SUPERVISORIAL ELECTION NOTEBOOK : Candidates Try to Tap Into Magic of Kennedy Name Among Latinos

The Kennedy name has always had special meaning for Latinos--a point that has not been lost on candidates in Tuesday’s election for Los Angeles County’s 1st Supervisorial District seat.

A mailer from state Sen. Charles M. Calderon features a photograph of Robert F. Kennedy. “As a boy, I wanted to be like Robert Kennedy,” Calderon wrote. As attorney general, Kennedy was tough on crime, he says, and “I have tried to follow his example.”

State Sen. Art Torres sent out a letter of support from Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

And Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina has sent a mailer featuring not only pictures of Robert and John F. Kennedy but also of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

“I am a lifelong Democrat who grew up hearing my family speak highly of F.D.R. and Harry Truman,” Molina wrote, “and the Kennedys helped shape my vision of the possibilities that are alive in public service.”

Speaking of Truman, Calderon offers an old-style campaign button in his latest mailer. It says: “Give ‘em hell, Chuck.”

Several years ago when Art Snyder, then a Los Angeles city councilman, was placed into a heavily Latino district, the red-haired Irishman saw a political benefit to learning to speak Spanish.

In the 1st District race, Calderon, a second-generation Mexican-American, is openly calling attention to the fact that he is the only one of the four leading candidates in the 71% Latino district who does not speak fluent Spanish.

A letter to voters from Calderon’s parents says: “We raised our children to be part of this country. . . . It’s true that we didn’t teach them to speak Spanish. But as you consider our son Charles’ qualifications we hope you’ll consider the things we did teach him.”

Calderon said that he hopes to learn Spanish someday, but insisted that it has no effect in his ability to represent a heavily Latino constituency. When Spanish-language news organizations interview Calderon at public events, an interpreter for the senator steps in to assist.

“I think that it’s almost something that is expected more from the white community than it is from my community,” he said. He added that he raised the issue in the mailer because “I was expecting one of the other candidates to make it an issue, when it is a non-issue.”

Dina Huniu, Calderon’s campaign manager, added: “Chuck’s parents wanted him to assimilate into the American culture, and they thought that was one way of doing it. . . . I think they felt if they spoke Spanish in the home, it would set him apart from mainstream culture.”

With little money to publicize their names--and with the media virtually ignoring their campaigns--the five lesser-known candidates for supervisor have had to pull out all the stops to get attention.

That’s what happened when Louis A. Chitty III, the only black candidate in a race dominated by Latinos, spoke to an older suburban crowd at Temple B’nai Emet in Montebello. Also speaking were three of the leading candidates, Molina, Torres and Calderon, and the other four lesser-known candidates.

Chitty is a rousing orator, and he managed to draw the loudest applause with his populist message and richly booming voice.

Chitty, a schoolteacher from Covina, first asked the crowd of 120 if they had heard his name after eight weeks of campaigning. Only three people raised their hands.

“That’s not fair,” he cried out, startling several people. But nodding heads in the audience seemed to agree.

Warming to his theme, he thundered: “If you took all the Democrats and all the Republicans and put them in a bag and shook them all up, it wouldn’t matter who you pulled out!”

Applause and cheers.

By the end of the evening, Chitty had won at least one heart.

A white-haired gentleman in a plaid shirt, who had remained motionless during earlier speeches, leaned over to whisper to a friend: “He’s good. I’m voting for him.”