Long Beach : Clark Supports Hall for Mayor
Abandoning his own candidacy, Councilman Thomas Clark said this week that he will support Councilwoman Jan Hall in the first election of a full-time mayor for Long Beach next April.
Clark, 60, a councilman since 1966 and a former mayor, also said he has not decided whether to seek another term as the 4th Council District’s representative. “There might be other opportunities I want to pursue other than serving one more term on the council,” Clark said.
He decided not to run for mayor because a poll commissioned by him and Hall showed that she would have the better chance to defeat Mayor Ernie Kell for the new $67,500-a-year mayoralty, Clark said.
“Had we both run for the office, it would have been difficult for us to have put together solid campaigns,” said Clark, who, like Hall, is a conservative Republican. Kell is a Democrat.
Clark also said he was not eager to give up his optometry business, which would be required if he were to win the mayor’s office.
Of Hall, he said, “Her leadership style is more of what I prefer--a more articulate leadership in the mayor’s office.”
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