Huizar to Seek Seat on Council

Los Angeles school board President Jose Huizar said Wednesday that he would run for the City Council seat being vacated by Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, pitting him against former Councilman Nick Pacheco in a race to represent the northeast Los Angeles district.

“There is so much room for the city and the school district to work together,” Huizar said, explaining that he hoped to expand cooperation in a new effort to help the city’s failing students.

Also Wednesday, a spokesman for state Sen. Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat who had been considering a run for City Council, said the senator would remain in the Legislature.

Huizar, a 36-year-old El Sereno lawyer who has served on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District since 2001, supported Villaraigosa’s mayoral campaign.

As school board president the last two years, Huizar has overseen the district’s $14.4-billion school construction program, which will add 160 more campuses over the next eight years. The program is the largest such effort in the nation.

Last month, he and City Council President Alex Padilla proposed a commission to study increased cooperation between the city and the school district. Villaraigosa has pledged to bolster City Hall efforts to improve the ailing public schools.

The mayor-elect has not indicated whom he would endorse in the race to succeed him.

District 14 includes Boyle Heights, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, part of Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Monterey Hills.

Pacheco, a 41-year-old lawyer who was supported by outgoing Mayor James K. Hahn, represented the district from 1999 to 2003, when he was unseated by Villaraigosa in a bitterly fought race.

Neither Huizar nor Pacheco can officially file to run or begin to raise money until a special election date is set by the City Council.