Blog: One Voter's Choice for the Office of Mayor--Steve Aspel

I am dismayed by the recent tone of our electoral process in Redondo Beach. Over the past week or so, a Councilman, a former Council candidate, a current Council Candidate, and the good people who run "No Power Plant.com" have been sending emails, letters to the editor, Facebooking and blogging misinformation about candidates Steve Aspel and Jeff Ginsburg.

Steve is a good man who does so much for our community that it would take volumes to catalog. However, I’d like to point out three important community and charitable events Steve has assisted in, hosted and/or and supported in the past three WEEKS.  At a busy time like this in his campaign, he still took time out of his busy schedule for three separate events the past eighteen days.

1.    On April 13^th, he opened our school’s variety show as Zero the Hero.  By the way, Steve has been Zero the Hero on the hundredth day of school at our kids school for at least 8 years, during which time both of our kids have gotten to enjoy him.  He may have even been doing it longer, but we can only vouch for the past 8 years.  He's also been Santa, traveling around Redondo for years too (but don't tell your kids that!).

2.    On April 19^th, he sponsored, participated in and donated to “Friends of Chase” golf tournament.   This was an all day event, starting with a golf tournament and ending with a Dinner and silent auction.  Not only did he sponsor a hole, bring a foursome and run the live auction, he convinced his friend, Los Angeles Kings hockey alumni great, Ian Turnbull, to donate a signed alumni jersey.  The silent auction portion of this event alone raised over $9000.00 for DreamStreet Foundation, an organization providing nationwide camping programs for children with chronic and life threatening illnesses, as well as those terminally ill.  At the end of the event, Steve even made a personal donation to the camp of $1000.00, which will send two children to this amazing camp for a week.  This motivated other folks to donate monetary donations as well.  It was heartwarming to say the least.

3.    Five days later, on April 24^th, he Co-hosted the Redondo Beach 4 Autism Speaks event at Joe’s Crab Shack.  This event raised almost $5000 for Autism Speaks in one night.  As far as I know, Steve has no personal family experience with someone on the spectrum, which makes it even more noble to not only attend and support, but to co-host the event.

Again, all this is with the runoff election less than a month away.  At a time when you would think he’d be focused on soliciting as many votes as he can, knocking on as many doors as possible, he’s giving back to our community in ways that I have seen very few other candidates doing lately---at least not three events in under three weeks.  More importantly, he has never asked for nor sought out credit for any of this. I don’t know how he finds time to get everything done and still knock on doors meeting the good citizens of our city—he must be Superman in addition to Zero the Hero.

Check out Steve's list of community leaders who endorse him. They are the true leaders of Redondo Beach and have given Steve their unqualified endorsements: http://steveaspel.com/steves-endorsements/ Perhaps you know some of these people: 

• Mike Webb, Redondo Beach City Attorney
• Deann Webb
• Greg Hill, Former Mayor of Redondo Beach
• CHRIS CAGLE, Former RB City Councilman
• CRIS BENNETT, Good Stuff Restaurants
• Frank Scotto, Mayor, City of Torrance
• Kimberly Fine – former candidate for District 1 2013
• Eric Coleman – former candidate for Mayor 2013
• CHRIS CANNON Pastor, King’s Harbor Church
• Doug Kim, Planning Commissioner
• Ray Benning, Planning Commissioner
• Jeff Ginsburg, Public Works Commissioner
• DENNIS & TRISHA FOX Small Business Owners
• Kevin Sullivan, Former Redondo Beach Dst. 2 Councilmember
• Bob Meistrell: Body Glove
• LARRY ROSOLOWSKI – Youth Soccer Referee
• Beau and Denise Okata – Residents
• Tom and Christine Gaian – Residents
• Fr. James Kavanagh, St James Catholic Church
• VIC & LINDA BRADEN, Small Business Owners
• Carolyn Bennett, Good Stuff
• Darryl McClusky, VIP…cops
• Mike & Taimi Riley: Redondo Sunsets
• Gerry & Laura O’Hagen: Firefighter
• Shelley Marsden – Teacher/Soccer Coach RUHS
• Jonathan Eubanks & Shane Parks – Residents
• Ed and Jayne Melia – Residents
• Manny & Madeline Garza: Cop, Nurse
• Brian & Margot Sullivan: Residents
• Gary & Kathryn Lane, Lane Design
• Peter & Stacy Boesen: Redondo Sunsets
• Joe and Kathie Austin, teachers, residents
• Ken Greenleaf & K9 Caden: RBPD retired
• Steve Murdoch: RBPD retired
• Russ Lesser, President, Body Glove
• Tad & Christine Friedman: Firefighter
• Barry & Suzanne Levenson: parents
• Neil & Sue Yates: Residents
• Gaylan King: Resident
• Marc Frederick: Resident
• Darryl & Kristen Biel: Resident
• Mark & Blanca Bastian: Residents
• Gerry & Monica Jeffery: Firefighter, Residents
• Duke and Margie Jordan – Residents
• Gary Gomez: Resident, RUHS
• Lyle & Sheila Downey: Redondo Sunset
• John & Mayumi Abrena: Residents
• Guido and Silvana Mattucci
• Jerry & Deborah Striff: Residents
• Charlotte Fouts – Resident
• Mary & Stuart Ganis: Residents
• Bob & Liz Cook: Residents
• Lou Mascola: Resident DDS
• Mike & Marylynn Mosig: Residents: DDS
• Dave & Dayla Sims: Residents
• Jeff & Liz Marcon: Residents
• Dr Tim & Karla McGillivray: Residents
• Joe & Jadzia Lordean: Residents
• Tony and Marina Accardo – Residents
• Doug & Lisa Rodriquez: Residents
• Ralph & Pattie Attwood, Residents
• Darrell Brown
• Paul Friedman
• William E. Schultz
• Eric Matthew Grace
• Robert Charles Kraynak
• Joshua James Obear
• Charles Ruby
• Dayla D. Sims
• David W. Sims
• Douglas S. DeLong
• Grant Steven Stephanoff
• Linda Mackenzie
• Darryl Michael Biel
• Stephen Rogers Francis
• Michele & John Fortier
• Mary Ganis
• Roger Grant
• Darryl Michael Biel
• Sara Pritzkat
• Donald James Freeman
• Delia Vecchi
• Bruce Szeles
• Punky Cawdry
• Lyle and Shelly Downey
• Barbara Bovee
• Shelly Marsden
• Nathan Mintz
• Diane Cagle
• Mike Ward
• Brad Waller
• Ron Iacopucci
• Julie and Ken Perkins
• Leslie P Congelliere
• Kenneth Greenleaf – K9 officer: Retired
• Gerald Levitt
• Patrick and Diane Tregarthen
• Gerard Bisignano – Former Redondo Bch City Councilmember Dst. 1
• Joseph Peter Luttrell
• Tom Brewer – Councilmember – City of Torrance
• William Patrick McGinty
• Don Lee – Torrance Unified School District – School Board Member
• Richard & Wendy Towler
• Keith Williams
• Cole Michael Webb
• Jessie and Jury Navarro
• Mary Louise Grant
• Denise Loversky
• David Lawrence Goodman
• Michaelle Ann Obear
• Danielle Vindez
• Gregory Patrick Aspel
• Elizabeth Keran
• Thomas R Prettyman
• Julia Rosenberg
• Brenda Argano
• Peter M Boesen Jr
• Deborah Patrick
• Gregory Thomas Mckewen
• Tiana Capper
• Jack O’Halloran – Actor/Author
• Getchel Wilson
• Culver Van Buren
• Justin Louis Miller
• Kathleen Kennedy
• Dennis Riggle
• Jack & Karen Earle
• Veronica Webb
• Randy and Amy Stecyk, residents
• Vincent Wainwright
• Tracey Provine-McMartin
• Lisa Nichols
• Tina Propps
• Gregory D. Abramowitz
• Timothy Hutcherson
• Paul Moses
• Doug Rodriguez Public Safety Commissioner
• Paul Moses – Redondo Beach Public Art Commissioner
• Joe and Gina Radocchio

Please vote for the truly honorable people left in these races, Steve Aspel for Mayor and Jeff Ginsburg for City Council.