2:15pm | A group of activists from across the city of Long Beach held a meeting Monday night in the Eighth District to organize against what they have dubbed the “Long Beach Political Machine,” and their first effort appears to be focused on recalling Seventh District Councilman James Johnson, according to a mass e-mail sent out early Tuesday morning from “LosAltos LB.”
The group states in the e-mail that it has taken on the name of popular, politically-charged rock band Rage Against the Machine, whose frontman, Zacarias Manuel de la Rocha, was born in Long Beach.
Community activist and Eighth District resident Kate Baird confirmed Wednesday that she is a member of the group. For those who have doubts about RAM, Baird affirmed the community action group’s legitimacy.
“We’ve got strong leadership, feet on the ground and have committed financing,” Baird told the Long Beach Post.
The RAM members state in the group’s July 12 e-mail the following regarding their plan to recall Johnson:
Current 7th District community activists and future 7th District community activists (soon to be re-districted from the 8th) received commitments from activist [sic] across the city to support the now certain recall of 7th District Councilman James Johnson. The experienced activists organizing [sic] into sub-committees with tasks to complete leading up to the August 2nd reading of the Long Beach Machine’s 7-2 approved ordinance to support Councilman James Johnson’s demand to split the Los Cerritos neighborhood by taking over 900 more residents than he needs and gerrymandering community activist and declared 8th District Candidate Mike Kowal into the 7th District..
Baird told the Post on Wednesday that Johnson is “being played.”
“He’s being told what to do and being hung out to dry all by himself,” she said. “I really think he should tell those who are playing him he’s sick of it, he was elected to represent the citizens of his district to the best of his ability and that’s what he’s going to do.”
She said he should then “take a sec and decide to do the right thing here.”
Tuesday’s e-mail goes on to accuse Mayor Bob Foster of calling the candidacies of Mike Kowal and “serial carpetbagger Al Johnson” (which appears to be a mistake on RAM’s part in that it appears to have intended to write “Al Austin”) for the Eighth District council seat “unacceptable”. The e-mail then alleges that the group has inside knowledge that Foster is “shopping around for an acceptable ‘machine’ candidate” to replace outgoing Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich.
The e-mail comes to a close stating the group’s outrage over what it believes to be the poor treatment of Gabelich by the so-called “Long Beach Political Machine,” as well as outrage over Third District Councilman Gary DeLong’s appearance at Johnson’s community meeting on redistricting and, finally, outrage at the Long Beach Democratic Party for its alleged role in assisting in the formation of the “Long Beach Political Machine.”