Redistricting Takes On New Urgency

Restless ethnic minorities are pursuing their goal of increasing political power with special intensity this summer and many people wonder why.

Why is it so important to Latinos, Asians and African-Americans to place more of their own in the Legislature and Congress? What’s driving their political leaders as they prepare to battle entrenched political leaders over drawing new district boundaries to meet the requirements of the census?

Cushy political jobs? Power for power’s sake?

I got another explanation last weekend at the convention of the National Assn. of Latino Elected Officials. It came from a Los Angeles attorney, Dan Garcia of Warner Bros., an expert on political power.

Garcia was once president of the Los Angeles Planning Commission and most recently a member of the Police Commission, a post he gladly fled amid the heat of the Rodney G. King beating.

He is a big, gravel-voiced son of East L.A. With his short-sleeve dress shirts and blunt manner, he has never fit the blue-suit, button-down image of a downtown L.A. lawyer. But he was a success at it. Taking advantage of his insider connections from the Planning Commission, Garcia became a major player in the City Hall land developer-lobbyist game.

Political power, Garcia told a convention panel, means more jobs in manufacturing and other industries for Latinos.

Garcia’s example was the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the giant super-agency, which through its control of air pollution emissions has the potential power to shape much of the Southland’s economic life.

Latinos, he said, are heavily employed in manufacturing plants. Decisions by the district board may close the polluters among these manufacturers or force them to move. Thus district decisions may put thousands of Latinos out on the street. “But how many Hispanics are on that board?” Garcia asked. “None.”

Rather, he said, the board is dominated by “environmentalists who don’t want more jobs. They don’t want more people. And the people they are talking about are us.”

Another panelist didn’t share Garcia’s pro-growth, anti-environmentalist views. Attorney Ronald Vera had fought against agribusiness pollution while he was a rural poverty agency lawyer, battling the overuse of pesticides. “We are living in a contaminated environment, particularly in the inner city,” he said. “Three out of every five Hispanics in the United States live in a neighborhood adjacent to a toxic dump site.”

But he agreed with Garcia’s complaint about the all-Anglo air board. “There’s no question,” he said, “that the Hispanic community has not been part of the environmental debate.”

Latino activists say that there is a direct relationship between the lack of Latinos on the South Coast District board and a shortage of Latino representation in the Legislature.

Three of the 12 members of the South Coast Air Quality Management District board are appointed from Sacramento--one by the governor, one by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and a third by Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti of Los Angeles. All three are Anglos.

There are now six Latinos in the 80-seat Assembly and one in the 40-member Senate. With Latinos accounting for 25.8% of the state’s population, Latinos are pushing hard for legislative district boundary lines that will bring more Latinos to Sacramento.

Latino leaders say that a larger Hispanic delegation in the Legislature might influence either Brown or Roberti to appoint a Latino to the air board. It might impel Gov. Pete Wilson to do the same, with his appointment. As the past few days of budget negotiations showed, the governor needs every vote he can get.

The addition of a Latino or two wouldn’t revolutionize the air board. The other nine members are appointed by cities and counties in the district. So far, none of these government bodies have shown an inclination to put a Latino, or any other ethnic minority, on the board.

But an appointment from Sacramento would assure that a Latino voice would be heard. When stringent regulations are proposed that would affect furniture manufacturing, a Latino member might say, “My father worked in a plant like that. You’ve got to give more consideration to the workers.”

Latinos, Asians and African-Americans feel the same about other issues, and about other regulatory boards.

Times are tough. Jobs are tight. The county is in transition. It is a season when politics more than ever matter--and that is why the fight over legislative redistricting, an arcane, inside-politics business, will be waged with special intensity this year.