Council Seat Election Scheduled for April

The election to fill the Los Angeles City Council seat soon to be vacated by Richard Alarcon, who was elected to the state Senate, will take place April 13, the City Council decided Friday.

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) had expressed interest in replacing Alarcon, but Cardenas decided not to run this week, surprising many politicos and leaving the field of candidates wide open.

Alarcon is backing his wife, Corina, who operates an insurance agency and a domestic violence shelter, if she decides to run for the council seat.

“I’m very close to deciding to do it,” Corina Alarcon said Friday. “I’ve been calling the people in the community, because I want to see if they would support me, and I’m excited about what I’m hearing.”

Cardenas, who once considered running, has expressed support for his 25-year-old deputy, Alex Padilla, who is considered a rising political star among Democrats following his recent work on several high-profile campaigns, including that of Gov.-elect Gray Davis.

Numerous others have expressed interest or have been advanced by political insiders as successors to Alarcon, whose term does not end until 2001. The 7th District seat represents the northeast Valley.

Those expressing interest include San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez, who would have to move out of that city to enter the Los Angeles council race; Irene Tovar, executive director of the Latin American Civic Assn., a community service group; Michael Trujillo Jr., a 19-year-old member of the city’s Commission on Children, Youth and Their Families; LeRoy Chase, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley; Marcos Castaneda, an aide to Councilman Richard Alatorre and former aide to Alarcon, and Fred Flores, a longtime aide to Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills).

“I’m thinking about it,” Flores said Friday. “I’m encouraged by the suggestions that I’ve been getting from people here in the district.”