School Race Too Close to Call : Education: Parent Lucia V. Rivera is slightly ahead of teacher David Tokofsky in heavily Latino 5th District.

After holding a narrow lead in early returns, parent Lucia V. Rivera appeared to be losing some ground in her race for a seat on the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education to high school teacher David Tokofsky, although the race was still too close to call early Wednesday.

If Rivera’s sliver of a lead holds, she would bring a majority of administrator-backed members to the board for the first time in recent years. But neither candidate was ready to profess victory or concede defeat.

“Ah, to come from behind,” Tokofsky said from his campaign headquarters. “It’s a cliffhanger.”

Tokofsky speculated that early results in the 5th District race were largely from East Los Angeles, where Rivera had developed a strong base of support, the later ones that favored him from areas north of Downtown and from the San Fernando Valley.

Rivera attributed her showing to dedicated campaign support not only from administrators and parents, but from entire school communities, from maintenance workers to principals.

“I’m not taking anything for granted,” Rivera said late Tuesday from her music-filled Lincoln Heights campaign office. “But when the final votes are down, I’m optimistic it will be me.”

In the other major local education contest, university professor Gloria Romero scored a narrow victory over businessman David Kessler for the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees seat left vacant when former Trustee Wally Knox was elected to the state Assembly.

Although the Los Angeles Unified race was portrayed throughout the two-month runoff campaign as a teacher vs. parent contest, it was also a competition between two powerful electoral forces: the teachers union and the Latino political machine.

A victory for Rivera, who was endorsed by most of the region’s top Latino politicians--would be seen as a stark symbol of the waning influence of United Teachers-Los Angeles, which has funneled money and manpower to her opponent.

If Tokofsky wins, he would become the first white representative of the 5th District in 12 years--a blow to Latino politicians who have tried to create and preserve the seat for a Latino. But Tokofsky expressed optimism that supporters of both candidates will unite after the election, regardless of who wins.

“We ran a good campaign,” he said. “I think we got across the message that excellence and equity are compatible, that we don’t have to divide into the Valley and East L.A., that there is a middle . . . and a middle ground.”

The 5th District boundaries were redrawn in 1992 to include many of Los Angeles’ most heavily Latino areas, and 87% of the students who attend public schools in the district are Latino. However, fewer than half of its voters identify themselves as Latino, creating an uphill battle for a Latino candidate.

Issues of ethnicity and experience split backers--and voters--throughout the campaign, especially after the two Latino front-runners dropped out and left the race wide open for nine relatively unknown contenders.

Many Latino elected officials and community leaders ended up choosing Rivera, a paid parent liaison and volunteer at Eagle Rock High School, over the politically savvy Tokofsky, a social studies teacher at Marshall High School who speaks fluent Spanish.

But some key Latinos stayed out of the race and 5th District board member Leticia Quezada, who is stepping down after eight years, did not back either candidate.

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), whose congressional district boundaries are virtually the same as the school board district’s, endorsed Rivera and provided her with financial and moral support. But he said he saw strengths and weaknesses in both candidates--and a hard road ahead.

“I don’t think either one of them understands what they’re going to confront. . . . It’s not going to be any fun,” Becerra said, referring to education funding cuts and such tough issues as Proposition 187, which would have schools weed out illegal immigrant children.

Even the teachers union initially considered a dual endorsement, despite years of active involvement by Tokofsky. To win individual teachers’ support, Tokofsky had the daunting task of overcoming their feelings of betrayal, rooted in past votes to cut their pay by board member Jeff Horton, a former teacher who was elected with extensive union support.

But a sluggish start on union participation in Tokofsky’s campaign later blossomed into more than $80,000 in contributions, as well as dozens of volunteers to walk precincts and staff phone banks.

Rivera began the runoff campaign with momentum from the primary, where she finished with 44% of the vote, far ahead of Tokofsky, who garnered only 27%. Combined, the two candidates spent more than $300,000 on the election, much of it on mailings--and in Rivera’s case, on lawn signs aimed at capitalizing on her Latino heritage throughout the sprawling district.