Firebaugh Seeking to Restore Luster to ‘Rising Star’ Image

Just months ago, Marco Antonio Firebaugh was an unblemished, rising political star. The young, well-connected Sacramento legislative staffer was swimming in cash and endorsements from Los Angeles-area leaders eager to support his shoo-in bid for a state Assembly seat.

But these days Firebaugh is suffering from two of the most common ailments of political life: the sin of common indiscretion, and the failure to live up to expectations.

Before dawn on March 21, six weeks before the Democratic primary, Firebaugh was arrested by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of drunk driving.

Although his arrest was not discovered by the media, Firebaugh struggled to win the Democratic primary, a race that most political insiders expected to be a slam-dunk.

The 31-year-old Firebaugh is still the prohibitive favorite to win the overwhelmingly Democratic 50th Assembly District seat in southeast Los Angeles County in November. But he is equally aware that his arrest may continue to follow him as questions of personal judgment play a growing role in politics.

In an interview, Firebaugh called the arrest “a serious mistake” and “an aberration in terms of my life,” adding: “I didn’t share this incident widely with people because it doesn’t define who I am or what I can accomplish.”

Firebaugh is a protege of Senate Democratic Leader Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), the architect behind the election of two Latinos to the speakership of the state Assembly. Firebaugh’s prime Democratic opponent in the Assembly race was Elvira Moreno de Guzman, a Maywood city councilwoman.

Despite outspending Moreno by more than 6 to 1, and despite the support of almost every member of the Latino political elite, including Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), Firebaugh won by just 957 votes, or 3.4%.

“I think everybody was surprised to the degree that it was close,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. Unanswered is the question of whether news of the arrest would have been enough to cost Firebaugh the race.

The incident took place on the weekend of the state Democratic Party’s convention.

According to a police report, Firebaugh was traveling south on the Hollywood Freeway near Alameda Street when his car swerved in front of a California Highway Patrol car, forcing the CHP officer to brake and steer left to avoid a collision.

Firebaugh told the officer, Jodi Legarra, that he had been drinking some beer, according to records. When asked to perform a sobriety test, he “exhibited signs of being under the influence,” according to Legarra’s report. He was arrested and taken into custody at the Parker Center jail downtown. He recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.11% on a breath test, over the legal limit of 0.08%.

The candidate pleaded not guilty. At one point, his jury trial was scheduled to begin the day before the primary election, but was postponed two weeks.

Back on the campaign trail, Firebaugh--who focused his campaign on a promise to improve the Southeast’s dilapidated schools--received a flurry of contributions in the final days of the race, raising his total to nearly $125,000. Guzman reported no contributions to the state, but says she spent $25,000.

When Firebaugh returned to Department 73 of the Traffic Court in downtown Los Angeles 13 days after the election, he was officially the Democratic nominee for state Assembly in the 50th District.

His trial lasted a week. Firebaugh took the stand in his own defense, arguing that he was not drunk and that the breath test was flawed. The jury that convicted him deliberated for little more than an hour. Judge James P. Zarifes sentenced Firebaugh to 36 months probation, $1,241 in fines and restitution, and 20 hours of community service.

In an interview, Firebaugh called his arrest “a serious mistake on my part that I’ve learned from and I won’t repeat. I regret having made that mistake not just because of the political implications, but also because I must meet a higher standard of expectations.”

Julio Ramirez, a political consultant, predicted that the conviction would have little lasting impact on Firebaugh’s career. “Everybody makes mistakes, and he isn’t any different.”

Of more concern to Democratic political observers was the close finish to Firebaugh’s Assembly campaign. Together, Firebaugh’s two opponents, Guzman and another political novice, schoolteacher J. Alfredo Hernandez, pulled in 61% of the Democratic Party vote.

“It was closer than I expected, but I certainly was not surprised,” Firebaugh said. “I knew it was going to be a tough race. I never expected a blowout, I never predicted one. It’s a testament to our working our butts off that we got so many votes.”

By contrast, Lucille Roybal-Allard won 62% of the vote and outpolled her nearest rival by more than 3 to 1 when she ran for the same seat in a 1987 special election. Like Firebaugh, Roybal-Allard was the consensus choice of the Latino political elite.

Guerra speculated that the difference lay in Firebaugh’s last name. The 50th Assembly District is overwhelmingly Latino and “Firebaugh just doesn’t have the Latino ring to it,” he said.

Firebaugh--the Tijuana-born son of Mexican immigrants who took his stepfather’s name after his mother divorced and remarried--offers a similar explanation: “In the absence of additional information, people vote for people who are most like them.”

Firebaugh’s Republican opponent in the general election is Gladys O. Miller, a senior clerk typist at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the 50th District by 4 to 1. Miller has twice run for the Assembly, never winning more than 25% of the vote.

“The bottom line is that Marco’s going to be the assemblyman,” Guerra said. “In two years he’ll be well-known and he’ll blow [his opponents] away.”

Firebaugh says his tribulations will make him a better legislator.

“I don’t blame anybody but myself. I’ve really learned from it. It’s made me a stronger and a smarter person,” he said.

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Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this story.