Now, the Fight for the Spoils : Politics: A new district makes possible a Latino on the Board of Supervisors, but old divisions and class strains may mar the campaign.

If sustained on appeal, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon’s plan to break up the white, male monopoly on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will long be celebrated in Latino political circles. (On Thursday a federal Appeals Court panel temporarily blocked implementation of the redistricting plan; during the stay, arguments seeking its extension beyond Aug. 17 will be heard.) After 115 years, Latinos would have a fair chance of electing one of their own to one of the most powerful governmental bodies in the country.

The district created by UCLA demographer Leo Estrada encompasses a slice of Eastside history. At its core is East Los Angeles, where Mexicans initially settled after being uprooted from the central city by powerful business, government and civic interests. As the Mexican population grew, second and third generations pushed out to El Sereno, south San Gabriel Valley, Pico Rivera, La Puente and Santa Fe Springs, now all part of the new 1st Supervisorial District.

Both Democrats and Republicans have used redistricting to partition this history and thereby deny Latinos the political power to match their growing numbers. The poor have been separated from the middle class. The emergence of grass-roots leaders and organizations has been blocked. (It must be remembered that two national organizations--the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union--joined the Justice Department in the Voting Rights Act suit.) Lacking a sense of community, the Latino middle class has offered lower-income Latinos neither political direction nor protection.

These divisions, fostered by years of political fragmentation, will not soften just because Latinos appear to have a shot at a supervisor’s chair. Nor will the politicians and king-makers who have profited from the conflicts put on their unity smiles. With the expected price tag for political glory at half a million dollars, non-incumbents and persons without in-place volunteer networks need not apply.

There are other complications. Until last week, it was widely believed that neither Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente) nor Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), two obvious candidates, would run for supervisor. The rules are not specific on whether you can simultaneously run for two seats. The prevailing interpretation was that if either politician decided to seek the job, he would have to turn over his congressional seat to the Republican challenger. In a year when the national political map will be redrawn as a result of the 1990 census, that would be politically unconscionable. But late last week, an adviser to Torres said that there may be legal precedent that would allow Roybal or Torres to run for both the Board of Supervisors and Congress at the same time.

Roybal has been hinting that he will announce for the job to prevent the political bloodletting that would surely result if more than one Latino candidate declared. As the respected dean of local Latino politicians, he has, in effect, first right of refusal. The belief in Latino political circles that Roybal’s victory in the 1958 supervisor race--he led after the first-ballot count--against Ernest Debs was stolen from him would further preempt a challenger.

Except, of course, Sarah Flores, the former Pete Schabarum aide who won the most votes in the June primary, which Kenyon set aside after choosing the new redistricting plan. Ironically, though, political insiders say Roybal would have the hardest time of any likely candidates in beating Flores. She is already raising money for the November race and has the support of many white Republicans in the San Gabriel Valley. Roybal’s many years in Washington have dimmed his visibility at home. Flores’ longtime association with Schabarum, who frequently was downright hostile to Latino interests, has not, remarkably, prevented her from successfully cultivating a positive image among Latino voters.

Moreover, Flores would benefit from the years of gerrymandering that have splintered Latinos along class lines, resulting in the growth of an anti-East Los Angeles bias among many residents east of Atlantic Boulevard. The lack of a historical memory or a tradition of noblesse oblige among Latinos reinforces this prejudice--at Roybal’s expense. Few middle-class Latinos know that the congressman is the father of modern Mexican-American politics. Nor do most remember the 1950s, when Roybal, as the first Latino Los Angeles councilman in this century, risked political oblivion by consistently defending civil liberties when Sen. Joseph McCarthy held sway.

Torres, with his strong political base in family-oriented San Gabriel Valley, would face no such obstacles. The new supervisorial boundaries include most of his congressional district, the 34th. A representative since 1982, Torres has strong links to organized labor and East Los Angeles. A former United Auto Workers official, he founded the East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), a nonprofit development corporation. His consistent liberal voting record would provide a clear alternative to the more conservative Flores.

Should Roybal not run, both Council members Gloria Molina and Richard Alatorre would probably enter the race for supervisor. A campaign that included the sometimes rivals would generate the most political excitement. Culture Clash, a Latino comedy team, has proposed an “End Barrio Warfare” conference, with Molina and Alatorre as moderators. Flores would get the last laugh, though.

Alatorre has always run expensive campaigns because he has ready access to money. As such, the councilman has never needed a strong volunteer organization. He can count on the solid support of labor, the downtown Establishment, the Community Redevelopment Agency crowd and Republicans who know that he will deal. Even so, a run at supervisor may now be too risky for Alatorre.

His public image has been stained and his political standing weakened by the dispute over the restoration of Olvera Street, which is part of his district. He has been seen as too eager to protect the interests of close political backers and friends associated with TELACU, which seeks a slice of the redevelopment pie, in his desire to safeguard the Mexican contribution to the history of the street.

Also, El Sereno homeowners have initiated a recall effort against Alatorre over his approval of low-cost housing in their community. Should they gather enough signatures to force a recall election, the councilman would have to siphon off resources and money from his supervisorial campaign to defend his council seat. In any case, a loss to Flores or Molina would deflate his seeming invincibility and encourage challenges to his king-maker status in Latino politics. It might also hurt his City Council reelection chances in April, 1991, and any hopes he has of running for mayor after that.

Molina’s strengths and weaknesses as a candidate are opposite those of Alatorre: She doesn’t have much money or access to it but has scores of highly motivated volunteers awaiting her announcement. But Molina’s reputation as a crusader--she has been on the front-line of opposition to the proposed downtown prison--does not endear her to Latino yuppies in the San Gabriel Valley.

Still, Molina’s former Assembly district, in which her margin of victory as an assemblywoman steadily grew to overwhelming proportions, is a big chunk of the new supervisorial district. Her successor, Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, is a close associate and can be expected to assist her effort. Furthermore, Xavier Becerra’s run for the 59th Assembly District seat--also part of the new supervisorial district--would be likely to add to her support, since his top campaign officials are Molina loyalists. Finally, the councilwoman has strong backing among grass-roots groups, such as the Mothers of East L.A.

But what have grass-roots Latinos gained by Judge Kenyon’s decision if only a Latino incumbent ends up running for the new seat on the county board? Plenty. The court-approved plan does not play the old game of dividing ethnic communities. Quite the contrary. It ties the fortunes of the Latino middle class to those of lower-income Latinos, thereby altering the priorities of their representatives. The Latino middle class, the chief beneficiary of the civil-rights movement, can no longer cold-shoulder the interests of the Latino poor without paying a political price, because the two now constitute one political community.