Molina, Ex-Rivals Agree on Candidate for Assembly Seat

In a first step toward putting behind them some of the recent election bitterness, Los Angeles City Councilwoman-elect Gloria Molina and other Latino elected officials who opposed her have agreed on the person they will support to replace Molina when she officially gives up her Assembly seat on Friday.

The candidate is Lucille Roybal Allard, daughter of senior Latino legislator Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles).

Allard, who only recently expressed political ambitions, is the consensus candidate of Roybal and Molina as well as Councilman Richard Alatorre and State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles). Alatorre and Torres both strongly opposed Molina’s bid for the council seat she won on Feb. 3, favoring school board member Larry Gonzalez. The split worsened an already icy political relationship between Molina and Alatorre and placed distance between Molina and Torres, who had once been a close political ally.

The consensus support group behind Allard, which is reported to include Gonzalez, represents a hoped-for “bridge” between the warring factions, Alatorre said.

“Some have called it a peace offering,” Alatorre said. “To carry on this insane fight doesn’t make sense.”

Some Gonzalez supporters, still smarting over the Molina-Gonzalez fight, said that Molina, who accused Alatorre and others of “machine” politics in backing Gonzalez, is now herself trying to play “kingmaker” in choosing her successor. Molina was not available for comment.

Allard has not officially announced her candidacy and Molina has not officially endorsed her, but Allard said in a telephone interview that she is “99 3/4% sure” she is running and that she “expects the support” of Molina, Alatorre and Torres.

Immediately after he lost the council election to Molina, Gonzalez said he was “seriously considering” running for Molina’s Assembly seat. Gonzalez has not publicly changed his position, but Alatorre said Gonzalez “indicated to me that he wouldn’t run.”

Allard said that she had planned to support Alma Martinez, Molina’s campaign manager and chief deputy, in a bid for the Assembly seat, but Martinez decided that she did not want to run.

“I felt I had something to contribute, that I could carry on a strong fight against the (proposed Eastside) prison,” said Allard, who has never before run for office. She has worked on several campaigns and community organizations as a volunteer, she said.

At a meeting called last week by Rep. Roybal, various Latino business, labor and community leaders agreed that they could all support Allard, according to Latino political sources.

“She is low-key and everybody likes her,” said one who attended the meeting. “She’s never been strongly identified with either side and frankly, I think everybody’s tired of spending a lot of money on all these races.”

Allard, 45, has a home in Pasadena, outside the 56th Assembly District, but two weeks ago took an apartment near the downtown area and within the district, she said. She currently works as a planning associate for United Way and is the former executive director of the American Assn. of Hispanic CPAs in Washington.