In a Full Field of 14, Knowing the Neighbors Could Be a Key

In Boyle Heights, the 14th District City Council race might as well be a small-town election: Many residents are supporting candidates they know through family, friends and neighbors.

In voter-rich Eagle Rock, however, the candidates will have to rely on the kindness of strangers: Residents there say they remain mostly undecided and unable to distinguish among the large field of candidates hoping to replace veteran council power Richard Alatorre.

And in tiny Monterey Hills, many residents say they are grateful for a recent candidates forum--if only to help weed out candidates.

If political strategists and the candidates themselves look to these three high-turnout areas, where at least 65% of the residents have been registered to vote in two or more general elections, they could learn much about their chances in the April 13 primary.

And they can be sure of one thing: While the 14th District as a whole typically has a low turnout, in the neighborhoods where people regularly cast their ballots, voters are paying close attention.

There are the recent immigrants who are becoming politically active. There are the longtime residents with strong allegiances to their neighborhoods. And there are newer homeowners used to voting in their previous communities.

To hear these voters discussing the April 13 primary is to hear passionate viewpoints and often strikingly similar concerns from the district’s northernmost point to its southern sections. They want better and safer transportation, more after-school activities for children and more affordable child care; they want their streets repaired and the opportunity to fill better, higher-paying jobs.

The task confronting the 14 candidates in the race is to somehow address those concerns while bombarding the voters with mail, phone calls and visits. Such candidates as Luis Cetina, Victor Griego, Nick Pacheco, Alvin Parra and Sylvia Robledo probably will target neighborhoods, focusing on Eagle Rock and the parts of Boyle Heights that don’t appear to be “taken” by any other candidate.

“This is a primary that absolutely will be run in the streets,” said Rich Lichtenstein of Marathon Communications, who ran Alatorre’s last reelection campaign. “It’s the candidate with the best field operation.”

In Boyle Heights, neighbors appear to be the best--albeit unpaid--field operators. In two blocks around 2nd and Chicago streets, where about 63% of the residents were registered to vote in the last two elections, five different campaign signs have sprouted on front lawns.

Yolanda Gonzalez, for example, supports Nick Pacheco, mainly because she says she’s known his family for years. They grew up in the same part of Boyle Heights, and her brother went to high school with his brother. She spends evenings making calls to persuade her neighbors to vote for him.

“All those Pacheco boys are good, hard workers,” said Gonzalez, who lives in the peach stucco house on 2nd Street in which she grew up. “Nick lives in the community, and I’d like to give him a chance to fix the problems here.”

A couple houses down, Jennie and Uesvio Jimenez also are supporting Pacheco. They put his sign in front of their blue Victorian house after he came to their door seeking support.

“I’m voting for somebody who is from around here and knows our issues,” said Jennie Jimenez, 78. “He lives in the neighborhood, not far away from us, and he says he’s going to do lots of things for us. We have faith in him.”

Husband Uesvio, 76, added: “I’ve been in his parents’ living room. They’re from our community.”

But Jennie Jimenez said she also likes Alvin Parra, who has a brother who works at the nearby Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck station.

“He sounds good too,” she sighed. “There are so many good ones!”

Many voters in Eagle Rock to the north wish they knew the candidates so well. On a recent Friday, dozens of people strolled through the new farmers market off Colorado Boulevard--all voters, almost all undecided.

“I’m going to try to gather as much information as I can,” said Patricia Woodland as she selected flowers from a stall. “ . . . It’s a very difficult decision. It’s hard to determine who is sincere and if it’s all just political rhetoric.”

Woodland said she will read all the mailers that will soon fill her mailbox and attend an Eagle Rock candidates forum this week in an effort to make an informed decision. Woodland and her neighbors are considered high-propensity voters because about 60% of them were registered to vote in at least the last two general elections.

“We have myriad needs here, anywhere from educational needs all the way to street repairs and stop signs,” said Woodland, who teaches art at Cal State L.A.

Meanwhile, Virginia and Armando Baray said they’ve had a hard time learning about the 14 candidates, although three have shown up at their Eagle Rock doorstep.

“I’ve had a struggle to find out information about them,” Virginia Baray said. “There’s all this propaganda, there’s not a whole lot of background. There’s too many of them.”

Hiddo and Lurline Netto said they learned more about Victor Griego by volunteering in his campaign office. Lurline Netto said she received a couple calls from his campaign staff and decided to take two of her four children to the headquarters to volunteer.

“He had good follow-up,” she said. “They called me twice and I went in.”

She said she was impressed when she heard that Griego spent several weekends picking up trash in the neighborhoods with his supporters.

“Actions speak louder than words,” she said. “That made an impression. It made me take a closer look.”

Then there is Glassell Park resident David Verzola, who thought he had made a decision--at least until he was asked.

“I’m leaning toward Nick Pacheco--he has the most recognizable name,” he said. “But probably, maybe, Griego. He is cleaning up the streets. At least he’s doing something.”

All this wavering, however, is a good sign to many of the candidates.

“I think they’re taking this race very seriously,” said Sylvia Robledo. “It’s not that they’re indifferent, it’s that they really care.”

In the small hillside community of Monterey Hills, Harold Slater was preparing to attend his first candidates forum a few hours later.

“I’m real curious about them [the candidates]. I’m interested in seeing how they’re going to take care of us,” he said.

At the Monterey Hills Federation forum, he listened attentively, staying until after 10 p.m. as he weighed each one.

“I had a favorable impression of a lot of them,” he said. “I eliminated some of them and I took notes on my voter pamphlet.”

Jack Crone, who also lives in Monterey Hills and owns the Monterey Business Center, agreed that the forum was helpful.

“It served a good purpose of not necessarily identifying who’s the best, but who you don’t want to bother considering,” Crone said. “Four stand out as being the meaningful candidates. The others range from nice people trying hard to a couple of real clowns.”