{"id":135,"date":"2020-11-02T10:59:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T18:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/?p=238"},"modified":"2020-11-02T10:59:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T18:59:04","slug":"biden-harris-wins-garcia-stay-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/news\/biden-harris-wins-garcia-stay-go","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: If Biden\/Harris wins, will Garcia stay or will he go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The smart money in Long Beach politics these days is that if and when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win the election, Mayor Robert Garcia will be offered a seat on the next train to North Potomac to snap up a cabinet-level posting and saying sayonara to the city he\u2019s been running for six years.<\/p>\n

Right now, though, Garcia says he\u2019ll stay.<\/p>\n

Even so, the scenario would be tempting to any young politician at a local level.<\/p>\n

If we can assume, at the very real risk of jinxing what\u2019s still a salvageable democracy, that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win the Tuesday election, it sets up a likely career bonanza for Garcia, who endorsed early and campaigned on behalf of both candidates.<\/p>\n

In the friendship-and-favors-based sphere of politics, that opens an opulent buffet of state and federal posts that could become available to Garcia in a Democratic administration, including an appointment by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill Harris\u2019 Senate seat as well as an array of cabinet-level positions\u2014if not at a secretary level, but as a deputy secretary, undersecretary or assistant secretary level, perhaps serving fairly high up in the office of the secretary of education, Garcia is, after all, the ‘Education Mayor’ and holds a doctorate in the field. None of the above? Then maybe a post as just your generic “high-ranking government official.”<\/p>\n

If these dreams are dancing through Garcia\u2019s head just a few dozen hours before the election, he\u2019s not showing any signs of bolting for the D.C. with a \u201cso long, suckers!\u201d sign taped to his car\u2019s rear bumper.<\/p>\n

In response to a question about whether he will leave before his term ends in 2022, \u201cIn the last six months the entire city team, and that includes me, have worked harder than any of us have ever worked in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s true there\u2019s been plenty to work on in a city that, pretty, much like every other city in the COVID era, is overburdened with seemingly hopeless problems. The pandemic has left Long Beach with a brutally crippled budget<\/a>, angry shop- and business-owners, a besieged police department, a host of racial equity issues, rampant homelessness and renters harassed by landlords (or, rather, the euphemistic term \u201chousing providers\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cMy priority, first and foremost, is handling the COVID crisis and all the things that it\u2019s caused,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s star has risen rapidly in the political realm. Things changed perceptibly when COVID took his mother\u2019s life in late July, and then his step-father\u2019s life shortly afterward. It was a time of emotional whiplash for Garcia who in one moment was organizing the memorial for his beloved mother and the next appearing in a flashing moment as one of 17 keynote speakers<\/a> in a \u201cWe Are the World\u201d mash-up video during the virtual Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n

And at the same time and for weeks afterward, he was featured on several radio and TV broadcasts talking about his personal grief as well as stumping strongly for a Biden\/Harris victory in November. Some of the appearances, he said, were set up by the Biden camp, others were just requests asked of him personally.<\/p>\n

If he left Long Beach for Washington, it would be hard to be mad at him because if ever there was a moment to turbocharge his career as well as escape from the untidiness of Long Beach, a Biden-Harris administration is it.<\/p>\n

But, in the face of everything from significant and perhaps chronic, long-lasting problems to a promising potential to head for higher office, Garcia insists he\u2019s staying in Long Beach at least until the end of this second term in 2022, and he says he hasn\u2019t ruled out a run for a third term that would keep him in office until 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ran for mayor in 2014 I said I planned to serve two terms, and I still plan on completing my second term. I\u2019ve never ruled out a third, and I have absolutely not ruled it out now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Biden wins I\u2019m not gonna guess what he\u2019ll do. I\u2019m sure whoever Biden and Harris selects it will be a great team, whoever he brings aboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was hard to leave him alone with that. Once again, if the Biden\/Harris administration offers him a position, to be among those they bring aboard for a great team, would he turn it down?<\/p>\n

There was a sliver of daylight in his answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be mayor of Long Beach. I love the job I have. But in terms of an appointment I would never, ever rule anything out. But the plan is to stay as mayor of Long Beach for two more years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a Biden\/Harris administration offers Garcia a position, to be among those they bring aboard for a great team, would he turn it down?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":1081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[20],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[22],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-news","tag-tim-grobaty","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}