Political Rift Clouds Race in 7th District

At a meeting at UCLA last fall, longtime political allies Richard Alarcon and Tony Cardenas were supposed to discuss a joint strategy for filling the City Council seat Alarcon was leaving to enter the state Senate.

But instead of finding common ground, the San Fernando Valley’s two top Latino politicians found themselves headed in opposite directions.

Alarcon, who in 1993 became the first Latino elected to the Los Angeles City Council from the Valley, provided backing that helped Cardenas get elected as the Valley’s first Latino assemblyman in 1996.

Alarcon wanted Cardenas to run for the 7th District council seat in the Valley.

But the meeting opened a rift that some fear may negatively affect politics in the northeast Valley for years to come.

Cardenas informed Alarcon he had decided to stay in the Assembly. Alarcon was surprised, Cardenas recalled. Alarcon then said he would support his wife, Corina, for the position, and asked him to support her, Cardenas said.

Cardenas said he couldn’t agree because he didn’t feel it was a sound political move.

“My exact words were, ‘I am not inclined to support your wife,’ ” Cardenas said. “It just didn’t sit well with me.”

The conversation, Cardenas concedes, then became tense.

Cardenas said he told Alarcon that he planned to support his chief deputy, 25-year-old Alex Padilla, for the council seat.

Alarcon recalls being just as blunt in rejecting Cardenas’ proposal.

“He [Cardenas] said he didn’t think it was a good idea for spouses to run, and I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea for a 25-year-old to run when there were more experienced people in the district,” Alarcon recalled.

Corina Alarcon later backed out of the race, but rather than joining Cardenas in endorsing Padilla, Alarcon decided instead to back Corinne Sanchez.

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When it became clear that the two allies were backing opposing candidates, many activists and community leaders were shocked and worried.

“I was surprised,” said Paula Rangel, a community activist who worked as an organizer on both Cardenas’ and Alarcon’s campaigns.

“There is talk in town that there are two political camps now,” said Rangel, who has been active with the anti-gang program Families United. “I hope it isn’t true. We worked so hard to get them both elected. This community needs for them to work together.”

The concern is so great that several community activists have approached the two legislators and asked them not to let the dispute linger or poison their ability to work together in Sacramento for a section of the Valley that is economically distressed and needs the coordinated attention of government officials, Rangel said.

“There is a difference of opinion about who the best candidate is,” Alarcon said. “Notwithstanding that difference of opinion, I think we can work together for the benefit of the northeast Valley.”

Still, eyebrows went up when Cardenas and Alarcon introduced separate bills recently that seemed to be at cross purposes on Mission College. The college had received $4.7 million in grants to expand, but failed to get its act together and spend the money, which then reverted back to the state last year.

Cardenas introduced a bill to recover $4.7 million in unspent funds for the expansion.

Members of Cardenas’ staff then ridiculed a bill by Alarcon to create community oversight committees to help guide expansion projects at community colleges, saying it was not needed.

Some community leaders see the dispute as part of a power struggle between two men with strong ambitions and egos to match, with the stakes no less than who will be the political boss of the northeast Valley.

“The rift between Cardenas and Alarcon is very personal,” said one longtime Valley leader who knows both men well. “Richard wants to show that he’s the boss of the 7th District.”

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Insiders say the tension has grown as others have chosen sides. One of Alarcon’s key advisors in the past, James Acevedo, is working on the Padilla campaign.

There is some ego involved on both sides, said Robert Villafana, who was chairman of the Valley chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn. in 1993, when the group backed Alarcon’s candidacy for City Council.

“Being ambitious, you want some things that you feel are important and others may want other things. That’s where the conflict may come in,” Villafana said.

He believes the two lawmakers will put their differences behind them when the winner in the council race is sworn in.

Many say that whether the rift heals or worsens may depend largely on how personal and bitter the campaign becomes between Sanchez and Padilla.

There are already signs that the campaign will be nasty.

On Friday, Sanchez’s camp said Cardenas may campaign for Padilla using some of the money Cardenas has received from Indian gaming interests.

“We just think it would be inappropriate to influence a local council race with out-of-district gaming money,” said Parke Skelton, a campaign strategist for Sanchez.

Such a campaign could be carried out by a third party, escaping city ethics laws limiting contributions to council candidates to $500.

“I haven’t committed any money from my campaign account to any Los Angeles City Council races yet,” Cardenas said Friday.

Rick Taylor, a spokesman for Padilla, said he has no information about such a campaign, and he accused Skelton of slinging “wild mud” without evidence to back up his charges.

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It is not unusual for Valley council races to draw large amounts of money from outside the district. Residents and businesses in the 20th Senate District accounted for only 8% of the contributions received by Alarcon and his main opponent in the primary last year. Eastside Sen. Richard Polanco spent $181,000 to support Alarcon in the race.

But Cardenas said he believes he and Alarcon can keep up their relationship, even if the race gets testy.

“Whoever happens to lose,” he said, “I’m sure there will be some bruises that will take awhile to go away.”