By:KEITH GRANT
Buscemi, Mosca won't run
The face of the Long Beach City Council is in for a makeover, as two-thirds of the Democratic ticket has bowed out of this year's elections. Council members Ed Buscemi and Barbara Mosca will not seek reelection alongside fellow incumbent Denis Kelly in November.
Party leaders would not confirm it, but sources told the Herald that Dan Carney and Leonard Remo would be nominated for the vacant spaces on the ballot, at the Democrats' convention Wednesday night, May 9, which was after the deadline for this article. Carney, a union leader, and Remo, owner of TKOPS, currently sit on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Attempts to speak with them were unsuccessful.
Buscemi's decision was rumored for some time, and the longtime public servant made up his mind last week, on his 73rd birthday.
In his official statement, Buscemi said, "I have decided to spend more time with my wife, children and grandchildren. I believe the time comes in your life when you must re-think your priorities. For over five decades, my beloved family and city have been number one. Now, it is time for me to place my family's and my own needs above all else. I have accomplished much over the last 50 years and I am looking forward to seeing the many projects to be completed, many of which I authored and began during my public tenure."
Just weeks ago, Buscemi appeared excited to earn the party's nomination to run for reelection. However, he said the decision to sit this one out was already weighing on his mind.
"It's always nice to feel wanted, but you've got to face reality," he said. "I did my service to my community."
Buscemi said his retirement from the Council was by no means a retirement from his active work as a citizen. He told the Herald the time had simply come to devote more time to his family.
"I've given 50-something years of public service. I don't have a life." Buscemi said. "And I don't get around well. I've always got to leave three hours early to get somewhere. I decided, 'enough already.'"
Buscemi rose through the ranks of the police department to serve as commissioner, as well as zoning board commissioner. He insists that after 13 years sitting on the Council, he has no axes to grind and leaves proud to have worked, he said, with both sides of the political aisle.
"I'm a people person, not a political person," he said.
For Mosca, the decision was a business one, she said. A broker and regional leader for Edward Jones Investors, she believes her work was beginning to suffer from the commitment given to serve on the Council. Becoming a regional leader a year ago, she said, was like adding "a whole new job" to her workload.
"It was an opportunity, in my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd be given," she said. However, balancing that with her work for her own clients and duties as council vice president became a handful.
"When you have two balls in the air, it's manageable. When you have three, they begin to drop," Mosca said.
"People think [council members] just sit up there in a chair two days a month," she said. "But when I get involved, I get involved. I don't go halfway."
Mosca was appointed to fill the Council seat of the late Tom Kelly in June 1998 and then was elected over Republican challenger Francesca Capitano that November.
"This is probably the hardest decision I've ever made," she said. "I think the city deserves more than I can give right now."
With no official announcement having been made regarding Carney and Remo, Mosca declined to comment on the anticipated new candidates. She did, however, lament the potential loss of female representation on the Council.
"I think you have to have women," Mosca said.
News of the changing of the Democratic ticket was welcomed by local GOP leader Jim Moriarty, who within weeks is expected to reveal the Republican candidates.
"It sounds like a political meltdown of the Democratic clubhouse," Moriarty said. "I can't recall any time in the city's history that a majority of incumbents have declined to run for reelection."
Asked if it weakened the opposing ticket, Moriarty said he wasn't sure if he would characterize it that way, but said, "clearly it raises questions about what's going on in their party. I respect what they state as their reasons, but it certainly raises some questions as to what's going on."
Democratic leader Gene Cammarato, though, saw both good and bad in the development.
"Both Barbara and Eddie did phenomenal jobs, but people might say it's not so bad to have new faces and new ideas coming to the Council," Cammarato said. "They might bring a fresh perspective."
