Voter Turn-On

The April 13 primary election may be out of sight and mind for many Los Angeles residents, with most campaigns barely underway and no mayoral race to draw voters, but political passions are already running high in some parts of the city.

Bright yellow Boudreaux placards have sprouted on the neatly trimmed lawns of the Crenshaw district, and at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, people like Babe and Thelma Dimancheff were in full campaign swing.

The couple set up a sort of mobile campaign office for Los Angeles Board of Education member Barbara Boudreaux’s reelection bid, parking their Volkswagen camper along the parade route and passing out fliers to those stopping by.

The usually quiet school board races have been stirred up this year by Mayor Richard Riordan’s efforts to unseat Boudreaux and two other incumbent board members. The Dimancheffs, who live in the Crenshaw district, said that effort prompted them to get involved early in the race.

“Barbara Boudreaux’s a real good candidate and Riordan’s trying to get another black person to run against her,” said Babe Dimancheff, 76, a retired professional football player and coach.

“We can pick our own. We know what our needs are,” said retired teacher Thelma Dimancheff, 69.

Boudreaux’s opponents include Genethia Hayes, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who is one of three board candidates backed by Riordan in an effort to unseat Boudreaux, Jeff Horton and George Kiriyama. Of the incumbents running, Riordan is supporting only David Tokofsky.

Although Hayes has said she decided to run before Riordan offered his backing, Boudreaux supporters at the parade angrily accused the mayor of meddling.

Standing near the Dimancheffs, retired Los Angeles County health official Steve Pinkney, 67, was also miffed. “Even though we need to address problems in our schools, it’s not his right to tell us who our representatives should be,” he said.

Early Signs of a Contentious Election

Such early sparks are a sign that this school board election may be the most contentious in decades, which could prompt greater turnout in April than is usual in off-year primaries. The general municipal election is June 8.

Along with the school board and community college district board races, two City Council seats are open. Richard Alarcon of the San Fernando Valley was elected to the state Senate and Eastside Councilman Richard Alatorre will not seek reelection. Political analysts think the campaigning by numerous candidates for the open seats could also boost voter participation.

“When you have open seats, that will always stir interest among credible candidates. With three, four or five active campaigns in a council district, you’ll see a little higher turnouts,” said Rick Taylor, a veteran political consultant who is working on the campaign of 7th Council District candidate Alex Padilla.

Xavier Flores, president of the San Fernando Valley Mexican American Political Assn., said that in the heavily Latino 7th District, which includes Pacoima, “there’s a great deal of interest” in the council race. “It’s probably one of the healthiest situations Latinos have encountered, with two or three good candidates to choose from. We’re seeing a lot more people getting involved,” he said.

In addition to the four school board races and the contests for the Alatorre and Alarcon council seats, six other City Council races will be on the ballot. Incumbents Hal Bernson, John Ferraro, Ruth Galanter, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Nate Holden and Joel Wachs will all seek reelection.

Turnout in April primaries is typically small. In 1995, the last non-mayoral city primary, only 14% of registered voters cast ballots. Campaign consultant Taylor said that those who vote tend to be “the voters who are most interested and connected.”

Among those most interested are residents who say that they feel forgotten by the city’s massive government. They were among people interviewed at random in various parts of the city.

Kathy Anthony, 56, who lives in Sunland-Tujunga in the east San Fernando Valley, said she decided to run for the City Council, challenging incumbent Joel Wachs, because she feels her community is ignored by City Hall. “This community’s constantly neglected,” she said in her tailor shop, which she is converting into a campaign office.

Richard Carnes, 58, who owns a nearby bicycle and fitness equipment store, has not decided which candidate to support in the council election, but wants candidates to pay more attention to his area.

“Everyplace else, they’re taken care of. The city’s not doing anything up here because we’re up in the hills,” said Carnes, whose family has run the business since 1944.

Carnes said he will support a $744-million bond measure to upgrade Police Department and Fire Department facilities. Carnes said he thinks up-to-date police facilities are important to ensure quick response times. He also has a personal reason for supporting the measure: “My daughter’s in the LAPD,” he said.

The bond measure requires a two-thirds majority to pass, however, and a police bond measure in 1995 did not get that margin of support.

When asked about the measure, Atwater Village resident Kathleen Scott, 47, revealed the kind of ambivalence that may have hurt previous police bond efforts.

“I think we need better schools before the Police Department needs a better gym,” she said while taking a break from walking her dog in the Silver Lake dog park.

Concern With Personal Lives

Scott, who works as a house painter and gardener, said she had not thought much about the upcoming election and was unaware that a bond measure would be on the ballot. “There was nothing on the television news about the bond measures. I watch the news every day and haven’t seen anything on it,” she said.

Scott said that even though she has not heard much about the election and her council district is not one of those in the current election cycle, she plans to vote.

Frank Hernandez may be representative of the vast majority of Los Angeles voters who do not vote in off-year primaries. Hernandez, 30, works as a tax preparer in the Eagle Rock Plaza shopping mall but lives in South-Central Los Angeles.

Hernandez said he did not know the election was upcoming did not know who his City Council member is, because he and his wife just bought their house in the area last year, moving from La Crescenta. Hernandez said that buying a house and working long hours kept him from following politics. “I didn’t vote last year. I was juggling too many things,” he said.

Although Hernandez’s lack of interest may be representative of the majority of Angelenos and Americans, a hard core of residents feel duty-bound to turn out at the polls.

Sitting with Scott on a bench in the dog park, Silver Lake resident Dominique Roth said that she decided to become a U.S. citizen and regular voter after a City Council candidate she liked did not win.

Previously, Roth, 46, had voted as an absentee in French elections, but realized she was overlooking her own community. “I was complaining about apathy, and suddenly I said, ‘Duh, hello,’ and realized I was doing the same thing,” she said.

While watching the King Day parade, retired pharmacist Nate Johnson, 67, said that growing up with racial segregation in Great Bend, Kan., left him with a deep commitment to voting. “Your education was limited, your employment was limited. I saw that the only way to overcome other obstacles is to put folks in who have your interests at heart,” he said.