Wife Says She Will Run for Alarcon’s Council Seat

Corina Alarcon, wife of outgoing City Councilman Richard Alarcon, and Alex Padilla, aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, have announced they will run for Alarcon’s council seat.

They will compete in a special election next April to fill the northeast San Fernando Valley 7th City Council District seat, which Richard Alarcon is leaving for the state Senate.

Corina Alarcon, 41, has little direct political experience but said she will tout her involvement in nonprofit community groups in the race to win her husband’s former seat.

Alarcon has an associate degree in liberal arts from Valley College and also studied at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She is a businesswoman who owns an Allstate Insurance franchise in Mission Hills with two partners.

But as a candidate, she said she will emphasize her experiences as the mother of four children now grown, and as a community activist. Alarcon is co-founder and president of a nonprofit group called Women Advancing the Valley through Education, Economics and Empowerment, which helps homeless and abused women. She is also a member of the state Domestic Violence Task Force.

“I have a community background, and I truly care for the needy and underserved and under-represented,” she said. “I will be a very strong anti-violence person. [We need] zero tolerance in the street, in schools and in homes.”

Padilla, a 25-year-old Democratic political organizer as well as Cardenas’ aide, said Friday he will formally declare his candidacy at a news conference in coming weeks.

“I’m in,” said Padilla, an MIT graduate who is regarded as a future star in Democratic political circles following his work on the campaigns of Gov.-elect Gray Davis and state Sen.-elect Alarcon.

Politicos say Padilla has strong working ties with Los Angeles union leaders, and is a favorite of many Latino politicians.

“I’m very encouraged by the response I’ve gotten” from community leaders, Padilla said. “I look forward to a clean and hard-working campaign.”

Michael Trujillo Jr., a 19-year-old college student and member of the city commission for Children, Youth and their Families, also said Friday that he plans to file papers with the Los Angeles city Ethics Commission to declare his intent to raise funds for the council race, although he indicated he would wait to see how much he could raise before deciding how long he would stay in the race.

Trujillo, who would be the youngest-ever council member if elected, describes himself as a conservative Democrat. He decided to launch his political career based on discussions with his family and extensive prayer, he said.

The election will be held April 13 with the regular City Council election when all even-numbered seats will be filled. Alarcon, who leaves vacant a term that ends in June 2001, has said he will support his wife.

Others whose names have been mentioned by political insiders as potential candidates, or who have said they may run, include Irene Tovar, executive director of the Latin American Civic Assn., Raul Godinez, a Los Angeles city civil engineer and mayor of San Fernando; LeRoy Chase, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley; Marcos Castaneda, an aide to Councilman Richard Alatorre, and Fred Flores, an aide to U.S. Rep. Howard Berman.