Election 2018: Torrance City Council Low Energy Election

I guess there is no chance for making a difference unless men and women start getting serious about what's facing the South Bay and the rest of the state. Do we really expect to see victories in the South Bay, whether for the Torrance City Council races for the state assembly races if the same people keep doing the same things?

I have never seen such a wide bunch of low-energy candidates. It's so disappointing.

Tom Brewer and Ron Riggs couldn't make up their minds about who would run for mayor and then who else would run for a city council seat. I am so disgusted. This kind of dueling efforts pretty much guarantees Pat Furey another four years.

Tom Brewer is low-energy Jeb Bush. Boring.

Ron Riggs is hyped up Rick Santorum. Yes, he is a dark horse candidate, but he has energy, but not much else. Rick Santorum ran for President twice and lost both times. He was closer to winning in 2012! His plan to reach out to working-class voters and put their needs ahead of Wall Street and Big Business were all winning ideas, but he was not the vessel to impart those ideas.

Donald Trump took over and made those ideas a reality for American workers.

Here's another problem: the residents in the city are happy. No matter what crap and corruption waged by mayor Pat Furey, the roads are getting repaired, the streets are clean, the economy has picked up, too. I don't hear a lot of angry chatter from residents, either.

That kind of simple calm suggests that voters, however few choose to vote in June 2018, are going to go with the status quo. Some of the city council candidates have been raising a fuss about the dirty streets. The mayor and city staff are now addressing those concerns. For now, Pat Furey is going to play nice guy and respond to all the moral outrage over his bad dealings and the other issues.

There will not be a PAC going after Mike Griffiths this year, either, since Griffiths is not up for re-election. The hit pieces from reporter Nick Green at the Daily Breeze will not be effective, either, because voters are relatively happy. President Trump's reforms and regulatory rollbacks are going to help the vast majority of taxpaying residents in the city of Torrance.

I doubt that there is any moment to get rid of the Big Green phalanx of Kurt Weideman and Tim Goodrich. Everyone is happy, and even if crime is rising in key parts of the city, there aren't enough people affected buy it.

I want to see Pat Furey gone, but who's going to knock him out? Even if we whittled down the field to one candidate, I don't see Brewer or Riggs vamping up enough momentum to win.

The city council races ...

1. Heidi Ashcraft has my vote. I did not support her before because I was focusing so intently on the pension issue, but I have seen her demonstrate considerable independence on the council. She has stood up to Pat Furey and spoken her mind. She answers my calls, and she cares about my concerns, too. Her name has not officially appeared on the campaign filings, but she told me that she is running again. She has my vote.

2. I do not like Aurelio Mattucci anymore. He was a guy I could trust, but when he took the contact information for the Beach Cities Republicans to run for President in 2016, I found him to continue to act like a man who would cut corners to win. That kind of behavior is not acceptable. Besides, his "nice and clean" Torrance campaign, yawn!

3. I like George Chen, because Mark Tsuneishi knows him and likes him. I am OK with that. I do need to know more about the candidates.

4. Then there's Bill Sutherland running ... again! He would be better than Tim Goodrich and left-leaning Kurt Weideman. After all, Sutherland is not a left-wing Greenie ideologue. Still, this guy is like a John McCain type, more interested in playing nice and going along with the political establishment and the status quo. He also floated the idea of a quarter-cent sales tax increase to pay for more police on the streets. How about cutting costs?

I can definitely say that I am squarely in support of Heidi Ashcraft. To give a fully qualified answer on George Chen, I need to talk to him. I think it's premature for me to full endorse him when I still don't know that much about him.

The choices beyond all of that are not that great.

Here is what I am looking from the Torrance City Council:

1. No more Big Green boondoggles, including Community Choice Aggregation
2. Dealing with the pension debt in a serious fashion.
3. Standing up to the public employee unions to ensure that the city's budget and coffers go toward assisting the citizens, not just one dedicated, organized interest.
4. Keeping the refinery open and stopping this nonsense about banning Modified Hydrofluoric Acid.
5. Lowering the sales tax in the city. Wouldn't that be nice?!

That's all from me for now.