1st District, Created for a Latino, Gets an Asian Candidate

Leland Wong, a former official of the county’s Community Youth Gang Services Project, has announced his candidacy for the Los Angeles City Council’s new 1st District seat, saying he believes that an Asian can win in a district designed for the election of a Latino.

Wong spoke at a Chinatown press conference surrounded by supporters, including bank executives, He said he intends to raise $200,000 to campaign for votes in the Feb. 3 special election in the Northeast-Eastside area, which includes Chinatown, Cypress Park, Echo Park, parts of Highland Park, Mount Washington and the Pico-Union and Temple-Beaudry areas.

The new district was created by the council earlier this year in response to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit accusing the city of splitting up Latino neighborhoods into several council districts, thus diluting Latino political strength.

Although the district was created with the intention of increasing Latino representation on the City Council, the seat representing the Eastside area is “not reserved for a Hispanic candidate,” Wong said.

Figures Confirmed

At his press conference Wednesday, Wong questioned the widely held view that the district makes the election of a Latino candidate a sure thing. He noted that although the council structured a district that is 69% Latino in population, Latinos represent only about 40% of its registered voters. About 45% of the registered voters are Anglo and 15% are Asian.

The figures cited by Wong were confirmed by Bruce Cain, professor of political science at Caltech and the main consultant in helping the council redraw boundaries to respond to the federal lawsuit. The election of a Latino in the district “is not a certainty,” Cain said, although the two best-known candidates, Assemblywoman Gloria Molina and School Board Member Larry Gonzalez, are Latinos.

Wong said he would talk to Councilman Michael Woo, the council’s only Asian representative, although Molina and Gonzalez also are seeking Woo’s endorsement. During the thorny redistricting process, when plans called for Woo to be placed in a predominantly Latino district, Woo argued that an Asian probably could not win election in a largely Latino district.

“Mr. Woo is entitled to his opinion, “ Wong said. “My opinion is that people are not going to vote on color. . . . All the voters in this district care less about ethnicity and more about . . . how is local government going to work for the people.”

Statewide Funding

Three other Asian-Americans--Tommy Chung, another former official with Community Young Gang Services Project; Paul D. Y. Moore, a businessman, and Remedios Geaga, a businesswoman--have also filed papers to run for the seat.

As Woo did when he ran last year, Wong said he hopes to tap Asian-American money not only in Los Angeles, but statewide. His campaign treasurer is Terry Loo, assistant vice president of Home Savings of America. Other supporters attending the press conference included Poi Wong, senior vice president of First Pacific Bank.

Leland Wong worked for three years for the county youth gang project, the sometimes-controversial agency that has used former gang members to head off trouble between rival gangs. He also worked for United Way as a planner and most recently was in charge of a nonprofit public policy group called California Tomorrow.

Eighteen candidates have filed papers to run for the 1st District seat, although some are expected to drop out by the Dec. 1 withdrawal deadline. With so many candidates in the February election, and a majority of the vote needed to win, a runoff appears likely, probably in April.