Don't forget how it all began
Mr. Rudd aims for Council
Tom Hennessy
Staff columnist
The story rings a bit like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," the 1939 film classic about a rustic idealist in politics.
But instead of Jimmy Stewart, there is Justin Rudd. Just as countrified by virtue of his Alabama twang, Rudd is aiming not for Washington, but for the Third District (Belmont Shore — Naples) seat on Long Beach's city council.
At the virtual eleventh hour Wednesday, Rudd pulled his papers to enter the race against businessman Gary DeLong, attorney Stephanie Loftin, real estate broker Charles Legeman, and activist Norm (could there be an election without him?) Ryan.
Rudd even talks like Stewart's fictional Sen. Smith, dropping phrases that seem sincere if not silver-tongued: "I will work to ensure honesty and integrity in city government. I aim to communicate clearly and give a timely response on issues that face our residents on a day-to-day basis."
Family example?
A Democrat, Rudd says friends convinced him to run. While his twin brother, Jason, is a municipal commissioner in Dothan, Ala., Rudd, 36, insists politics is not his forte. "If you had asked when I moved to California (in 1995) if I ever saw myself in politics, I would have laughed. All that sitting. All those meetings.
"Political office seems almost inert to me, not at all how I see myself. I'm active. I like to be outside meeting folks, doing things to benefit the community. I like motivating others to help me.
"But after working with the city to create the Dog Zone at the beach, organizing monthly beach clean-ups, being involved with the City Council, it became clear to me that I could do so much more if elected to represent my fellow Third District residents."
While a political neophyte, Rudd, an environmentalist who says he prefers trash bags to legal pads, brings assets to the campaign; his creation of the Dog Zone, a slew of mostly animal-related community events which he sponsors, 14 Web sites (accessible via www.justinrudd.com), and, he says, a computer list of several thousand people who share his interests.
"About 70 percent are people who live in the Third District," he says.
His professional life consists of managing his non-profit Community Action Team, conducting physical-fitness classes, and counseling beauty-pageant consultants.
As his liaison to the public, he relies in part on his 40-pound bulldog, Rosie, a familiar sight on Second Street with Rudd pulling her in a red wagon and looking right out of "Mayberry, R.F.D."
Municipal menu
Rudd sees public safety as the city's No. 1 priority, and says, "This means allocating funds accordingly."
He is for eliminating "unnecessary and burdensome regulations on business," and favors long-range budgeting and beautification efforts. He opposes the proposed LNG terminals and supports what he calls "responsible airport improvement."
On libraries, he says, "I think they need to reinvent themselves." Saying libraries need to attract more patrons, Rudd is not above such ideas as putting coffee shops into library branches.
With libraries on shortened schedules because of funding cutbacks, he says part of their current problem is that "no one knows when they are open and when they are not."
