Attempts to Find Bridge to Close the Cultural Gap

First came references to Jerry Brown. Then Pat Brown. Then Kathleen Brown. Then John F. Kennedy. By the time Saturday’s forum had ended, the four white candidates for governor had clambered upon every iconic figure they could reach in their search for a way to appeal to their largely Latino audience.

At times, the forum was the verbal equivalent of the traditional political visit to Olvera Street on Cinco de Mayo--an effort, sometimes heartfelt and sometimes cloying, to reach across the cultural divide that separates the candidates and the state’s Latinos. Just by occurring, the forum demonstrated the power of a segment of the California electorate that is small but growing--and will only grow more prominent in the future.

One day, a Latino politician will be on the gubernatorial forum dais. But for now, the candidates have to make do with proxies. So it was that both Rep. Jane Harman of Torrance and Lt. Gov. Gray Davis made a point of prominently thanking their Latino endorsers.

“I’m proud of my support by state Sen. Hilda Solis, sitting in the audience next to my family, and by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and Lucille Roybal-Allard and by Supervisor Gloria Molina and Sacramento Supervisor Joe Serna and so many in the Latino community,” Harman said.

Not to be outdone, Davis followed by naming seven Latino endorsers. He also had several of them surround him at his post-forum news conference.

During the rest of the forum, it was the family Brown that was symbolic for being sympatico with Latinos. With good reason: The late elder statesman, former Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Sr., was popular for opposing housing discrimination. His son, Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., campaigned for the rights of Latino farm workers. Kathleen Brown, Pat’s daughter and Jerry’s sister, benefited hugely from Latino support in her political campaigns.

Davis--not surprisingly, given his tenure as Jerry Brown’s chief of staff--first raised that Brown family member’s name. Harman followed with a glowing reference to Pat Brown’s education master plan. Davis seconded her praise of Pat Brown, and for good measure later mentioned a jobs program he had concocted with Kathleen Brown when she was state treasurer.

Whereupon Lungren, the single Republican on stage, out-pandered them all.

“Pat Brown, who everyone wants to join with today--I think I’m the only one who was a law partner of Pat Brown’s in the past,” said Lungren, referring to their joint service in a large Southern California law firm.

To be sure, not all of the panders were Brown-inspired. Lungren touted Latinos as “the community that probably has its foot on the pedal of economic expansion more than any others”--a designation that more likely goes to the Silicon Valley or Hollywood. And he praised the site of the forum, Loyola Marymount University, by noting that his daughter will be a senior there soon.

Harman got into that mix, noting that the university is “in the center of my congressional district”--and later congratulating Lungren for his wife’s past attendance at El Camino College. “It’s in my congressional district,” she said.

The sole bit of disharmony in the pandering cycle came after Lungren defended the state’s economic recovery against charges that it had exacerbated the gulf between the rich and the poor. To do so, he used a timeless comment by President Kennedy--still a popular figure among Latinos--that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

“All boats are not rising right now, Dan,” she said pointedly. “John Kennedy’s dream has not come true.”