Hot Battle Punctuated by Personal Attacks

Only 14,857 people voted in the primary, but the battle for a Municipal Court judgeship in East Los Angeles is as hotly contested as any race on this year’s ballot, highlighted by personal attacks and charges of carpetbagging. It also illustrates how expensive it has become to run for virtually any office.

The contenders are Teresa Sanchez-Gordon, a federal public defender, and Tony Luna, an East Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner. The winner will preside over both civil and criminal cases in a jurisdiction that covers East Los Angeles, Montebello and Commerce.

Despite the low primary turnout, the position carries a great deal of respect in the community, according to Frank Villalobos, the politically influential director of Barrio Planners, an architectural firm that does extensive government work.

“In East L.A., a judgeship is very important; it’s like being a bishop,” Villalobos said.

The tenor of this campaign, however, is hardly saintly. She blasts his ethics. He brands her an outsider.

Both Sanchez-Gordon, who led in the primary, and Luna contend that they are “the candidate of the community.”

Sanchez-Gordon stressed that she grew up near the Municipal Court building there and attended local Catholic schools before attending Immaculate Heart College and the People’s College of Law. Prior to her work as a public defender, she worked for the AFL-CIO’s Labor Immigrant Assistance Project.

“The voters have a clear choice--a candidate who is rated ‘qualified,’ versus a candidate rated ‘unqualified’ ” she said. Sanchez-Gordon, 45, has garnered a broad array of endorsements from elected officials, including County Supervisor Gloria Molina and City Councilman Richard Alatorre, longtime political rivals who rarely agree on anything, as well as several judges and Father Greg Boyle, known for his work with troubled Eastside youths. In an unusual move, Sheriff Sherman Block has endorsed both candidates--a decision his office could not immediately explain late Thursday.

Despite Sanchez-Gordon’s Eastside ties, Luna has attacked her for not living in the area. In August, however, Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien ordered Luna, 56, to remove that line from his ballot statement as a violation of the state law that prohibits such attacks.

Luna has other obstacles to overcome as well.

The Los Angeles County Bar rated him “not qualified” in an evaluation stating, without elaboration, that Luna, a graduate of UCLA Law School, “lacks the necessary judgment” to be a judge. In response to a question, Luna said he thought “the bar looked at something that happened a long time ago,” a reference to the fact that in 1991 the State Bar gave him a private reproval for administering sentences to his own clients when he served as Judge Pro Tem in Alhambra Traffic Court.

Moreover, in a flier headlined “Tony Luna Can’t Obey the Law,” Sanchez-Gordon reminds potential voters that in 1986 Luna had to pay $25,952 after the district attorney’s office filed a civil complaint against him for allegedly overbilling the county while representing indigent defendants as a contract lawyer.

Nonetheless, Luna said, “I deserve the job,” citing his six years as a Municipal Court Commissioner, charitable work in the community and backing from Bernard Kemper, the presiding judge of the East Los Angeles court and various law enforcement groups.

The race has been costly. As of mid-October, Sanchez-Gordon had raised $145,721 and spent $113,280, while Luna had raised $101,662 and spent $80,301, according to official county records. By the time it’s over, Sanchez-Gordon said, she will have spent more than $200,000.