Be Careful What You Ask For

The battle for Vice Mayor has always been a contentious and interesting exercise especially if you are a new councilperson who has to vote on the selection with a little more than an hour of experience under your belt. But not to be fooled, new council members, including Johnson and Neal were lobbied far in advance of their swearing in.
Much has been said about the reasons why folks want to be vice mayor: the ability to run and control meetings when the mayor is gone, the power to sign documents in place of the mayor and most importantly,being the vice mayor is the ticket to allow you to go into another council members district and not get attacked for campaigning for a statewide office outside of your district while on city business. This was especially evident in the Suja, Patrick scenario.
But what has really been the benefits of being Vice Mayor? Other than Bonnie Lowenthal, who I would suggest has taken her hits in her personal life as all Lowenthals have; all other vice mayors have gone nowhere and in fact been hurt by the designation save Doris Topsy Elvord.
The City of Long Beach began electing an at large mayor less than 17 years ago. Doris was our transition vice mayor and served us well, then came Dan Baker who resigned under a cloud of accusations, then Frank Colonna who lost his bid for Mayor, and after him Jackie Kell who lost her bid for reelection and then Bonnie Lowenthal (who went on to the assembly), then Val Lerch who also lost his bid for reelection.
Suja's battle for Vice Mayor is a case of be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. Now, after hearing that she will be gone for the most important budget session in years, I think in the war of public opinion, she has already felt the curse of the office of Vice Mayor. The real question is, will this hurt her in her quest for higher office? Only time will tell.