Victorious Democrats Map Out Agendas : Politics: After shutting out Republicans and independents, local lawmakers give their thoughts about creating jobs, rebuilding riot-torn L.A. and establishing better race relations.

More jobs and better race relations are among the priorities of a dozen lawmakers elected last week to represent the central Los Angeles area at the state and national levels. In interviews after the election, the winners spoke about their goals and beliefs.

Assembly

45th District (parts of Hollywood, Downtown, Echo Park and Silver Lake): Three-term Democratic Assemblyman Richard Polanco handily defeated Republican Kitty Hedrick to retain his seat in the 45th District. Polanco, 41, who recently was appointed the Assembly’s assistant speaker pro tem, has handled legislation to expand business opportunities for women, minorities and veterans. He also has pushed to outlaw possession of child pornography and to crack down on the reckless firing of guns.

Polanco said he believes the manufacturing of electric cars could create thousands of new jobs in California--and he wants those jobs to go to local workers.

“I also plan to bring forward workers’ compensation reform legislation,” he said. “I believe it’s essential that we take out the abuses and stresses of the industry and that we have cost containment.”

Polanco believes the state cannot rebuild the riot-torn areas of Los Angeles by itself, and he said he will push for the creation of more enterprise zones.

“But I think we can’t just concentrate on brick and mortar,” he said. “There’s a whole (social) infrastructure that needs to be tended to.”

When it comes to healing racial strife, Polanco said he plans to unveil a program that would send black and Latino Assembly members to talk to students at 20 targeted schools.

“This would be a step in the right direction to show that state officials understand the need to work together,” he said.

46th District (Pico-Union and parts of Koreatown, Downtown, Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles): Democrat Louis Caldera, who is on leave from his job as a deputy county counsel, will be representing the 46th District. Caldera defeated Republican David Osborne and two independent candidates. The son of Mexican immigrants, Caldera attended West Point and then earned both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. This is the first time the 36-year-old attorney has held office.

Caldera, who is filling the seat that Lucille Roybal-Allard vacated to make a successful run for the U.S. House, said he believes the state could help create jobs and inspire entrepreneurs to open small businesses by reforming its workers’ compensation policies.

Caldera, who has served in a number of community organizations, said he believes that he and other local Assembly representatives must push for legislation that would help rebuild riot-torn areas.

To ease racial tensions, Caldera said he would like to see people of all ethnic groups work toward the same goals: “I’d like to bring people together to work on common projects, like getting older students to tutor younger students.”

47th District (Crenshaw, Baldwin Hills, Culver City and Palms): Gwen Moore won her eighth term in the Assembly by defeating Republican Jonathan Leonard III and two independent candidates. Moore, 51, who was first elected in 1978, chairs the Utility and Commerce Committee and has become one of the Legislature’s leading authorities on utility regulation.

To generate more jobs, Moore said she believes the government must support the development of new technology. “I’m a strong believer in electric cars and gas conversion because they would create a whole new industry.”

When it comes to rebuilding, Moore said she believes the government can play a significant role: “I think one of the things we need to do is create incentives for new industries. We can do that to stimulate growth.”

Moore said racial tensions exist because of cultural misunderstandings and a lack of jobs.

“I think tensions are built when people believe they’re not treated with respect, which may be more of a cultural difference. One of the things we have to do is to create better cultural awareness, and maybe we can do it in the schools.”

Moore said she created legislation that required the state Department of Education to provide textbooks and supplemental materials that depict minority contributions.

48th District (Exposition Park, Watts and part of Downtown): In the most Democratic of all the Assembly districts, Marguerite Archie-Hudson took 93% of the vote to retain her seat in District 48. Archie-Hudson, 53, who earned a master’s degree in counseling from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from UCLA, served eight years on the Los Angeles Community College board before staging an upset victory in the 1990 Assembly race. This year she defeated Republican Jonathan Leonard II.

Archie-Hudson said increased training is the key to creating more jobs. “We need to be able to educate our work force so that we have a work force that’s competitive for the type of jobs we need. I think we ought to provide in the high schools both training for the job market and training for higher education and regard both of them with equal importance.”

To help rebuild Los Angeles, Archie-Hudson believes the government should provide tax incentives to businesses who relocate to the inner city. But she said it’s imperative that these businesses hire local residents.

The key to easing racial tensions is to make everyone feel as though they are a valuable part of the community, Archie-Hudson said. “When people begin to have adequate jobs and schools, people begin to feel good about themselves and don’t see other people as enemies.”

50th District (Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Commerce, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate and Vernon): Political newcomer Martha M. Escutia easily beat Republican Gladys Miller to win the newly created 50th District. A graduate of USC and Georgetown Law School, the 35-year-old Huntington Park attorney was among the activists who proposed the new boundaries for the district to get more Latino representation in government.

Escutia, a Democrat, said she believes the state must reform its workers’ compensation policies and create a better health-care system to help generate more jobs. “We’ve got to do something to make it more of a favorable environment to do business,” she said.

To improve public schools, Escutia says she wants “to make sure that money is not being wasted at the administrative level. I want to find out exactly how the money is being spent.”

Along with getting involved in the Rebuild L. A. effort, Escutia said she would like to see people “start talking about the human race, not the black race or the Hispanic race.”

“We have to build a consensus that crosses gender and race.”

51st District (Hawthorne, Inglewood, part of South-Central): Incumbent Curtis Tucker Jr. retained his Assembly seat by defeating two independent candidates. The 38-year-old Inglewood Democrat, who has served in the Assembly for four years, is the son of the late Curtis Tucker, who held the same seat for 14 years.

One of Tucker’s goals is to stop the flow of jobs from California. “I think the key is that while the aerospace industry is drying up, we need to convert to transportation. There’s no reason with the light rail and heavy rail that we need to buy the rail cars from Europe. We have the technology here.”

When it comes to rebuilding Los Angeles, Tucker said the government can do two things immediately. “We can hold banking institutions accountable for the lack of reinvestment in ethnic communities. We can also try to pressure the insurance industry to stop redlining the inner cities. South-Central was basically uninsured because they couldn’t afford it or else no one offered it.”

To improve racial relations, Tucker believes the media must rethink their coverage. “Right now, it’s far too easy for a demagogue to get on TV or the front page of a newspaper if he preaches hate or isolation. There’s far too many groups that are trying to break down those cultural barriers. The key is to change the focus of who gets the spotlight.”

52nd District (Compton, Gardena, Lynwood and Watts): Democrat Willard H. Murray Jr., who had no Republican challenger, retained his seat representing the 52nd District. Murray, 61, was a staff member for a number of elected officials for 25 years before being elected to the Assembly in 1988.

Murray said he has been active in efforts to attract businesses to Paramount, Watts and Compton. “I have been encouraging local governments to receive designations as enterprise zones,” he said. “And I also believe in offering attractive opportunities to industries that are labor-intensive.”

Along with pushing for legislation that would help rebuild Los Angeles, Murray said he will push for improved communication to ease racial tensions. “I would love to involve some of those from outside the riot areas in the inner-city schools. And I would love people in the inner-city schools to visit schools outside the city.”

State Senate

25th District (Lynwood, Paramount, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, parts of Compton): Teresa P. Hughes, who has served in the Assembly for 16 years, easily defeated Republican Cliff McClain to win the 25th District. Reapportionment left Hughes, who is black, in a heavily Latino Assembly district, so she moved from Los Angeles to Inglewood to run in the state Senate district vacated by Sen. Bill Greene. Hughes was not available for comment.

Congress

30th District (Atwater Village, Echo Park, parts of Silver Lake and Westlake): Assemblyman Xavier Becerra defeated Republican Morry Waksberg and three independent candidates to win the 30th District seat. The 34-year-old Stanford University Law School graduate, who has served in the Assembly since 1990, replaces Edward R. Roybal, who is retiring after 30 years representing this district.

Becerra, a Democrat, said federal money now going to defend Europe should be used instead on the nation’s infrastructure. “We could have more for transportation and schools,” he said.

To help Los Angeles recover from the riots, Becerra proposes providing tax incentives to entrepreneurs who want to open businesses in the inner city.

“I think we also have to make sure that people who live in those areas participate and hopefully become small businessmen in the area. You want to be able to say you own a piece of the pie.”

When it comes to bringing people of different ethnic groups together, Becerra said he believes it’s important for elected officials to begin talking about the problems. “I think church leaders, political leaders and education leaders also should get involved. I think they could be the focal points for that type of dialogue.”

32nd District (Crenshaw, Culver City, Exposition Park, Mar Vista and Palms): Rep. Julian C. Dixon defeated two independent candidates to retain his 32nd District seat. Dixon, 58, has served in Congress since 1978; he served in the Assembly from 1972-78.

Dixon, a Democrat, said one of his main priorities is to keep defense industry jobs in Southern California.

“I also am a big supporter of the Metro Rail system, and I’m pleased that President-elect Clinton has supported public works jobs.”

To help Los Angeles recover from the riots, Dixon said he would like to see more enterprise zones created. “I would also like to see us provide assistance to small businesses through loans,” he said.

Dixon believes relations between people of different ethnic groups could be improved by making sure that “there’s fair law enforcement and that everyone has an equal opportunity to compete for jobs. I think we also need a better understanding of cultural differences through education and exchange programs.”

33rd District (Huntington Park, parts of Los Angeles, Maywood and South Gate): After serving in the Assembly for five years, Democrat Lucille Roybal-Allard now will be representing her community in the House. She defeated Republican Robert Guzman and two independent candidates. Roybal-Allard, 51, the daughter of longtime Rep. Edward R. Roybal, has galvanized community support to oppose a proposed state prison near Boyle Heights. An industrial incinerator and a toxic-waste plant were abandoned because of opposition by Roybal-Allard and others.

Roybal-Allard said she and other elected officials must re-evaluate legislation that may be discouraging entrepreneurs from starting businesses. “I want to streamline legislation without sacrificing the integrity of the law,” she said.

She also believes federal money is needed for Los Angeles to rebuild. “We need all of California’s elected officials to come together and push for funding.”

Roybal-Allard said she believes racial problems often result from ignorance. “We need to educate and sensitize each other and gain an understanding of the different cultures.”

35th District (Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood and South-Central): Rep. Maxine Waters trounced Republican Nate Truman to retain the 35th District seat. Waters served 14 years in the state Assembly before being elected to the House in 1990. After the riots, Waters, 54, appeared on several national and local TV programs, condemning the economic and social conditions that helped fuel the unrest.

Waters said she believes more jobs could be created if a portion of the peace dividend is invested in public works projects.

“Another thing we need to do is we need to be able to do real economic conversion of the defense industry,” Waters said. “The government is poised to help.”

Waters believes Rebuild L.A. cannot do everything to help the community recover from the riots. “Nonprofit organizations need to use this time to be as creative as they can be. There needs to be a lot of self-help groups with vision and the energy to incorporate in their plan both the private and public sector.”

A resident of South-Central, Waters believes racial tensions between groups have been blown out of proportion: “They’re not nearly as bad as people have you believe. Blacks and Latinos live every day next to each other. . . . But I do think we need to develop more leadership in our schools and in our communities to address the increasing diversity.”

Assembly

In the Assembly, incumbents Richard Polanco, Gwen Moore, Marguerite Archie-Hudson, Curtis Tucker Jr. and Willard H. Murray Jr. will be joined by newcomers Martha Escutia and Louis Caldera. Escutia and Caldera were victorious in their firs run for office.

Congress

Central Los Angeles will be represented in Washington by two incumbents and two current members of the Assembly. Joining veterans Julian C. Dixon and Maxine Waters will be Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and Assemblyman Xavier Becerra.

State Senate

Assemblywoman Teresa P. Hughes won the only state Senate seat up for grabs in the area. Redestricting left Hughes in a predominantly Latino Assembly district, so she moved to Inglewood to run for the 35th District seat.