Alarcon Endorses Sanchez to Fill His City Council Seat

State Sen. Richard Alarcon endorsed Corinne Sanchez on Friday to succeed him on the Los Angeles City Council, placing the attorney and social service provider at the front of the race this spring to represent the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Surrounded by supporters outside the San Fernando Mission, Alarcon said Sanchez’s 27 years of community service separated her from the two other candidates he had considered backing after his wife, Corina, opted not to run.

“I chose not to select the politician,” he said of former San Fernando Mayor Raul Godinez II, who stepped down from his post and is moving to Los Angeles in preparation for seeking Alarcon’s seat.

“I chose not to select the campaign expert,” he said of Alejandro Padilla, a 25-year-old MIT graduate who worked on several high-profile campaigns last year, including Alarcon’s. Padilla is now an aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar).

“I chose the community servant,” he said of Sanchez, executive director of El Proyecto del Barrio. The organization provided job training, health care and other services to 25,000 Valley residents last year.

If elected, Sanchez said, she would focus on attracting more jobs and public service money to the 7th District, historically the poorest section of the Valley. She promised to continue pushing the projects Alarcon had championed--improving libraries and establishing a new police station.

Sanchez, who formerly supported breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District, now says she does not yet have a position on that issue, or on the question of Valley secession.