Democrat Ginny Gonzales, C.P.A., a retired IRS agent and the widow of a prominent former City employee, has announced a run for Long Beach City Auditor, drawing a contrast with the Republican-registered incumbent. While party identification does not appear on the ballot in Long Beach, candidates for various offices in recent years, from mayor to city council, have frequently advertised their partisan credentials.
Gonzales’s entrance into the race would mark the first time that the incumbent, City Auditor Laura Doud, has been forced to appear on the ballot alongside a challenger in sixteen years and the first time she has had to appear on the ballot at all in eight years. Doud was reelected in 2018 with no votes cast, as no official ballot opponent nor certified write-in opponent materialized. She was also reelected without ballot opposition in 2010 and 2014 and is currently serving in her fourth term of office.
Doud was first elected in 2006 when she unseated 14-year incumbent City Auditor Gary Burroughs after a contentious race. If reelected in 2022, she would be on course to serve 20 years in office and become Long Beach’s second longest serving City Auditor (the longest was Myrtelle Gunsul, who served in the role from 1919 to 1951).
In 2018, Doud controversially took a pause from her office’s self-described “110 Years of Reliable Independence” by endorsing a charter amendment, Measure BBB, which loosened term limits for her fellow elected officials in the positions of mayor and city council. No term limits exist for the elected offices of city auditor, city attorney, or city prosecutor.
Should Gonzales unseat Doud, she has made clear that she would focus on rooting out “municipal government corruption”. Her late husband Thomas Gonzales was plaintiff in a long running wrongful termination litigation against the City of Long Beach after he was fired as an investigator for the City’s Citizens Police Complaint Commission. He alleged that he was fired in retaliation for his refusal to cover up police abuse and was awarded over $700,000 by a jury. The City appealed repeatedly but eventually agreed to a $775,000 settlement.
Gonzales’s campaign press release:
