Molina Victory May Give Council More of Tilt Toward Slow-Growth

Assemblywoman Gloria Molina’s decisive victory in winning the new 1st District seat on the Los Angeles City Council is likely to give a more slow-growth tilt to city planning policies, as well as add a new voice to citywide Latino politics.

Molina, 38, won 57% of the vote Tuesday in defeating school board member Larry Gonzalez and two other candidates. Gonzalez, who was backed by most of the Eastside political establishment, failed to force a runoff election as many had expected.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who just a year ago became the first Latino member of the council in more than 20 years, pushed Gonzalez as the candidate he wanted to join him as the second Latino on the council. Molina repeatedly called Alatorre the major force behind the “machine politics” of the Gonzalez campaign, and Wednesday, Gonzalez’s loss was discussed as if it were Alatorre’s.

Alatorre is a dominant personality among council members. He made fast friends and faster enemies in overseeing the controversial redistricting process last year when the council, under pressure from a federal lawsuit, gave him the job of of redrawing political boundaries.

Councilman Joel Wachs, who was most adversely affected in a politically intense redistricting battle by being placed in a mostly new area, showed unabated joy at Molina’s win Wednesday.

“How sweet it is!” he said, grinning.

“Her election brings a screeching halt to some really insidious power plays that were beginning to take place in the last year since Richard got here,” Wachs said. “This kills the reality and the perception of an unstoppable, arrogant machine that threatens people and thinks it can rule with an iron hand. “

For all the controversy in the redistricting battle, Alatorre made sure a new heavily Latino district was created, the one Molina was elected to Tuesday.

“I did redistricting, and you could say this is the end of that chapter. I wanted to see a Hispanic in that district . . . now we have a Hispanic,” he said.

But not the one of his choice. Molina sought throughout her campaign to contrast her style as an independent to Gonzalez, whom she criticized as a pawn of Alatorre and other backers. In the end, Gonzalez conceded Tuesday night, it worked.

“Her implication (was) that the Eastside political machine was supporting me,” Gonzalez said. “I do believe that that frightened or discouraged many voters from supporting me.”

What also worked was that Molina, who already was better known than Gonzalez because of her recent fight against a state prison on the Eastside, started her campaign early. While the Gonzalez campaign was waiting for Sacramento-based consultant David Townsend to return from an overseas trip before gearing up, Molina’s campaign was setting up headquarters and preparing absentee ballot mail for the brief three-month campaign.

By the time the Gonzalez campaign had paid tens of thousands of dollars in fees to consultants, Molina had already gotten a head start that eventually proved insurmountable.

Votes for Molina swamped those for Gonzalez in every precinct but a handful, according to semiofficial returns from the city clerk’s office. The turnout was only 33% in a district that has only 36,000 registered voters, the lowest voter registration of any council district in the city. In one precinct, as few as 17 people voted.

But in high-turnout areas, like affluent and predominantly Anglo Mt. Washington, middle-class Montecito Heights and working-class Latino and Asian Lincoln Heights, Molina took a strong lead. Overall, she won every area of the district, from Chinatown to Highland Park, a Latino neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles.

On issues of high concern to the Latino community, such as immigration reform, English-only proposals, more police substations and city facilities located on the Eastside, Alatorre and Molina, both liberal Democrats, are likely to stand shoulder to shoulder in agreement. As when they worked in the Legislature together, the similarity of the needs of their largely Latino constituents will give them “more issues in common than we have apart,” Alatorre said.

“No one should expect overt belligerence to show between them,” Councilman Michael Woo said. “What will go on will be subtle, like two persons instead of one now introducing dignitaries from Mexico and Latin America and two persons the press will go to for opinions on issues regarding Hispanics.”

It is on issues that cross ethnic lines that they can be expected to part company, particularly on some development and planning issues. Since the passage last November of Proposition U, the slow-growth initiative that would cut the amount of commercial and industrial building in the city, there has been much talk on exactly how and where the measure will be implemented and how strongly by council members.

“Gloria Molina’s election is very significant because I think it is a continuation of the expression the people gave in approving Proposition U, that they are concerned about the direction of planning in the city,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, one of the authors of the measure. “She is independent of persons voting the developer line.”

Braude added that he considered Alatorre one of those persons.

“I think the controlled-growth coalition will be strengthened with her (Molina’s) presence,” said Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who is usually allied with developers and endorsed Gonzalez. “At the same time, I think she can look at both angles.”

Molina can be expected to fight condo developments in rustic areas like Mt. Washington, but other poorer areas of her district, like Pico Union, “are desperate for economic development,” she said Wednesday. Molina will be under a lot of pressure to entice developers into the 1st District and point them in the direction of poorer areas that need commercial and residential buildings, while placating people who endorsed her, like Braude, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and other Proposition U proponents.

Molina said her priorities will be improving police response time, as well as planning for the diverse district.

Molina can assume office after the city clerk certifies the election, which he must do within two weeks. Upon officially becoming a council member, she must resign from the Assembly, said Caren Daniels-Meade of the secretary of state’s office. Gov. George Deukmejian must set a special election date to replace Molina within 14 days of the vacancy.

Gonzalez said Tuesday night that running for Molina’s Assembly seat “is an option” that he is considering. He said he did not regret giving up his school board job, which will end in June, to run for the council. He called upon Molina and Alatorre “to leave their differences and leave their egos at home and focus their energies . . . on the common good of the people . . . for the benefit of the Latino community as a whole.”

Contributing to 1st District election coverage were Alma Cook, David Ferrell, Victor Merina, Richard Simon, Reginald Smith, Jill Stewart and Ted Vollmer.