2:00am | Steven Neal has unseated incumbent City Councilmember and Vice Mayor Val Lerch for the 9th District seat with 52.3% of the vote on Tuesday, with all precincts reporting.
“Thank you Long Beach,” Neal said in a media statement. “Thank you to the residents of Long Beach who came out to support my candidacy. I am looking forward to representing you in City Hall and bringing real change to the 9th District. This is just the beginning.”
Neal, the executive director of non-profit organization, nearly won the seat in 2006 but narrowly lost to Lerch. Backed by the support of several local unions, Neal received the bump he needed to earn the Council seat. He was also assisted by the termed-out Lerch, who ran a write-in campaign and did not have his name on the ballot per term limit rules.
Lerch earned 26.1% of the vote, followed by Brad Shore with 15.7% and Dan Pressburg with 5.9%. Pressburg dropped out of the race in March due to health concerns.
Neal encountered controversy in February when comments he made about same-sex marriage drew the ire of local Democratic organizations. But strong union support and momentum from a near-victory in 2006 were enough to give him the outright victory.
“I feel good about the campaign that we ran and I’m very proud of the people we put together, and the responses from voters have been very positive,” Neal told the lbpost.com at his election party as early results began to trickle in. “I really believe that we ran a clean campaign, that was something that me and Val talked about and I appreciated that.”