Latino Unity on Mayor’s Race Seen as Unlikely

With two of their biggest political guns out of the contest for mayor of Los Angeles, Latino leaders predicted Monday that the city’s largest ethnic group will not unite behind a single candidate in next year’s election.

City Councilman Richard Alatorre formally announced Monday that he would not run, two weeks after another potential Latino front runner, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, declared she was not a candidate. Their announcements have unleashed a full-scale rush for Latino support from many of the 19 others who have expressed interest in the race.

Some in the community bemoaned the lack of a high-profile Latino candidate to unify behind, saying it proves that the city’s largest ethnic group is still largely disenfranchised, but others said it would allow Latinos to focus sharply on the issues presented by each of the remaining candidates.

“What I hope is that the Latino vote will be competed for very hard,” said Richard Martinez, executive director of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. “Latinos have shown they are a growing vote and have the capacity to turn out in significant numbers.”

Latinos make up about 40% of the city’s population, but only 11% of its voters.

With Alatorre and Molina out, former ambassador and one-time Los Angeles school board member Julian Nava is the most prominent Latino in the field. Nava said the absence of Alatorre and Molina “clears the deck” for him to secure a large chunk of the Latino vote.

Though Latino political activists depicted Nava as a respected elder statesman, they said his absence from the local political scene for the last 12 years will hamper his efforts.

And they noted that no other big-name Latinos are on the horizon. State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) has said he will not run. Los Angeles Fire Commissioner James Blancarte has expressed an interest, but has low name identification. And actor and civic activist Edward James Olmos, who has been pushed by friends to run, has said he will not.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily in the best interest of any community to try to run as one unit,” Torres said. “That is the politics of the past, to say we all have to respond to one candidate. There is a lot of diversity in the ethnic community and a lot of disagreement on how to respond to issues.”

Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) agreed. “You will find the Latino community will not have a unified front,” Polanco said. “But that just shows the diversity of our community.”

Arturo Vargas, a vice president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said attention should now be turned to the performance of other candidates. “Will they come to Boyle Heights and to Pacoima and to South-Central Los Angeles?” Vargas asked. “That is what we are looking for.”

Polanco is so far the only major elected official in the community to take sides, endorsing Councilman Michael Woo. Alatorre and Molina have both said they will wait until January, when official mayoral filing begins, to decide whether to make endorsements.