Hernandez Wins Council Seat Left by Molina

Mike Hernandez, a longtime Latino activist who has run community Christmas parades and fought proposals to build a state prison near downtown Los Angeles, was elected Tuesday to fill the City Council seat left vacant by Gloria Molina.

In handily defeating Chinatown lawyer Sharon Mee Yung Lowe, Hernandez became the second Latino to win the 1st District seat since council boundaries were redrawn to create a Latino majority there. He and Councilman Richard Alatorre are the only Latino representatives on the 15-member council.

Hernandez had 64.5% of the vote, while Lowe received 35.5%, according to an unofficial count of the more than 8,000 ballots cast. Voter turnout was 24%.

Molina, who had held the seat since the new boundaries were drawn in 1987, resigned in February, when she was elected to the county Board of Supervisors. Hernandez was heavily favored to win Tuesday’s contest, having received the backing of his popular predecessor and having amassed nearly $200,000 in contributions--more than five times the amount Lowe raised.

“Our reality was, we were able to raise more money (than Lowe) so we were able to put a good team together,” an elated Hernandez said at a victory party Tuesday night in Highland Park. In fact, Hernandez said, his campaign raised $40,000 more than it needed--money he pledged to donate to children’s and anti-gang programs.

In claiming victory, Hernandez was quick to thank Molina.

“I cannot forget the shadow of Councilwoman--and now Supervisor--Gloria Molina,” he said. “That shadow allowed us to emerge.”

Lowe, who raised $38,000, blamed her loss on Hernandez’s powerful “political machine.” A handwritten sign posted at her sweltering Chinatown office Tuesday night captured the essence of her underdog campaign: “Outnumbered and outspent but consistently outspoken. Vote for Lowe.”

“We took on the machine,” said Lowe after conceding defeat in a telephone call to Hernandez about 10 p.m. “We knew we were going to be outfinanced and outnumbered, but we always did it with sportsmanship. . . . We always hold our head up high. We are never disappointed. There is always another round.”

Hernandez is expected to take office in about two weeks after the city clerk has officially certified the election results. He will complete the last two years of Molina’s unexpired term, representing a district considered among the poorest in the city.

Although it includes the fashionable areas of Mt. Washington and Bunker Hill, the 13-square-mile district is largely defined by the populous immigrant Latino neighborhoods of Pico-Union, Westlake and Echo Park. Latinos make up nearly 74% of the district’s population of 233,000, but a small portion of the 33,000 registered voters.

On one of the most controversial issues facing the City Council in the coming months--the future of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and implementation of the Christopher Commission reforms--Hernandez has aligned himself with a majority of his new council colleagues. During the campaign, Hernandez embraced the major recommendations of the independent commission, which called for a transition period leading to Gates’ departure and a maximum of two five-year terms for any Los Angeles police chief.

From the beginning, Tuesday’s runoff election had the makings of a rout.

Hernandez, 38, a Cypress Park bond agent, emerged as the consensus candidate among Latino activists and political strategists after finishing first out of field of six candidates in the June primary with 42% of the vote. Lowe finished second with 21%.

Hernandez solidified his front-runner status by collecting the endorsements of many Spanish-surnamed officeholders, including Alatorre--a longtime enemy of Molina--Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Esteban Torres (D-La Puente), as well as Molina.

On the campaign stump, Hernandez stressed his involvement in community affairs dating to 1974, when he served as a student community relations commissioner at Occidental College. He pledged to fight unwanted development, to secure better police protection, and to “hold government accountable,” a pledge often heard from Molina during her tenure at City Hall.

Hernandez, however, did not rely entirely on his friendly, down-home style. Having lost his only other bid for public office, a 1986 run for state Assembly, the lifelong resident of Northeast Los Angeles mounted an aggressive campaign that focused on direct-mail, sidewalk advertising and absentee ballots.

Lowe, by contrast, ran an underdog campaign from her small Chinatown office with a small core of volunteers, many of them teen-agers. The activist lawyer and mother of two picked up endorsements from Councilman Michael Woo, the only Asian on the City Council, and former Los Angeles school board member Jackie Goldberg, but the endorsements failed to translate into much cash or political clout.

Lowe was never able to extend the reach of her campaign to all corners of the district. Still, she never gave up.

Lowe, 36, built her campaign around populist themes that included pledges to restrict the power of developers at City Hall and to create elected neighborhood advisory councils. She also stressed the need for more affordable housing for the poor and elderly.

“Developers may not like dealing with me, but they’ll have to,” Lowe was fond of saying during the campaign. “I don’t care if they like me.”

Times staff writer George Ramos contributed to this story.

ELECTION RETURNS

City Council District 1

64 of 64 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Mike Hernandez 5,174 64.5 Sharon Mee Yung Lowe 2,850 35.5