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Pictured (l-r) ABCUSD Area 3 candidate Armin Reyes and ABCUSD Area 6 candidate Olga Rios.
Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper strongly endorses Armin Reyes and Olga Rios for ABCUSD Trustee Areas 3 and 6 respectively in next week’s election.
Reyes has the experience, 16 years as a Board Member, and also has broad based support unmatched by any other candidate; Reyes was simply out of position when the ABCUSD moved to district voting and had to “yield” to Johnson.
He is endorsed by the ABCFT, the local AFSCME, ABCUSD Board Clerk Letty Mendoza, and Board Members Maynard Law and Olympia Chen.
Reyes is also endorsed by Treasurer John Chiang, State Senator Tony Mendoza, former Superintendent Gary Smuts, and many other local politicians including Cerritos Mayor pro tem Mark Pulido, Councilman Frank Yokoyama, and Planning Commissioner Jennifer Hong.
Area 3 incumbent Lynda Johnson just brings too much political baggage and controversy to the table as witnessed by her lack of endorsements by the ABCFT and AFSCME.
In addition, none of her Board colleagues have endorsed her.
Johnson seems more concerned about her position with Supervisor Janice Hahn than she is with her ABCUSD Trustee seat.
She also worked hard to obtain questionable endorsements from every old school politician in Cerritos.
And, instead of attending the Los Angeles Democratic Party’s endorsement meeting a few weeks ago, Johnson went to the Cerritos Republican Club meeting.
Maybe Johnson attended because she had already secured the endorsements of Don Knabe, Bruce Barrows, Carol Chen, Barry Rabbitt, George Ray, and Chuong Vo.
Johnson rarely gets along with her colleagues, as witnessed by her lack of Board endorsements, and only cares about the district when it is politically expedient.
Case in point, in one of the most important votes in ABCUSD history, Johnson was against a much-needed infrastructure bond two years ago. Johnson is in now “in favor” of a second proposed Facilities Bond, but the delay will cost the district matching funds.
Fierro and Nishii are bright, intelligent, and passionate individuals who have run good campaigns. There are other concerns, but the fact that they also attended the same Republican Club meeting with Johnson versus attending the Los Angeles Democratic Party’s endorsement meeting was a red flag HMG-CN cannot ignore.
Area 6 candidate Olga Rios is ready for prime-time. A Harvard graduate and a Ph.D. from USC, Rios has a recent graduate and a child in the ABC system. Rios has worked for the Bellflower Unified District for over 16 years, currently as a middle school principle.
Rios, like Reyes, boasts a broad range of support, endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers, Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the ABCFT, the local AFSCME, and ABCUSD Board Clerk Letty Mendoza.
Rios is also endorsed by State Senator Tony Mendoza, Speaker of the Assembly Anthony Rendon, Cerritos Mayor Grace Hu, and Councilman Frank Yokoyama.
Area 6 candidate Louise Dodsen has not run an effective campaign. Ms. Dodsen has an impressive, but very short, list of endorsements, which is evidence of a lack of any broad based support to get things done at ABCUSD.
HMG-CN urges you to vote for Armin Reyes and Olga Rios, but whatever your preference, please exercise your right to vote on November 7.
