Flores Has an Anchor : She’s Coasting Toward Reelection in Diverse District

Beulah Armstrong sat in the corner of her neighbor’s newly carpeted living room in South Los Angeles, her voice muffled by the rhythmic rumble of passing cars hitting potholes.

“They said as soon as the bridge was finished they were going to get to work on this road,” Armstrong told Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who was meeting with residents near the Century Freeway. “Then they said they won’t be doing it until the freeway is finished. . . . We have been made so many promises, we really are getting kind of disillusioned.”

Flores, flanked by a half dozen neighbors nodding their heads, joined the chorus of complaints--”this is probably the worst street in my district”--and pledged to do something about the potholes.

“Sometimes it takes a little while,” she said. “But you have to keep pushing me.”

Succeeded Her Boss

Flores, 52, a one-time City Hall secretary who eight years ago succeeded her eight-term boss as 15th District council member, was working her district the way she likes best: hearing from small groups of constituents about the day-to-day problems of living in Los Angeles.

It is that homespun approach, Flores and her supporters say, that best explains why a white Republican woman from an affluent oceanfront San Pedro neighborhood is once again coasting toward reelection in a predominantly black and Latino district that encompasses some of the city’s poorest and most troubled neighborhoods.

To many of her critics, however, Flores’ seeming invincibility--and that of John S. Gibson Jr. before her--has more to do with money and demographics than down-home politics. By early last year--long before she had any idea who would run against her--Flores already had collected more than $200,000 for her reelection cam paign. She also has an additional $730,000 in campaign contributions stashed away for other political purposes.

That kind of money, several community leaders in Watts and South Los Angeles said, helps scare off most would-be challengers in areas where residents do not have the resources to match Flores dollar for dollar. About two-thirds of the households in Watts, for example, have incomes under $15,000.

“People don’t run against her for the same reason nobody is interested in running for mayor,” said Gail Wilson, a tenant leader at Nickerson Gardens, a city-run housing project in Watts. “They feel like she has it all and can’t be beaten.”

Clifford E. McClain, a South Los Angeles write-in candidate for Flores’ seat, said residents in the northern part of the 15th District have real complaints about Flores--particularly regarding poor city services, high unemployment and rampant gang activity. But McClain said it is difficult to translate that dissatisfaction into a successful political campaign when many residents are living from day to day and are preoccupied with making ends meet.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I have been acting as a consultant and have some time when I can get out, I wouldn’t be able to put forth a campaign either,” said McClain, 48, a self-employed community development consultant.

In some ways, the 15th District is a microcosm of the worst and the best of Los Angeles, extending from the destitute housing projects of Watts to neighborhoods with panoramic ocean views on the tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It takes in the Port of Los Angeles and large industrial and manufacturing areas in Wilmington, but also includes a glitzy $100-million marina and waterfront recreational complex in San Pedro.

The district stretches more than 15 miles from north to south, but it is physically and psychologically anchored in the harbor area, where the greatest number of residents and voters live in San Pedro. Gibson, who ruled the district for 30 years, was a contractor who built his own home in San Pedro. Flores, who worked for Gibson for 25 years, moved there from Glendale two years before winning the seat in 1981.

“What are we doing attached to San Pedro?” asked Neodros Bridgeforth, head of a neighborhood group in the Athens area of South Los Angeles. “I feel it is the fault of the system that drew this map. . . . Whenever we have a problem, (Flores) sends someone out. She seems to be fair. But I know if it came to them versus us, she would have to go with the power and the votes. The woman is a politician. She is no fool.”

Election after election, some say, black communities in the northern part of the district--about 25% of the district is black--have been simply overpowered by the tightly knit ethnic European neighborhoods of the southern end of the district. In the 1981 election--the only race in the last 40 years when an incumbent was not on the ballot--12 challengers filed for the seat, all but one of whom lived in San Pedro.

“There just aren’t enough bodies in the northern part of the district,” said Caltech political science professor Bruce Cain, who has served as a redistricting consultant to the City Council. “You are not going to find too many places in the state where blacks are going to elect somebody with that small of a percentage of blacks. . . . You have a lot of conservative white voters who are not going to put up with . . . a liberal (black) candidate.”

Focus on Specifics

Mary M. Lee, director of the Legal Aid Foundation’s South-Central Los Angeles office, said the district’s lopsided demographics have forced community leaders in the northern communities to focus on specific issues and projects--such as economic redevelopment--rather than running for City Council.

“This is a community that hasn’t been made to feel there is much ability to change through the City Council,” said Lee, who grew up in South-Central Los Angeles. “I am not sure that running a campaign you knew you weren’t going to win is the most effective way to make change in an area that is so depressed.”

In an interview, Flores acknowledged that money and demographics may have played a role in her success, but she pointed to her record of service as the main reason for her limited opposition. Flores runs four field offices in her district--more than any other council member--where 10 of her 16 staff members work. She also publishes four separate service directories, paid for with campaign funds, that she distributes to residents. And she blocks out every Thursday on her calendar--even during nonelection years--for what she calls her “day in the district” to get away from City Hall and meet with constituents.

“When people go into the voting booth, if they have ever had contact with the city, they want to be able to say (my council member) has helped me,” Flores said. “The No. 1 thing on people’s minds is the environment they live in--street lights out, holes in the sidewalk, potholes, things like that.”

Only one challenger--Jo Ann Wysocki, an elementary school teacher from Wilmington--will be on the April 11 municipal ballot in the 15th District. Wysocki, 53, vice president of the largest homeowner group in Wilmington, charges that Flores has ignored large portions of her district--particularly Wilmington and the Harbor Gateway--and has been inaccessible to many of her constituents.

Wysocki said she has heard grumblings of discontent in Watts and South Los Angeles, and said she is hoping to pick up votes in those communities. Wysocki, however, has raised only $5,000 and has had limited exposure outside Wilmington because she continues to work full time during the campaign.

She also faces the formidable task of overcoming a sense of resignation in much of the district about the problems of inner-city living and the limited ability of a council member to make life better.

“Let’s face it,” said Bridgeforth, the Athens area neighborhood leader. “The city is in a state of crisis. But it is not because of Joan Milke Flores. I don’t think anyone really blames her. The problems are bigger than she is.”

15TH CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT

The 15th City Council District is generally associated with the Los Angeles Harbor area, but it also extends northward to include Watts and much of South Los Angeles. The district is a collage of distinct communities that are held together by a narrow slip of land known as the Harbor Gateway and that have little more than their council member in common.

The northern part of the district, which is predominantly black and poor, relates more to its neighbors in South-Central Los Angeles than to those in the harbor.

In the south, San Pedro has a growing Latino population but is still dominated by residents of ethnic European descent. Wilmington, the industrial heart of the harbor, is nearly two-thirds Latino.

POPULATION

WATTS SOUTH HARBOR GATEWAY WILMINGTON SAN L.A. /HARBOR CITY PEDRO Number of Residents 34,306 38,492 36,221 50,837 76,100 Anglo 3.2% 9% 61.3% 51% 78.5% Black 85.3 75 3.1 5 3.9 Other than black or Anglo 11.5 16 35.6 44 17.6 Latino** 14.7 18 29.7 64.2 28.7

DISTRICT- WIDE* Number of Residents 223,137 Anglo 50.1% Black 24.3 Other than black or Anglo 25.5 Latino** 33.6

* Because Census tracts and council district boundaries often do not coincide, community statistics include some areas outside the 15th District. The districtwide totals, however, reflect 15th District statistics only.

** Because of the nature of Census questions, ethnic categories overlap.

HOUSEHOLD INCOME HARBOR WATTS SOUTH HARBOR GATEWAY WILMINGTON SAN L.A. /HARBOR CITY PEDRO Under $15,000 65.5% 44.1% 21.5% 31.6% 28.2% $15,000 - $24,999 19.6 22.2 20.5 22.6 19.1 $25,000 - $49,999 12.3 25.9 38.7 34.3 33.4 $50,000 - $74,999 2.2 6.3 14.7 9.1 13.6 $75,000 - $99,999 0.2 0.7 2.3 1.2 3.0 $100,000 + 0.3 0.8 2.3 1.2 2.7

DISTRICT- WIDE* Under $15,000 34.1% $15,000 - $24,999 20.4 $25,000 - $49,999 30.9 $50,000 - $74,999 10.7 $75,000 - $99,999 2.0 $100,000 + 1.9

* Because Census tracts and council district boundaries often do not coincide, community statistics include some areas outside the 15th District. The districtwide totals, however, reflect 15th District statistics only.

HOME VALUES

WATTS SOUTH HARBOR GATEWAY WILMINGTON SAN L.A. /HARBOR CITY PEDRO Under $20,000 10.3% 3.5% 0.3% 1.7% 0.5% $20,000-$49,000 49.0 30.4 3.7 12.3 4.3 $50,000-$99,000 37.1 50.5 23.5 50.1 17.4 $100,000-$149,000 2.9 14.8 54.7 34.4 33.1 $150,000-$199,000 0.5 0.0 15.1 0.6 25.3 $200,000+ 0.0 0.7 2.7 0.7 19.5

DISTRICT- WIDE* Under $20,000 1.9% $20,000-$49,000 12.5 $50,000-$99,000 30.7 $100,000-$149,000 33.1 $150,000-$199,000 13.2 $200,000+ 8.5

* Because Census tracts and council district boundaries often do not coincide, community statistics include some areas outside the 15th District. The districtwide totals, however, reflect 15th District statistics only.

VOTER REGISTRATION

*** (not available by community) 80,719

Anglo 55% Latino 17 Black 25 Asian 3

*** Information from an estimate of 1986 voter registration.

Source: Times Marketing Research Department and Pactech