Union Gives Griego Key Support in Council Race

In a strong signal that organized labor will unify behind Eastside City Council candidate Victor Griego, the Service Employees International Union has decided to support him in the June runoff election, officials said Thursday.

Labor was splintered in last week’s Eastside council primary, with individual unions backing different candidates.

But Miguel Contreras, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the unions now want to support one candidate and will work aggressively to get him elected.

Julie Butcher, general manager of SEIU Local 347, said: “Our intent is to work very, very hard with the other unions to have a unified candidate in the 14th District. It’s a very important seat for labor.”

To that end, the union plans to recommend that the county labor federation’s political board support Griego when it meets early next week to recommend an endorsement to its members.

Analysts and others say the service union’s support for Griego is significant because he will attract the backing of other labor officials and their members in a way that the union’s endorsement in the primary did not. The union had backed Luis Cetina, a political novice who failed to place among the top vote-getters.

But union officials say Griego can expect an extensive field operation, with door-to-door campaigning and phone banks similar to labor’s political activity in the northeast San Fernando Valley primary.

There, organized labor pushed hard for Alex Padilla, even setting up an independent expenditure committee that raised $57,000 for him. Padilla won 47.96% of the vote, not quite enough to avoid a runoff but significantly higher than Corinne Sanchez, who won 24.78%.

“The county federation of labor has shown they are certainly a force to be reckoned with in this city,” said Rick Taylor, a political consultant who managed Padilla’s campaign. “On the other hand, Victor Griego has some issues that Alex Padilla didn’t have: Alex was born and raised in the district.”

Griego, who was accused of being a carpetbagger numerous times in the primary along with two other candidates, did move to the district to run for office. But he already owned a business and two homes there.

Nick Pacheco, who won the most votes in the Eastside primary and will face Griego in the runoff, said it is premature to declare that his opponent will win unified labor support. And further, Pacheco said, Griego will still need to overcome other obstacles, including the carpetbagging charge, to win.

“He might have more salespeople than I do,” Pacheco said. “The bottom line is the same: The voters will have to choose between myself, the prosecutor, and Victor, the lobbyist and political consultant.”

Although Griego and Pacheco won the largest number of votes overall last week, other candidates surprised consultants and political analysts by sweeping dozens of precincts.

In a race that became personal to many Eastside voters, precinct breakdowns show that Juan Jose Gutierrez, who runs a Boyle Heights immigration center, and Alvin Parra, whose stronghold is El Sereno, beat out the top two candidates at many polling places in those areas.

Gutierrez, who placed fourth overall, actually won more individual precincts than Parra, who placed third. Overall, in fact, Griego and Pacheco won only 37.7% of the votes cast.

“These were very independent voters,” said Steve Afriat, a consultant who managed Parra’s campaign.

An analysis of the precinct breakdowns shows that Pacheco won at 22 polling places, and tied with Griego in one and with Parra in another. Griego won 17 precincts. Gutierrez won 16 and Parra took 10.

As for labor, officials count thousands of households as members--and voters--in the Eastside district, and they view the June election as critical not only for the council seat, but also for future elections.

And because voter turnout was high for that district, at 27%, labor officials say that it is becoming an important area for future races.

“The 14th and the 1st [represented by Mike Hernandez] are always the last that anybody takes a look at,” said Fabian Nunez, the political director for the county federation. “What this does is it places the 14th as one of primary priority in terms of the next mayoral election.”