The battle of the endorsements has become more heated as, following Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s endorsement of Vice Mayor Robert Garcia for Long Beach Mayor, former mayoral candidate and 5th District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske has endorsed Damon Dunn for the mayoral seat. This marks the first public endorsement by any of the dismissed mayoral candidates following the April election.

“As a native of Long Beach and as someone who has spent a lifetime in public service, I love this city and am concerned about the need to change how the Office of Mayor operates,” Schipske said in a public statement. “That is why I am pleased to endorse my former opponent Damon Dunn for Mayor of Long Beach.”

Schipske repeatedly noted Dunn’s new commitment to ethics as one the essential reasons for her support.

“I believe that Damon Dunn will bring transparency to City Hall so that residents are given the information on how and why decisions are made that impact this City. He will also bring a new code of ethics to end political corruption and self-dealing… Damon Dunn also stepped up and proposed a new ethics pledge that he asked the other candidate to sign which promises not to let race, gender, sexual orientation or religion be used as an issue in the campaign for Mayor.”

The endorsement comes after Schipske took to Facebook to express her feelings about the April election, where she took 4th place out of 10 candidates, stating that “$1.5 million was spent by my opponents. I spent $90,000. Interesting how money can buy an election.” Dunn thus far has spent the most on his campaign of any candidate, putting up $600K of his own money, and having raised an additional $158,281.