Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 7 2005
13 take out papers for council race
At least four others intend to run as field gets crowded
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
GLENDALE — Thirteen people took out papers Thursday to run for City
Council, in what is gearing up to be one of the most crowded fields
of candidates in city history.
The list of names does not yet include four people who have already
declared their intent to run in the April 5 election, including
incumbents Bob Yousefian and Frank Quintero — both of whom chose to
avoid the first-day crowds.
Interested candidates still have three weeks to pick up and return
the nomination papers for the City Council, City Clerk, Glendale
Community College board and the Glendale Unified School District
board posts.
The deadline to return the forms with the required number of
signatures — 100 for all positions except the school board, which
requires 20 — is Jan. 27.
Glynda Gomez, wife of former City Councilman Gus Gomez, picked up her
forms after work Thursday, saying that she was looking forward to
campaigning. The councilman left his seat before the end of his term
when he was elected Superior Court judge. He was sworn in Monday.
“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and a lot of hard work,” said
Gomez, 40, a prosecutor with the California Department of Justice.
“I’m actually one of the few people who think campaigning is fun.
I’ve run four for my husband.
“I have a history in the community. I know the issues and how the
City Council works, so I’m going in with my eyes open.”
Others who picked up papers Thursday for City Council were Aram
Barsoumian; eligibility worker Hovik Gabikian, 35; Vro George; former
Disney executive Steve Hedrick, 52; former Glendale police spokesman
Chahe Keuroghelian; Joe Mandoky; college board member Ara Najarian,
44; Richard Seeley; Pauline Field, 56, a member of the Commission on
the Status of Women; businessman Garry Sinanian; attorney Anahid
Oshagan; and Councilman Dave Weaver.
Other than city council incumbents Weaver, Quintero and Yousefian,
the only other active Glendale elected official is Najarian.
The Glendale Community College board member said the campaigns would
be similar in that he’ll be reaching out to the same Glendale
residents he did as when he ran for the board, but he’ll be
addressing different issues.
“But the part of getting elected is going to be a little more
trickier because there’s such a vast number of candidates, and if
every candidate has a particular core group behind them, it’s going
to be interesting how it turns out,” he said. “I think successful
candidates are those who reach out and gain wide support from the
community, and that’s the way I think it should be.”
Yousefian said the election reminds him of when he ran — and lost —
in the 1993 elections, which had 17 candidates and three open seats.
The biggest difference this time is the large number of Armenian
candidates.
Six of the 13 who picked up papers are of Armenian descent.
“So far, from what we’ve heard, the number of candidates are not as
large as when I ran in 1992, but the only difference is there’s a
much larger contingency of Armenians,” said Yousefian, who was one of
two Armenian candidates in 1992.
Five people picked up papers for the City Clerk race: Stephanie
Landregan, Paulette Mardikian, Stephen Ropfogel, Kathryn Van Houten
and Lorna Vartanian.
Armine Hacopian, Victor King and Linda Sheffield pulled papers for
the college board race.