The Long Beach chapter of the NAACP will host a community forum tomorrow night, featuring all five candidates for the open school board seat before the election is held on December 29. The forum begins at 6:30pm at Cesar Chavez Elementary, located at 730 W. 3rd Street.
Candidates will make opening statements, then answer questions from the NAACP, then respond to questions from voters in attendance. Everyone in the audience will be encouraged to write a question on an index card which will be read to the candidates.
Naomi Rainey, president of the Long Beach chapter of the NAACP, told the lbpost.com today that all five candidates have been invited to participate.
“The NAACP has the responsibility to educate people, to encourage them to vote and also to provide an opportunity for the candidates to go out and meet the people,” Rainey said in a phone interview today. “We have a voice, and one of our voices is to vote and hold these people accountable.”
The special election is being held to fill the empty District 3 seat left after the bizarre tenure of Michael Ellis, who stepped down from his position this August.
Here now is a list of the five candidates who are running for the open seat. In alphabetical order:
- Raymond Chavaria
- Kate Conrath
- Richard Lewis
- John McGinnis
- Pauline Gonzalez Stenberg