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E-mail StoryIt's all about local business, mayoral candidate says
| Friday, May 9 2008 2:52 PM
Last Updated: Friday, May 9 2008 3:00 PM
If Marc DeLeon wanted to compare and contrast himself with Mayor Harvey Hall, it wouldn’t be hard.
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Marc DeLeon, Bakersfield mayor candidate
Both men own businesses in downtown Bakersfield, just three blocks apart. Both are soft-spoken. Both have lived most of their lives in Bakersfield. And both are running for mayor in the June 3 election.
But Hall owns an ambulance company; DeLeon owns two tattoo parlors. Hall is a grandfather; DeLeon is raising a teenage son. And while Hall is a two-term incumbent, DeLeon is a challenger.
Despite all that, DeLeon, 39, doesn’t like to put his candidacy in terms of how he’s different than Hall. And, in an interview, his statements about running show his motivations are not that different.
“It’s that I feel I’ve done a lot for this town, this town’s done extraordinarily a lot for me,” DeLeon said.
DeLeon said he respects Hall. He said some people have griped about the mayor but when he asks why, they don’t usually have a good answer.
“I don’t have anything negative,” he said. “He’s a very nice man. I’ll try my luck. It’s nothing personal.”
DeLeon said he hopes his candidacy will attract young voters who wouldn’t normally vote.
“Even if they don’t vote for me, they should vote,” he said.
As a teen, he helped his dad at the American Legion hall, he said. He later bought a public address system, which he rented out for concerts and events, although the American Legion got to use it for free. He also worked as a promoter in Bakersfield’s music scene, although he scaled that back when he opened his second shop.
Josh Burns, a friend and past bandmate of DeLeon’s, said DeLeon has been a positive presence in Bakersfield’s music scene.
“He’s always around to help people out,” Burns said. “He never really asked for anything in return.”
Burns and DeLeon were together in American Standard, a band that toured with Adema, one of Bakersfield’s most successful rock bands. American Standard acted as roadies, Burns said, in exchange for getting to play, and it was DeLeon who kept people organized on the tour, he said.
“The main thing I know about Marc is he’s always got something going on,” Burns said.
Local promoter Tim Gardea said DeLeon was the man who organized the Rock the Tsunami relief concert in early January 2005, just two weeks after the Indian Ocean tsunami.
That was typical of DeLeon, Gardea said: “He’s quite out there, quite involved.”
DeLeon said he wants to see the city and community do more to support local businesses — not just more chain stores.
He pointed to the opening of a chain barbecue restaurant whose opening attracted Hall. Sure, that’s exciting, he said, “but there’s a really good barbecue place at the Circle.”
“How many local businesses are in the southwest, or in Rosedale?” he said.
He said he wants to bring in companies that will provide new jobs, not just replace the jobs already here, although he acknowledges that’s not easy.
“People migrate to where jobs are,” he said.
He moved out of Bakersfield a few times — to Hollywood, to San Francisco, to Reno — but always came back to Bakersfield.
“This is what home is, where my heart is,” he said.
His approach to being mayor would be like his approach to life, he said. When he’s honest with people, it comes back to him.
“When I showed a little bit of effort and initiative, it fell in my lap,” he said.
Gardea said he likes the idea of seeing DeLeon as mayor.
“Bakersfield’s kind of set in its ways, and it’d be nice to see something mix it up,” he said.