CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS / 1ST DISTRICT : Molina’s Image Proves Strong Factor in Race

Although she has moved on to the powerful County Board of Supervisors, Gloria Molina is casting a long shadow over the June 4 special election in which six candidates are vying to succeed her on the Los Angeles City Council.

Most of the hopefuls say that they want to carry on the combative style and policies of Molina, believing the mostly impoverished 1st Council District needs another advocate to fight for its fair share of city services and programs. Others, while not seeing eye to eye with Molina on most issues, prefer to talk about their own goals and objectives rather than openly criticize her.

The reason for this strategy is easy to figure out, according to political observers familiar with the race.

“Molina is popular and she proved it in the supervisors’ race (against state Sen. Art Torres),” said East Los Angeles political activist Frank Villalobos, who is leading the fight against the proposed state prison for the southeast corner of downtown Los Angeles.

“The real assignment for these candidates now is to try and fill the shoes of Gloria Molina by treating people, regardless of ethnicity or geographic base, as she did.”

Molina, who has never lost an election, proved to be extremely popular in her council district. She carried it by a wide margin, winning 55% of the vote last November and defeating Torres, her one-time mentor, for the supervisors’ seat.

As a result, an endorsement from Molina could be a decisive factor in the crowded race, many in the district believe.

Some Molina loyalists, including longtime aide Alma Martinez and Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), considered a run for the vacated council seat but both decided to stay put.

Another Molina backer, Olvera Street restaurateur Vivien Bonzo, took out nominating papers, but she decided against the race, concluding that she needed more time to organize a campaign.

Also, Bonzo, who has been at odds with Councilman Richard Alatorre over how best to preserve Olvera Street, would have had to give up her home in the San Gabriel Valley community of Azusa to run.

Of the six competing for the seat, Cypress Park insurance agent Mike Hernandez, 38, is banking on his longtime support of Molina to help him in this campaign. A lifelong resident of the area, Hernandez, whose community activism dates to 1974, repeats the often-heard Molina pledge to “hold government accountable.”

To ensure that the district gets better police protection, Hernandez said, he favors the establishment of a single police station to patrol the 1st District. At present, the district is part of six different Police Department stations.

Hernandez, a longtime Molina supporter who has raised $45,000 for his race, is working at getting the supervisor’s endorsement.

Another candidate is 37-year-old Sandra L. Figueroa, executive director of El Centro del Pueblo in Echo Park.

Figueroa, in her first campaign for public office, is reminding voters that she is not tied to Molina or any other special interest at City Hall. “I am truly an independent voice,” she said.

Figueroa, who has been at the Echo Park social service center for 15 years, is against overdevelopment in the district, but is careful not to be too critical of Molina in discussing the shortcomings of the Central City West project.

Having raised $8,500 for her campaign, Figueroa has been endorsed by retiring Los Angeles school board member Jackie Goldberg and Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles).

The four other candidates who have qualified for the June 4 ballot are:

* Caesar Kenneth Aguirre, 26, of Lincoln Heights, a financial consultant. Saying that he can provide “leadership for a new era,” Aguirre is stressing education, economic growth, housing and community security. “I believe that with my youth and enthusiasm, I can come up with new programs and new solutions for the 1st District,” he said.

* Frank Juarez Foster, 36, of the Pico-Union area, a businessman and an affordable-housing advocate. Contending that the district’s needs, such as housing and better police protection, have been ignored, Foster said he favors the dismissal of many city bureaucrats. “We need to reduce the top load (of managers) so that the services at the bottom can expand.”

* Sharon Mee Yung Lowe, 36, of Montecito Heights, an attorney. Currently practicing law in Chinatown, Lowe has been active in battling what she believes are overdrawn redevelopment plans for several inner-city neighborhoods, including Chinatown and Pico-Union. Lowe said she agrees in concept with the new Central City West project near downtown, but is skeptical about assurances that the huge residential-commercial project will lead to minimal displacement of residents.

* Maria Elizabeth Munoz, 34, of Echo Park, a bilingual elementary school teacher. Having run twice for governor and once for U.S. senator as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, Munoz has been critical of the Police Department’s conduct in the Rodney G. King beating, saying that she would seek the removal of Chief Daryl F. Gates. “Most of this community has been unhappy with the treatment they’ve gotten from the Police Department,” she said. “Many police officers think it’s perfectly OK to be disrespectful to people and beat them up.”

Whoever wins the seat--filling the last two years of Molina’s unexpired term--will have to grapple with a constituency where Latinos make up nearly 74% of the district’s total population of 233,000.

However, Latinos are a small part of the district’s 38,000 registered voters.

In the eyes of many, the district--carved out as a result of a Justice Department lawsuit which charged that Latinos’ voting power in the city was being diluted--is a place where many downtown workers and visitors merely pass through without stopping to take a closer look.

Although it includes parts of fashionable Mt. Washington and the Music Center, Dodger Stadium and the expensive condos and apartments of Bunker Hill, the district is considered the second poorest of the city’s 15 council districts, largely defined by populous immigrant neighborhoods of Pico-Union, Westlake Park and Echo Park.

According to recent census figures, a household’s average income in the 1st District is $19,739; the citywide average is $32,832.

Since the district includes crime-plagued MacArthur Park, the candidates have concentrated on how best to combat street gangs and provide more police protection. But in this time of budget crunch at City Hall, the candidates have said police and social services should be the highest priority.

Also high on the agenda of campaign issues is the fear of overdevelopment with the controversial Central City West project drawing most of the attention.

The multibillion-dollar project of office towers, shops and housing just west of downtown is seen as a bold stroke to revitalize the largely dilapidated area. Molina negotiated a settlement between the developers and area residents.

While most of the candidates have praised the socially responsible aspects of the project, including the addition of hundreds of low-income housing units, fears of traffic congestion and the displacement of many residents have prompted some candidates to distance themselves from the project.