SUPERVISORIAL ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS : Key Latino Group Backs Molina in the 1st District

The Mexican-American Political Assn. voted by a narrow margin Sunday to endorse Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina in the Jan. 22 special election for Los Angeles County supervisor.

The endorsement followed a two-hour question-and-answer session attended by six candidates and about 75 delegates to a countywide MAPA convention at a Rosemead elementary school.

MAPA is one of the nation’s oldest Latino political associations and the endorsement is considered important in the predominantly Latino 1st District.

No candidate won a majority on the convention’s first ballot: Molina received 49% of the vote, state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) 44% and Sarah Flores (a former aide to Supervisor Pete Schabarum) 7%. State Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier), who represents a large part of the San Gabriel Valley, did not receive a single vote.

Molina defeated Torres on the second ballot 51% to 49%.

The balloting was conducted during a closed meeting of delegates after the public question-and-answer session. Although MAPA officials declined to provide an exact tally of the vote, several delegates said Molina defeated Torres by a single vote.

A federal judge ordered the election earlier this year after finding that the all-Anglo Board of Supervisors had drawn district boundaries to discriminate against Latino candidates.

In other key endorsements last week, Torres received the support of Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, while Calderon was backed by the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

At Sunday’s MAPA convention, the candidates discussed a variety of issues, including proposals for cityhood for East Los Angeles, rent control and the crisis in public health care.

Candidate Joe Chavez, a county computer analyst, said he differed from the others seeking the post because he is “unbiased and not committed to any individual interest groups because of (campaign) contributions.”

Khalil Khalil, a county engineer and native of Egypt, said he would represent the county’s diverse immigrant population.

All the candidates said they favor expanding the number of seats on the board from five to seven. They were also united in their criticism of the current board’s policy of “contracting out”--granting contracts to private companies to perform county services.

Torres quipped: “The only people we should be contracting out are (conservative supervisors) Michael Antonovich, Pedro Schabarum and Deane Dana.”

Calderon, Flores, Molina and Torres all spoke in favor of cityhood for unincorporated East Los Angeles. Khalil and Chavez, however, said they did not believe East Los Angeles could generate sufficient tax revenue to support municipal services.

The candidates also answered questions about the impact of development on impoverished Latino communities.

Molina said the county needs to preserve low-cost housing by regulating development.

“We’re not going to allow what happened in Chavez Ravine (now Dodger Stadium) and Bunker Hill (now a complex of high-rise structures) to happen again,” she said. “We need to tell developers that the free ride is over.”

Calderon said: “We need to encourage growth development not that displaces individuals but that provides clean, new homes for those people.”

Flores added that developers should “be responsible for the impact of their projects.”