Roybal and Molina Endorse Hernandez : Moves Seem to End Polanco’s Hope for ‘Consensus’ Support

Getting a boost for his bid to replace former Eastside Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, Highland Park insurance and bond agent Mike Hernandez on Monday received the sought-after endorsement of Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), the senior legislator among local Latino politicians.

The endorsements from Roybal and Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (D-Los Angeles), announced at a Hernandez press conference, appeared to fracture the hope of “consensus” support that Alatorre’s choice, Richard Polanco, was seeking. Polanco, Hernandez and several others are expected to run in the April 8 special primary election to select the new representative of the 55th Assembly District.

While Polanco has the endorsement of now-City Councilman Alatorre, state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and Mayor Tom Bradley, among others, Hernandez’s announcement Monday signaled that a struggle between Eastside political powers is brewing.

Resentment Present

At the heart of the struggle, alluded to Monday by Roybal and Molina, is not only opposition to Polanco but also resentment toward Alatorre’s strong backing of Polanco, his former longtime aide.

Roybal said Hernandez would be an assemblyman “who will vote his conviction without being dictated to by anyone.” Molina said she opposed “letting someone come into this community . . . and putting together a political machine.”

When asked if they were suggesting that Alatorre would control Polanco, Roybal was careful to say later that he “said nothing against Alatorre.” But Molina added: “People would be critical of anyone at any level” who tries to decide who the “consensus” candidate is, “and that therefore everyone else should step aside.”

Molina admits that her strong opposition to Polanco is tied in part to her own Assembly race against him in 1982. In that race, Alatorre favored Polanco and efforts were made to persuade Molina to drop out of the race. Torres backed Molina. Molina won the tight and sometimes bitter contest.

Divisive Campaign

When Alatorre left the Legislature after he was elected to the City Council in December, Eastside political powers hoped to avoid a replay of the divisive 1982 campaign. Initially, Torres, Molina and Roybal encouraged Los Angeles school board member Larry Gonzalez to run for the Assembly seat.

But after many talks between Alatorre and Torres, Gonzales stepped aside, citing family ties here and his commitment to the school board.

Gonzalez also was dissuaded from running for the Assembly, some close to him said, by Alatorre’s assertion that Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown would back Polanco. (Brown himself has committed no money so far to Polanco, but his chief of staff, Richard Ross, is running Polanco’s campaign.)

With Gonzalez out of the race, Torres then threw his support to Polanco as the “consensus” candidate. Both Polanco and Hernandez are starting their campaigns with relatively low name identification. If no candidate receives a majority, a partisan runoff between the top candidates in each political party will be held in June. Since Polanco and Hernandez are both Democrats, only one could go beyond the primary.

Polanco said Monday that he still feels confident that he can win the election April 8 and calls charges that he would be beholden to Alatorre “totally unfounded.” Roybal previously had told him that “he would do nothing to hurt me, which I interpeted as remaining neutral,” Polanco said. “He said one thing and did another.”