By Doug Miller
Sofield, who began his second four-year term on Wednesday, is now the second-longest-tenured councilman, behind Democrat Leonard Remo. Goodman, who was elected the council's vice president, also began a four-year term. She previously served with Sofield during the GOP's last council majority, from 2004 to 2006. McLaughlin began a two-year term just months after wading into the Long Beach political fray for the first time.
Each of the new council members made fiscal restraint a cornerstone of their inaugural remarks, in the wake of an election that was in part a reaction by the public against an unpopular 25 percent tax increase enacted by the Democrats in 2006.
The GOP was elected after a mostly low-key campaign that saw little of the bitterness of previous election cycles in Long Beach. Nonetheless, Sofield said that years of political fighting occasionally made him consider the costs. "My children are my family's fifth generation in Long Beach," Sofield said. "I do this because I want my kids to want to raise their kids here."
Sofield was sworn into office by Jim Hennessy, his Republican colleague for four years on the council. Citing health concerns, Hennessy, a former council president who was diagnosed with cancer in January 2006, did not seek re-election this term. Each described the other as his "best friend" during their remarks, and after Sofield had taken the oath of office, they embraced.
'Poetry cleanses'
Goodman, in particular, has learned just how rare good friends in government are. She encountered the humbling side of Long Beach politics in 2005, when she was defeated in a re-election campaign. The four-year term she was awarded by the electorate in November was the end of a long road back.
"The voters of the city have made it perfectly clear that government is not about political parties, but what elected officials are expected to do for the residents of our city," Goodman said. Former Republican Councilman Jim Moriarty, the leader of the local Republican committee, who engineered the three-seat sweep, administered the oath to Goodman.
It was a day when the mistakes of the past - particularly the partisan fighting that both sides have blamed for every legislative goal that went unrealized in the past four years - were acknowledged and, for the moment, forgiven. The remaining Democrats on the council, Remo and Denise Tangney, promised to work with the Republicans, and, before a packed house in City Hall's sixth-floor meeting room, the new majority promised to reciprocate. "The residents of the city are expecting us to deliver on our promises, and in the end, we will," Sofield said. "I believe that the public wants us to do so in a bipartisan way. We can only invite the rest of the council to work with us, and we hope they will do so."
McLaughlin has been presented by the coalition as the key to this bipartisanship. He is a registered Democrat who ran on the GOP line, just like Sofield and Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford, who administered the oath of office to him. A retired New York City fire lieutenant, McLaughlin is pro-union, and spoke often during the campaign about meeting Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on the Long Beach boardwalk as a teenager. Many believe he could serve as the bridge to the Democratic minority. "There is no I in Long Beach," McLaughlin said.
He will be juggling his council responsibilities with undergraduate studies, as he works toward a B.A. in English at Queens College. He confessed to his weakness for poetry, and quoted President John F. Kennedy in concluding his remarks: "When power leads a man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."
The show-stopper
Benedictions and blessings were offered by three spiritual leaders - Rabbi Eli Goodman of the Bach Jewish Center, the Rev. Delores Miller of the Evangel Revival Church and Tom Evrard, a Roman Catholic deacon who serves as the Long Beach Police Department's chaplain.
The Joint Veterans Organization presented the colors, and dozens of former and active soldiers lined the front of the hall during the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the national anthem. That task fell to Madison Renee Hunt, 8, whose renditions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful" book-ended the ceremonies and drew standing ovations.
Hunt's father, Jerry, is a friend of McLaughlin's. "We thought it would be better to have someone other than the same old, same old doing the singing," McLaughlin said after the ceremony. "Wasn't she great?"
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