Tornek, Gordo Unofficially Place Campaigns on Hold

Mayor Terry Tornek and challenger Victor Gordo have unofficially suspended their mayoral campaigns as they work with the rest of the City Council to control the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic and lead the city in its recovery efforts.

“I haven’t been thinking about the campaign and I don’t think it would be productive to be engaged in the campaign,” Tornek said. “I don’t want my actions to be second guessed on the basis of  ‘well he’s doing this for the campaign benefits.’

Tornek said he has been completely focused on keeping Pasadena safe, and doing his best to stay to abreast of what’s going on and talking to other mayors and going to Zoom meetings.

Tornek finished behind Gordo in the March 3 election primary election. He has planned to resume walking the city on April 1, but by then the city was battling the virus.

Gordo finished first with 18,586 votes, or 46.52 percent, to Tornek’s 16,607 and 41.57 percent.

Two weeks after the election, the Coronavirus outbreak forced City Manager Steve Mermell to declare a local emergency, and Gordo and Tornek shifted their focus.

Gordo also told Pasadena Now his campaign is unofficially on hold, but he is using his email lists to provide information to local residents on the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s important to continue to provide information to people. I’m not actively raising money,” Gordo said. “People are still reaching out and asking how they can be involved.”

Information about the election is also becoming clearer.

On April 28, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted at the end of April to conduct the election via mail in ballot with fewer voting centers.

It is not known how many voting centers there will be and where they will be located.

“L.A. County will be mailing all registered voters a vote by mail ballot for the November 2020 General Election,” said Mike Sanchez, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, public information officer. “We will have in-person vote centers but the final quantity is not determined yet.”

Shortly after the county voted to send mail in ballots to every resident in the county, Gov. Gavin Newsom followed suit, making California the first state in the nation to send mail in ballots to every resident.

The pre-emptive move by the county to mail in ballots is being made to enable social distancing and keep voters safe during the Coronavirus crisis.

Many residents may not be complaining about the process.

After the March 3 election, the supervisors took the registrar’s office to task after new voting machines that were supposed to simplify the process resulted in long lines in many places.

“Those machines that weren’t working and were out of order, absolutely unacceptable,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “And then I understand that there were technicians that attempted to fix those machines and couldn’t do it.”