Torres, Molina Woo Ballot Losers : Election: Candidates in runoff for seat on Board of Supervisors hope to build support among conservative voters in the suburbs.

Longtime rivals Gloria Molina and Art Torres on Wednesday began courting the losers from this week’s historic election, hoping to build support in the suburban San Gabriel Valley for a runoff that will place a Latino on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Molina and Torres, both Eastside Democrats, have four weeks to woo voters in the 1st District before the Feb. 19 runoff that will establish a liberal 3-2 majority on the board.

Molina, a Los Angeles city councilwoman, was exuberant over her primary election showing Tuesday against her onetime boss, state Sen. Torres. She won 35% of the vote to his 26%, though she fell short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. She carried her own council district and captured the 14th District of City Councilman Richard Alatorre, Torres’ closest local ally.

Molina and Torres are trying to win the support of Sarah Flores, a Republican who won 20% of the vote and carried a number of conservative-voting communities of the San Gabriel Valley, and of state Sen. Charles Calderon, a moderate Democrat who finished fourth with 16%, drawing much of his support from the suburbs.

Flores and Calderon said they have not decided whom to back.

Strategists for both campaigns said Molina and Torres will target the San Gabriel Valley for those voters who supported Calderon and Flores in the primary and who may be the key to victory in the runoff.

David Townsend, a Sacramento political consultant to Torres, said, “Art represents more of the mainstream of the district and will do well in terms of picking up Flores and Calderon votes.”

Molina adviser Pat Bond said the councilwoman focused heavily on her East Los Angeles base in the primary election, but now will intensify her campaigning among San Gabriel Valley residents and “anyone interested in clean government.”

The special election was ordered by a federal judge who found that the county had discriminated against Latinos in drawing district lines. The judge redrew the boundaries, creating a new, heavily Latino 1st District designed to help elect the first Latino supervisor this century.

In the first indication that gender may play a role in the race, Molina praised Flores as “tough and strong and somebody whose support I would love to have,” and appealed to women’s groups for support.

“I would hope that women would come out of the woodwork on this one,” Molina said, “and I hope they say, ‘Let’s do it, let’s have the first woman ever elected to the county Board of Supervisors.’ ”

The Torres campaign promised that the senator would make a much stronger showing in the runoff because, an aide said, he appeals to a broader group of voters.

“She’s tough,” Torres press secretary Dee Dee Myers said of Molina. “But this isn’t just about Democrats on the Eastside anymore. . . . Art has broader appeal.”

At a news conference, Torres seemed reluctant to theorize on why he received 7,000 fewer votes than Molina. He said that even as a longtime Sacramento legislator, he has not appeared on television as often as Los Angeles City Council members. “I’m sure that (television exposure) has a lot to do with name ID,” said Torres.

Molina said that she and Torres are “regrettably headed on a collision course.”

Torres, 44, and Molina, 42, share political roots. Both worked for Alatorre’s election campaigns in the 1970s, and Torres hired Molina during his campaign for state Assembly. They had a bitter falling out in 1982 when she ran for Assembly and Torres backed her unsuccessful opponent.

When Molina won her City Council seat in 1987, she defeated a candidate backed by Alatorre and Torres.

“On a personal level, we don’t interact at all,” Molina said of Torres.

Both have established separate political alliances that were evident election night.

At 10 p.m. Tuesday, as 200 of his supporters danced in the ballroom in the City of Commerce, Torres huddled privately with influential political allies in a second-floor conference room.

Alatorre arrived, followed by Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). Then came Community Redevelopment Agency Board Chairman James Wood, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo and Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani.

A few miles away at a Pico Rivera union hall, Molina mingled with another deputy mayor, Ed Avila. Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) was there too, along with Reps. Esteban Torres (D-La Puente) and Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), the elder statesman of Latino Democrats.

The competing factions of Latino Democrats have begun to quietly discuss who in their ranks will compete for either the City Council seat or state Senate seat that will be vacated by the winner of the Feb. 19 election.

Molina’s campaign manager, Alma Martinez, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Molina’s council seat. “Many people are encouraging me (to run),” Martinez said. “That would be something that I decide the day she wins.”

Campaign staffers say that Roybal-Allard also could be a candidate for the council seat.

Polanco has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Torres’ state Senate seat.

Whatever the personal differences between her and Torres, Molina vowed to alter the nature of the county board, which she described as “a closed system of government that is out of touch with real people.”

While conceding that the county is caught in a fiscal crunch, Molina said she wants to overhaul the $10-billion budget, shifting funds to bolster such programs as mental health, AIDS treatment, and children’s welfare.

“I want to make it clear that I am very conservative when it comes to spending programs,” she said.

Molina pledged to bring City Hall-style ethics reform to the county, and to end what she called the board’s “very costly” policy of contracting with private firms to deliver services once performed by county employees.

Torres, echoing many of the same themes, said he also is conservative on crime and spending.

“But I’m very liberal when it comes to helping our poor . . . and our children,” Torres added. “I’m willing to wear those labels when it’s appropriate.”

Touching on his favorite issues, Torres asked, “What are we going to do about transportation needs? What are we going to do about health care and our seniors? I’ve laid out a clear package to make sure that resources are available to people who are in need.”

In addition to winning Los Angeles city neighborhoods, Molina finished first in Maywood, South El Monte, Pico Rivera--where she was raised--and in unincorporated East Los Angeles, where the supervisor essentially serves as the mayor and City Council.

Torres finished first in Bell Gardens, City of Commerce, Cudahy and Monterey Park.

Aside from style, Molina and Torres do not differ dramatically on issues. Both are strong advocates of environmental protection, women’s issues and ending contracting of county services.

Retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum, a conservative, said the election of either “will not be good for the county.”

“The board will now conclude that it is necessary to have Hispanics in the county work force in ratio to the general population,” said Schabarum, “even if the quality and caliber (of the job candidate) is not sufficient.”

Both candidates have said there are enough qualified Latinos to increase the Latino representation in the county work force, particularly in management jobs.

Molina bemoaned the 21% voter turnout, saying she hopes more registered voters will “get excited about this race.”

Usually in California, 20% or fewer of registered voters participate in one-race special elections.

Flores also lamented the low turnout, blaming it on the campaign tactics of her opponents.

She said voters were “bombarded by every telephone (volunteer) 10 or 20 times. They were so overwhelmed they figured, ‘What the hell, I’m not going to vote.’ ”

In a reminder that this race has drawn national attention, Flores said she received a call Wednesday from an aide to President Bush.

“I wish they had endorsed,” she said of the Bush Administration. “It might have made a difference. . . . Maybe the Republicans would have gone out (and voted).”

This article was reported by Times staff writers Frederick M. Muir, James Rainey, Richard Simon, Jill Stewart and Hector Tobar. It was written by Simon and Stewart.

1ST SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT ELECTION

Vote percentages of the leading candidates in Tuesday’s election:

Baldwin Park

Flores: 26%

Torres: 25%

Molina: 22%

Calderon: 19%

Bell

Calderon: 28%

Flores: 26%

Torres: 21%

Molina: 18%

Bell Gardens

Torres: 38%

Calderon: 26%

Molina: 18%

Flores: 10%

Commerce

Torres: 41%

Molina: 34%

Flores: 10%

Calderon: 8%

Cudahy

Torres: 28%

Flores: 27%

Molina: 23%

Calderon: 15%

El Monte

Flores: 30%

Calderon: 23%

Torres: 20%

Molina: 20%

Huntington Park

Flores: 27%

Molina: 26%

Torres: 21%

Calderon: 20%

Industry

Flores: 67%

Calderon: 12%

Molina: 6%

Torres: 0%

Irwindale

Flores: 66%

Molina: 18%

Torres: 10%

Calderon: 5%

La Puente

Flores: 28%

Molina: 23%

Torres: 22%

Calderon: 18%

Los Angeles

Molina: 42%

Torres: 27%

Flores: 14%

Calderon: 9%

Maywood

Molina: 28%

Torres: 26%

Calderon: 20%

Flores: 19%

Montebello

Calderon: 29%

Molina: 28%

Torres: 22%

Flores: 15%

Monterey Park

Torres: 28%

Molina: 25%

Calderon: 24%

Flores: 18%

Pico Rivera

Molina: 36%

Torres: 20%

Calderon: 20%

Flores: 18%

Rosemead

Calderon: 24%

Flores: 24%

Torres: 23%

Molina: 22%

Santa Fe Springs

Flores: 27%

Molina: 26%

Torres: 24%

Calderon: 16%

South El Monte

Molina: 26%

Torres: 25%

Flores: 22%

Calderon: 20%

South Gate

Calderon: 29%

Flores: 26%

Molina: 21%

Torres: 18%

Unincorporated

Molina: 35%

Torres: 28%

Flores: 16%

Calderon: 13%

DISTRICT TOTALS

Molina: 35%

Torres: 26%

Flores: 20%

Calderon: 16%

Others: 3%