Gary DeLong Denies Using Taxpayer Resources for Congressional Campaign

The campaign for the 47th Congressional District has heated up with charges that candidate Gary DeLong is using taxpayer resources by sending campaign e-mail from his Long Beach City Council accounts, a charge he denies.

Retired Long Beach Deputy City Attorney Jim McCabe of Belmont Heights said late Tuesday that he personally handed his commplaint against DeLong to Long Beach City Attorney Robert Shannon Thursday, and then mailed another copy to the L.A. District Attorney's Office.

McCabe told Patch that it's a "slam-dunk" matter that DeLong has been using his City of Long Beach Council office e-stationary and its e-mail distribution list to misuse taxpayer resources toward his private effort to go to Washington D.C.

"I am a Democrat, and I prefer Democrats, and I wouldn't vote for DeLong but I have reasons separate from partisan motives," McCabe said. "I'm a known do- gooder. I've had good government grievances against Gary for years. The most recent example would be his vote on the [Naples] sea walls." He also cited DeLong's vote to "rob" the public in a land swap of industrial-zoned property for unappraised and degraded wetlands property on which the city let the seller keep all oil drilling rights.

In a story broken by the Press Telegram about McCabe's complaint, City Attorney Shannon and an election lawyer were quoted. The story also noted that a second complaint was filed against DeLong by Les Pincu, who is a Democrat living at the same address as McCabe.

Long Beach City Attorney Robert Shannon "said the investigation into the matter will likely focus on whether city staff time was used to compile an email list for a political campaign," the P-T stated.

DeLong recalled no prior dispute with McCabe when they worked with one another on City of Long Beach matters. McCabe said that while DeLong may have publicly dumped blame on the city attorney at one time or another, his bigger complaint about DeLong was his lack of "good governance."

McCabe, who specialized in tidelands issues for the city, privately has opposed taxpayers funding the repair and rebuild of Naples Island seawalls, a project that will cost hundreds of millions. Residents including Mayor Bob Foster believe the seawalls are public rights-of-way; opponents view the seawalls as largely the front yards and docks of waterfront residents.McCabe lobbied against the public funding project before the City Council and California Coastal Comission, both of which favored taxpayers funding the seawalls.

Late Tuesday, DeLong said he's never used his City Council e-mail account to send private election correspondence. He said his campaign has bought or obtained various e-mail address lists, and some may include recipients of his 3rtd District City Council e-newsletter.

Election correspondence "was never sent from a city e-mail address," he said.

In the election home-stretch for the June 5 primary, seven candidates are vying to be in the final two for the November general election to represent 700,000 residents of a district that runs from Long Beach east to Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and other Orange County cities.

Three complaints of election law violations have been filed against DeLong, a termed-out Long Beach Council member and Republican who's raised more campaign money than his most formidable party opponent, former U.S. Congressman Steve Kuykendall. The third complaint was filed by a Long Beach resident and active Democratic Party supporter Eric Bradley, which the Orange County Register's Total Buzz column extensively reported. Bradley has accused DeLong's campaign of sitting on mail-vote requests by Democratic applicants to effectively prevent them from voting.

The candidate DeLong seems to be running hardest against is termed-out State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat and former Long Beach City Councilman who previously served as a California assemblyman. DeLong thinks he is behind the campaign complaints; Lowenthal could not be reached.

Campaign observers believe Lowenthal and Kuykendall won't need to spend as much money for voter recognition as will DeLong and lesser-known Republican candidates Steve Foley and Sanford Kahn. Besides the McCabe household complaints, the third was filed by Long Beach resident and Democrat Eric Bradley, who the Orange County Register reported about here.