Dana Testifies in Defense of Remap Plan

A redistricting plan drawn up by Los Angeles County supervisors was designed to protect the board’s conservative majority but, nonetheless, creates an opportunity for two Latinos to be elected, Supervisor Deane Dana testified Monday.

“We wanted to preserve the conservative majority,” said Dana, who along with fellow conservatives approved the plan placing liberal Supervisor Ed Edelman in a new, predominantly Latino district. “This is a political decision. Believe it or not, we’re in politics.”

Dana took the witness stand during the first day of a federal court hearing to determine whether the county’s proposed redistricting plan remedies discrimination against Latinos. U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon has said he will decide--possibly by the end of the week--whether to accept the county plan. If he rejects it, he has said he will consider alternatives submitted by plaintiffs in the suit.

Kenyon last month ruled that the current supervisorial district boundaries violate the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of the county’s 3 million Latinos.

Bernard Grofman, a UC Irvine political scientist, testified that the new county plan still “denies Hispanics an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.”

Grofman, called to testify by the U.S. Justice Department, a plaintiff in the voting rights case, said that a Latino candidate will have a difficult time defeating the well-financed Edelman. He said that supervisors could have carved out a Latino district from the district of retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum, but instead chose to draw up a “peculiar and bizarre” district with fingers extending from the heavily Latino Eastside to Edelman’s home on the Westside and out to the San Fernando Valley.

Dana said that a number of well-known Latino politicians, such as Los Angeles City Council members Richard Alatorre and Gloria Molina, “would do quite well against” Edelman. Dana added he believes that Sarah Flores, a Latina who was the top vote-getter in the June primary to succeed Schabarum, will be elected if a November runoff proceeds.

Monday’s hearing offered a rare public glimpse into the behind-the-scenes dealings of the supervisors.

Dana testified that since Kenyon’s June 4 ruling, he and Antonovich and their political aides worked privately to draft a plan to preserve the conservative majority. And, Dana said, he and Antonovich never talked with any of the other supervisors, including fellow conservative Schabarum, about redistricting outside of the board’s closed-door meetings.

The hearing will resume Wednesday with Schabarum completing his testimony, followed by Joe Shumate, a political consultant who drew up the county plan.

Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) also will testify. Civil rights attorneys hope to show through her testimony that the county plan dilutes blacks’ voting strength by adding Beverly Hills and Hollywood to Supervisor Kenneth Hahn’s South-Central Los Angeles district.

Dana, however, testified that Mayor Tom Bradley received strong support in his gubernatorial races in the heavily Democratic Westside.