Experienced Leadership--and an Alignment With Latinos--Won Out

Before last week’s election, the common wisdom was that there were few incumbents more in danger of losing their seats than Thomas Jackson in Huntington Park, William Hamilton in Maywood and Betty Wilson in Santa Fe Springs.

With a total of 75 years of City Council service between them, the trio faced not only a growing anti-incumbent sentiment, but critics who said that they were outdated representatives of a time when their towns were white, working-class suburbs.

On Tuesday night, after election totals in 19 cities were counted, 12 incumbents found themselves out of a job. But Jackson, Hamilton and Wilson were not among them. Voters returned Jackson to office for a seventh term, Hamilton for a fifth and Wilson for her 10th term. All three said that voters wanted experienced leadership and an expert hand on the council.

Political observers said that Jackson and Hamilton, who serve in cities that are more than 90% Latino, were also helped by their decision to run with Latinos and seek Latino endorsements.

“You bet it did,” Hamilton readily acknowledged. “But it shows that we are not prejudiced. I think what happened is that a majority of people said to me, ‘Look, we don’t care about the ethnic thing. We want someone who can run this town.’ ”

Money factor--Experience and a Latino slate were not the only factors in Councilman Jackson’s successful campaign. The flower shop owner was without peer in Huntington Park when it came to raising and spending money to keep his seat.

Jackson raised $30,074 and spent $19,847 by the end of March, according to his campaign disclosure statement. Councilman Richard V. Loya, who also was reelected, was next. He raised $13,489 and spent $13,159.

The unsuccessful challengers raised and spent the following amounts by the end of March: Manuel V. Avila, $11,407/$4,901; Carlos E. Aldas, $2,565/$635; Agustin Delgadillo, $2,905/$3,086; and George Fair, $570/$393.

The candidates must file their final campaign disclosure statements by July 31.

If Jackson spent all the money he raised by the end of March, he would have spent about $29 per vote to win reelection to his seventh term.

Tough town--Hawaiian Gardens City Councilwoman Kathleen Navejas was not surprised by the flak she took on election night. The three candidates she endorsed had been dubbed her “three stooges” by her critics. And when two of them--Robert Canada and Robert Prida--won on the absentee ballot count after trailing all evening, Navejas and company were accused of pressuring people to vote for them.

But Navejas was not prepared for what she said happened at a post-midnight gathering at the home of Councilwoman Esther Flores, the Navejas-backed candidate who lost. She said a blue Toyota-- with “guys in it holding guns out the window”--drove up and down the street, sending everyone in the house diving for the floor.

“This is the worst election I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Lakewood sheriff’s Lt. Henry Villanueva said that, indeed, units responded to a call from Navejas about a man with gun. But, he said, officers “were unable to find anyone acting suspiciously or anything that had to do with criminal activity.”

Down but not out--In Signal Hill, the election may be over, but the controversy continues.

Councilman Richard Ceccia, the only one of three incumbents who won reelection, complained that his colleagues were ousted because of the influence of last-minute mailers and handouts delivered by Concerned Citizens of Signal Hill, which spent at least $8,400 to get the incumbents defeated.

Ceccia and his supporters criticized the campaign material, some of which accompanied absentee ballots, as riddled with inaccuracies. The group’s absentee ballot drive set a record in this 2.2-square-mile city and provided close to a third of the ballots cast.

Councilwoman Carol Churchill, a Ceccia supporter, agreed: “They have a right to send out requests for absentee ballots. But what’s disturbing is that they’re making misrepresentations of fact and asking for votes based on those misrepresentations.”

Churchill has filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission and the secretary of state, targeting Concerned Citizens and a development firm she believes influenced the race.

Both Concerned Citizens and the developer, Orange County-based Southwest Diversified Inc., have denied they are connected. Southwest Diversified plans a major housing development on the hilltop.

Carl Proctor, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens, said that his group’s mailers contained only facts. For example, Churchill complained that Concerned Citizens continuously criticized the city’s water, which she said is frequently tested and shown to be drinkable. Proctor said: “There’s sediment in it. If I take ice cubes and let them melt, you can see all this little white stuff floating in it.”