Pierce will be next mayor of Long Beach, aldermen positions also decided

By Toni Miles

Tim Pierce (right), mayor-elect for Long Beach, pumps his fist in victory upon hearing the results of the April 1 Republican primary election. With no opposition in the General Election on June 1, Pierce will take over as mayor on July 1, replacing two-term Mayor George Bass who announced last year he would not be seeking re-election. (Photo Credit: Keith Clark)

On April 1, during the City of Long Beach’s Republican primary election, residents voted a long-time education leader, Tim Pierce, to lead the City as the next Mayor of Long Beach.

With no Democrat or Independent candidates running in the City’s mayoral or aldermen races, the City of Long Beach decided in the Republican primary election who will serve the next term as Mayor and as the City’s six aldermen. Official Municipal General Elections are on June 3.

Being at the helm is not new to Pierce, who brings a wealth of experience from multiple fronts to his new mayoral position. Pierce has served on the Long Beach School Board for twenty years, including a sting as School Board President, has served as a Long Beach Alderman and has held lead roles at Stennis Space Center.

With eighty-percent of the overall vote, Pierce, a Republican, was declared the winner with 2,453 votes. Opponent Glen Powell earned 559 votes, or eighteen-percent of the overall vote; Raymond DeFlaviis received ten votes, .34-percent of the mayoral primary votes; and Larus “Wheelchair Larry” Gunnarsson received thirty-one votes, one-percent of the total vote tally for Mayor.

Pierce will take over as Mayor of Long Beach on July 1, replacing two-term Mayor George Bass, who announced last year he would not be seeking re-election.

“I started my career as a City servant back in 1993,” Pierce said at the victory celebration on primary election night. “I spent eight years as a city alderman. We did a lot of good things and put a lot of strategic plans in place, helping us to move forward. I went on to serve on the [Long Beach] School Board at the best time in 2005, right before [Hurricane] Katrina hit. The last twenty years or so, I have been working so hard to try to make sure that we maintain our school district rating. We’re always in the top ten.”

“At the top of my heart is our school district,” Pierce continued. “We’ve done a lot of renovations, as you can see. I am very, very proud of our high school. We put a lot of security measures into all of our campuses. That’s kind of what I do at NASA. Outside of my twenty-eight years serving the people of Long Beach, I’ve been at NASA, Stennis Space Center for forty-one years.”

Pierce told the crowd all of this experience would be used as he moves into the role of mayor.

“I’ve had a great career,” Pierce said. “I think I’m going to be able to take some of the things I’ve learned working my role in Legislative Affairs at NASA and apply it to some of the things that we use or may need here in Long Beach, to help fund some of the infrastructure projects that we need.”

Reconstruction of City property and supporting economic growth top Pierce’s agenda.

In the Long Beach Aldermen’s races, the Republican primary also decided the new holders of the aldermen positions, as there are no Democrats or Independents running for those seats in the General Election.

Republican incumbent Donald Frazer faced no opposition in the Alderman-at-Large primary, earning 2,582 votes.

For Ward 1, Republican incumbent Patrick Bennett also faced no opposition in the race for Ward 1 alderman, garnering 393 votes in the primary.

Jesse Allen will be the new Ward 2 alderman, after incumbent alderman Bernie D. Parker, also a Republican, narrowly lost the race for the Ward 2 alderman’s seat. Parker received 242 votes, compared to Allen’s 246 votes.

In a three-way race for Ward 3, Republican Joseph “Joey” Giuffria unseated incumbent Alderwoman Angela “Angie” Johnson, also a Republican. Giuffia secured 243 votes. Johnson rounded up 148 votes, followed by Republican candidate Erika Long, who received 71 votes in the race.

Incumbent Republican Timothy McCaffrey, Jr. holds onto his position as Ward 4 alderman, capturing 236 of the primary votes, compared to Republican opponent Thomas “Skip” Elsworth’s 216 votes.

Republican Greg Bonds easily won the position of Ward 5 alderman, with 563 total votes in the primary. Republican opponents Mike Bohlke received 41 votes; Barbara D. Kimball garnered 94 votes; and Clifford Yeoman received 6 votes in the race. Ward 5 incumbent Mike Brown chose not to seek re-election.

Republican incumbent Pete McGoey faced no opposition in the race for Ward 6 alderman. McGoey received 436 votes in the primary election.

The election results were finalized on April 8. Terms for each of those elected begin on July 1.