Effort to Boost Latino Political Clout Falters : Politics: Redistricting has created some heavily minority Assembly districts but voter registration is lagging. Outside Los Angeles County, no new Latino candidates seem likely to win this year.

Despite an effort by the state Supreme Court to increase Latino political clout by concentrating minority voters in new districts, reapportionment appears unlikely to add any new Latino officeholders outside Los Angeles County this year.

As the June 2 primary approaches, Latino voter registration still lags in many districts, few Latinos are seeking office outside of Los Angeles, and Anglo voters, often Republicans or conservative Democrats, generally are retaining political power.

Perhaps nowhere in the state is this more apparent than here in the 69th Assembly District, which includes parts of Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove.

The population of the district is 65% Latino--the state’s most heavily minority legislative seat outside of Los Angeles. But it has not attracted one Latino candidate to challenge the incumbent Democrat, Tom Umberg. And despite its so-called “super-majority” Latino population, fewer than one in 10 Latinos in the district are registered to vote.

The older, Anglo residents--many of whom are working-class, Ronald Reagan Democrats--now represent less than a quarter of the area’s population. But Anglo voters still make up at least two-thirds of the registered voters in this new district.

In Los Angeles, Latino political leaders expect the old and established ethnic communities to double the number of Latinos in the state Assembly, from three to six. But Latino areas in Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, the Inland Empire, San Diego and San Jose are still unprepared to take full advantage of the opportunities created by reapportionment.

In Southern California and other parts of the state, there are 11 more Assembly districts where new political lines tend to concentrate Latino power but where political control remains just out of reach.

For Latino political strategists, these areas also represent the frontier of 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. Of those, only one, Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), is seeking reelection. Peter Chacon (D-San Diego) is retiring and Democrats Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard are running for Congress.

The state Senate and the California delegation in Congress have just three Latino members each, but the issue of Latino power becomes focused in the Assembly because its smaller districts have higher concentrations of Latino residents.

In Santa Ana--as in the state’s other so-called “Latino influence districts”--political experts see a number of major developments over the next several years that should dramatically change the 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. 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 say 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 of 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,” said Lopez. “The future is ours.”

Looking to the future, political leaders also note that the median age in the Latino community is lower than that of the state population, and a significant portion of Latinos are still under the voting age of 18.

Still, the hurdles to overcome are significant.

Voter participation has dropped across all voting groups. The new 69th Assembly District has the third-lowest voter registration in the state--just 22% of the population. Campaign strategists 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 Rueben 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, has received at least warm praise if not enthusiastic support from Latino community leaders.

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 Anglo, 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 or criminal cases, support for increased ethnic diversity in state colleges and universities, and a scholarship program for disadvantaged youth.

Assemblyman Polanco of Los Angeles, who heads the Assembly’s Latino caucus, said he seeks support for the group’s bills specifically 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 constituent recently wrote Umberg.

So far, Umberg has bridged the communities by demonstrating sensitivity to Latino issues but campaigning as a conservative Democrat. His brochures highlight his service in the military, call for tougher law enforcement and, at one point, advertise 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 would remain politically popular, he has yet to decide whether he will seek a third term if he wins 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.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (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 elected office. Last year, the Orange County program had 112 graduates, including one Democrat who is running for Congress this year.

Recruiting Latino candidates and voters in Orange County has also been a nonpartisan job because the 69th Assembly District is split almost evenly between Republican and Democratic voters.

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