Latino Group Offers Its Design for Districting : Politics: A counterproposal leaves little for Schabarum. The key question emerges: Will Dana go for it?

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has made the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors a counteroffer in efforts to settle a federal voting rights lawsuit, proposing to carve up the San Gabriel Valley among three supervisors and create a new 1st District in which a Latino has a chance of being elected.

The offer was made in response to a settlement proposal offered by the county board last week that also makes Supervisor Pete Schabarum bear the brunt of redistricting by forcing him to face reelection in the predominantly Latino 1st District.

The latest map, endorsed by the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined MALDEF in the lawsuit, would make a Schabarum reelection bid even more difficult, as Latinos account for 70% of the population in the district and 47.4% of the registered voters. Registered Republicans, in what was once a solid conservative district, would drop to 25.9% of voters.

Under the county’s proposal, the district would have been 63% Latino by population, 36.5% Latino by voter registration and 34.2% Republican. Many observers, including Latino politicians interested in the seat, said that under the county’s proposal it would be possible for Schabarum to hold on to the seat.

But the counterproposal adds high Latino voter registration areas of Pico Rivera and Montebello to the proposed 1st District and cuts out solid Schabarum conservative areas of Covina and Walnut.

MALDEF officials could not be reached Monday for comment on the proposal. The organization has said that it will also file a plan for drawing district lines as part of a proposal to expand the board to seven members.

In addition to the drastic changes to Schabarum’s 1st District, the proposed redistricting also would herald big changes for Supervisor Deane Dana, who broke ranks with his fellow conservative supervisors and joined two liberals in voting to begin settlement negotiations.

Dana’s 4th District now runs along the coast from Malibu to Long Beach and then juts inland to Paramount and Bellflower. Under the latest proposal, it would continue along like a skinny finger up into the San Gabriel Valley--taking in Whittier, La Habra Heights, Diamond Bar, Walnut and Covina.

Many Republican politicians in these areas have close ties to Schabarum, and they have answered his call to urge Dana to reverse his position and withdraw from settlement talks.

But Dana would also benefit under the MALDEF proposal, which takes out of his district Santa Monica and Malibu, two high Democratic voter registration areas where he has had problems over issues concerning development.

Dana, through a spokesman, would say only, “We will confer with the attorneys and see where we stand.” But some observers speculated that the possibility of a settlement could evaporate if Dana is not satisfied with the plan. If he changes his vote, and joins conservatives Schabarum and Mike Antonovich, the case would go to trial on Jan. 2.

“That’s the big question,” said political consultant Allan Hoffenblum. “Will Dana buy it?”

Under the MALDEF proposal Supervisor Kenneth Hahn would remain in a solid central Los Angeles Democratic district. Antonovich, while shifting eastward to take in the foothill region of the San Gabriel Valley, would still have a solidly Republican district.

Liberal Supervisor Ed Edelman would see his district expand to include heavily Democratic areas in Malibu and Santa Monica, and parts of the West San Fernando Valley, where his environmentalist views are popular.

As the various maps are proposed and debated in the secret negotiations, San Gabriel Valley communities are up in arms over the proposals, contending there should be public comment on the redistricting plans that threaten to drastically change the political representation of hundreds of thousands of county residents.

Schabarum has promised to “pack” today’s board meeting in an attempt to force Dana to drop out of settlement talks. Many local Republican politicians have written letters of support to Schabarum and missives of disapproval to Dana.

Dana, often seen as the quiet, soft-spoken member of the board, emerged in recent weeks as the political force behind the settlement talks. Dana has said his motivation for negotiating a settlement is that it would be better for the supervisors to draw the new district lines than to have a map imposed on them if they should lose the lawsuit.

And in drawing the lines in his own favor, Dana said, “I wasn’t going to shoot myself in the foot.”

The lawsuit accuses supervisors of breaking up the Latino neighborhoods among three districts, thereby weakening the political clout of many of the county’s 2 millions Latinos in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Maldef Redistricting Proposal The map below has been proposed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a way redraw county board of supervisors districts to concentrate Latino voters in a single district and settle a federal lawsuit the organization brought against the county under the federal Voting Rights Act. The proposal is a counter offer to a map submitted by the county last week. It adds Latino areas in Pico Rivera and Montebello to the 1st District and cuts out Whittier, Walnut and Covina.