Political Power Remains Elusive for O.C. Latinos

Ramon Acosta Jr. can look at his balance sheet and see how quickly the Latino community is growing in Santa Ana. Business at his furniture store on Broadway has more than quadrupled since he opened five years ago, serving an almost exclusively Latino market.

When state Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) visited the store during a recent tour of businesses in his district, Acosta proudly reported that despite the recession, he was forecasting a 50% increase in sales this year.

“We knew that this was the market we wanted to be in,” Acosta said. “Things have been very good.”

Acosta’s store is in the heart of a Latino community in Orange County that has more than doubled in size during the last decade. It is now a major part of the area’s economy, schools and culture.

But there is still one void: politics. And despite special recognition during the redistricting process, Latino political power in Orange County remains elusive.

Last fall, the California Supreme Court special masters drew an Assembly district in central Orange County that was 65% Latino, the largest minority district outside Los Angeles. Still, the effort did not attract a single Latino candidate for this year’s election. And even though the 69th Assembly District has a so-called “super-majority” Latino population, fewer than one in 10 Latinos there are registered to vote.

The district’s older white residents--many of whom are working-class, Ronald Reagan Democrats--now represent less than a quarter of the population. But political analysts say white voters still account for at least two-thirds of the vote in this new district, which includes Santa Ana and parts of Garden Grove and Anaheim.

Unlike in Los Angeles, where the old and established Latino communities are hoping this year to add two more members to their numbers in the state Assembly, some of the newer Latino areas in Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, San Diego and San Jose are still unprepared to take full advantage of the opportunities created by reapportionment.

California political leaders expect at least six Latino candidates to win election to the Assembly in 1992--all of them from Los Angeles County. However, according to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), in the city’s suburbs and other parts of the state, there are eight more Assembly districts drawn specially by the court to concentrate Latino power but where political control remains just out of reach.

In the jargon of political map makers, these are “Latino influence districts,” meaning that they have a large Latino population--usually more than half of the district’s residents--but where voter registration among Latinos is not enough to control an election.

For Latino political strategists, these areas also represent the frontier for an expanding political base. About a quarter of California’s population is Latino, yet today only four of the state’s 80 Assembly members are Latino.

The state Senate and the California delegation in Congress have just three Latino members each, but the immediate focus is on the Assembly because its smaller districts have higher concentrations of Latino residents.

In Santa Ana--as in the state’s other Latino influence districts--experts see two major developments over the next several years that should dramatically change the political landscape for future candidates.

First, California’s new limit on terms for state lawmakers will force the current Assembly members out of office by 1996--at the latest. And second, the state’s amnesty program will make thousands of new immigrants eligible for citizenship and voter registration beginning next year.

In Santa Ana and Anaheim alone, Latino community organizers said, more than 80,000 immigrants who applied for amnesty will be eligible for citizenship next year.

“Even if we only register 20% of them, it’s more than enough to tip the scales in the Assembly race, a congressional race, local city councils and school boards,” said Nativo Lopez, director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional in Santa Ana, the largest provider of citizenship classes outside Los Angeles.

“I really believe that 1994 will be a very pivotal year for filling a number of seats up and down the state--but especially here in Orange County,” Lopez said. “The future is ours.”

Still, the hurdles to overcome are significant.

The new 69th Assembly District has the third-lowest voter registration in the state--just 22% of the population. And a statistical analysis found that 56% of the district’s voters have participated in only one of the last four statewide elections or not at all.

In the district’s heaviest Latino precinct--with a population that is 96% Latino--just 9% of the residents are voters, and of those, only 26% turned out to vote in the 1990 general election.

For campaigns plotting their strategy, experts say the reality is still that just 20,000 voters can decide the outcome of an election for a district that has more than 370,000 residents.

“The time is getting closer,” said Reuben Martinez, a Democratic activist in Santa Ana. “There are a few of us who keep saying, ‘You need to get out there, and you need to vote.’ It’s frustrating, but I’m not going to give up. Eventually, it will be.”

Assemblyman Umberg, 36, a former federal prosecutor, is unopposed by a Democrat in his first bid for reelection in the newly drawn seat that overlaps most of his current district.

There are two Republican challengers hoping to face Umberg in the November general election--Virgel L. Nickell and Jo Ellen Allen, both of Santa Ana. But as a popular incumbent, Umberg is a strong favorite to win.

Among Latino community leaders, Umberg has also received warm praise if not enthusiastic support.

Umberg campaigned hard for the Latino vote when he was first elected in 1990. And while he acknowledges that most of the voters who helped him win office are white, he said he has worked in Sacramento to put politics aside and address issues that are important to his district, regardless of which segment votes.

“I think I’m doing the same kind of job now that I would be doing if there were 80% Latino voters,” Umberg said. “The issues to me are largely the same, and my sensitivities are largely the same.”

Umberg’s voting record demonstrates attention to Latino issues. Out of about a dozen bills proposed in 1991 by the Latino caucus in Sacramento, Umberg voted in favor of every one that came before him.

The bills included funding for bilingual education programs, a requirement for more court interpreters in civil and criminal cases, support for increased ethnic diversity in state colleges and universities, and a scholarship program for disadvantaged youth.

Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), head of the Assembly’s Latino caucus, said he specifically seeks support for the group’s bills from those lawmakers who represent large Latino populations.

“Certainly, we would hope they would be sensitive because they do represent Latino areas,” Polanco said. “And they, historically, have been responsive to Latino needs.”

But the politics of Umberg’s district are made even more delicate by the fact that the different ethnic groups he represents have remained polarized. Umberg’s office hears complaints every week from some residents--occasionally in blunt and angry tones--about problems they attribute to Latino immigrants.

“Something is very wrong in this state when English-speaking Americans feel as if they are living in Mexico when they go to a grocery store to do their marketing,” one recent letter said.

So far, Umberg has bridged the communities by demonstrating sensitivity to Latino issues but campaigning as a conservative Democrat. His brochures have highlighted his service in the military, his calls for tougher law enforcement and, at one point, his support for a Republican plan to outlaw flag burning.

But Umberg said he also sees dramatic political changes in the future, and although he believes he will remain politically popular, he has yet to decide whether he will seek a third term, should he win reelection this year.

“The Latino community one day--if they decide to unify around a particular candidate--will have the ability to elect that candidate,” Umberg said. “There will be stronger (Latino) influence on who represents the district.”

The political empowerment of the Latino community in Orange County is already the focus of several community groups seeking a greater role in government decision making.

MALDEF is in its second year of sponsoring the Orange County Leadership Program, part of a nationwide effort to train mid-career Latinos to participate in policy-making organizations or seek elected office. Last year, the Orange County program had 112 graduates, including one Democrat, Robert John Banuelos, who is running this year in the 46th Congressional District, where Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) is seeking reelection.

The activity to recruit Latino candidates and voters in Orange County has been a nonpartisan job, since the 69th Assembly District is split about evenly between Republican and Democratic voters.

This year, Republican and Democratic Latinos worked together to create a privately funded organization called Voting Inspires Participation, with the goal of registering more than 15,000 Orange County voters by November.

The county Republican Party has launched a program called Citizens by Choice aimed at recruiting potential candidates and training them in how to win elections, from school boards and water districts to Congress.

The program has already hosted three daylong classes in Orange County, with workshops on the structure of the Republican Party, fund raising and campaign strategy. Incumbent Latino officeholders also speak to the classes about what the students might expect if they launch a campaign.

“In the 69th, it’s going to take a few more years before the political potential is developed,” said Dennis Catron, director of the GOP program, which has been duplicated by the state Republican Party elsewhere in California. “Obviously, not this (election) but the next time, you will have strong Latino candidates from both parties. I think the first Latino elected there will be a Republican.”

One of those candidates might be Evelyn Colon Becktell, a Democrat who ran once before for the state Senate. At a recent graduation ceremony for MALDEF’s Leadership Program in Newport Beach, Becktell smiled as she looked around the room and saw a growing enthusiasm among those who had joined the effort to empower the Latino community.

“We are where L.A. was seven or 10 years ago,” Becktell said. “We are coming of age in Orange County.”

Registration Edge

The Latino voting-age population in the 69th Assembly District is 37% larger than all other ethnic groups combined. However, estimated Latino voter registration is only about one-third as much:

Voting-age population Latino: 134,789 All others: 98,069 Voters registered Latino: 20,521 All others: 62,121

Sources: California Supreme Court, U.S. Census Bureau