By City of Long Beach Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal and Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga agree that advocacy for students is the way to go when it comes with to the current state of education.
Both women, who are running for the 54th State Assembly District and were present at Saturday’s LGBT Lavender Ceremony graduation, said they are both eager to work with Cal State Long Beach students in order to make this happen.
The CSULB campus is located within the 54th District, along with Port of Long Beach and the Long Beach Airport.
In interviews with the Daily Forty-Niner, Lowenthal and Reyes explained how certain factors play into the way that college students perform.
“Most of us are forced to work while we’re at school or sometimes we have to go to work instead of school to help our families,” Uranga said. “The only way for young people to take the state back is to make sure we have the education we need.”
Lowenthal added, “We’re in crisis in the state of California and the people who will address the budget will be those already in Sacramento. To the extend that I can protect student fees, of course I’ll do that.”
In an effort to remind students about their connection with CSULB, both Lowenthal and Uranga talked about their family ties to the campus and the city of Long Beach.
When asked about the likelihood of each candidate’s win, both Lowenthal and Reyes said that the Lowenthal had a higher possibility of winning.
In a recent District Weekly article, in what was dubbed as the “Lowenthology,” Lowenthal’s various family connections in Long Beach politics were highlighted.
“I don’t think it’s different than any other family where there are clusters of workers in one profession,” Lowenthal said when asked about the influence her family’s last name has had in the city of Long Beach. “In the case of my children, they grew up in a family that was very actively involved in the public service.”
Lowenthal said that she stood on her own record with seven years in the board of education and seven years in city council, although her website mentions that she has an unbeatable name identification.
Before going to graduate school, Lowenthal took various psychology courses at CSULB.
In the case of Uranga, her husband, Robert Uranga, is part of the board of the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees and her daughter attends CSULB.
As far as minorities in Long Beach, such as the Latino, Asian and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual communities, both candidates said that there is little being done to fulfill their needs as residents of Long Beach.
“It’s important that we diversify our city council and it’s a shame that the city of Long Beach only has one Latina and one African-American,” Uranga said. “Little by little as we start mentoring others to come on board, we’ll have a colorful council that represents the community.”
They also recognized immigration issues affecting Long Beach.
According to Lowenthal, some of the needs of the Latino community include more jobs, respect, recognition and better immigration policy.
“I’ve tried very hard to make sure they’ve had representation,” Lowenthal said. “[I’ve] always made sure that we are as inclusive as we can be.”
