Alarcon Asks for Unity Without Disavowing Mailer

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon called Monday for unity in the northeast San Fernando Valley after the racially charged state Senate primary race against former Assemblyman Richard Katz.

Alarcon conceded that the campaign took a negative turn in the final days, but he called on voters in the 20th state Senate District to put the attacks and criticism behind them.

“We need to move beyond the negative symbols of this campaign and work toward unity,” he told a group of about 70 supporters during a campaign victory celebration at Brand Park in Mission Hills.

After a two-week tally of absentee and write-in ballots, Alarcon edged Katz by 32 votes to win the Democratic nomination. But Katz has not conceded and may call for a recount.

Still, both sides continue to complain about the negative tone of the race, with supporters for each candidate accusing the other of injecting ethnicity into the campaign. Alarcon is Latino and Katz is Jewish.

The campaign became so contentious that Katz refuses to talk to Alarcon until Alarcon repudiates a controversial mailer sent out on Alarcon’s behalf by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who also contributed $181,000 to Alarcon’s campaign.

Alarcon has refused to disavow the mailer, but said he wants to make peace with Katz.

“I would welcome his support should he care to give it,” Alarcon said.

The mailer that drew Katz’s ire suggests a link between Katz, Gov. Pete Wilson and an Orange County Republican candidate who was accused in 1988 of hiring guards to frighten immigrants away from voting sites. Katz called it “race-baiting.” The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Anti-Defamation League protested the mailer, calling it divisive.

Polanco, who heads the California Latino Caucus, stands by his mailer, saying, “I do not believe that the mailer I signed was racially divisive.”

In an interview Monday, Katz said he could not make peace with Alarcon until he acknowledges some responsibility for the Polanco mailer.

“I don’t think you can ever sweep race-baiting under the carpet,” he said. “If you do that, you are almost as bad as those who are race-baiting.”

Alarcon supporters accused Katz of introducing ethnicity into the campaign with a Katz mailer that describes Alarcon as having “dirty hands” for having accepted contributions from taxi firms and then making a motion to help 250 uninsured taxi cabs operate in Los Angeles

Alarcon supporters, such as Alan Clayton, vice chair of the California Democratic Latino Caucus, said the reference to “dirty hands” is derogatory toward Latinos.

In response, Katz said there is nothing racial about describing a politician as having “dirty hands.”

“That has been used over the years to describe politicians engaged in questionable activities,” he said.

Alarcon used Monday’s gathering at Brand Park to thank his supporters and urge them to continue to support him as he prepares for the November general election against Republican Ollie McCaulley and Libertarian Linda Starr.

“This campaign is not over,” Alarcon said.

He said Polanco’s mailer was not a deciding factor in the race. Instead, he attributed his victory mostly to the “tremendous mobilization” of voters in the northeast Valley.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that any particular thing won this race,” he said. “The voters decided this race.”