Holden Seeks One Last Win in Final Race

In the final round of his last fight, Nate Holden, the pugnacious Los Angeles city councilman and onetime amateur boxer, has come out singing.

“It’s How-dy Doo-dy time. It’s How-dy Doo-dy time” he crooned, feigning serenity during an evening stroll to press the flesh with voters in his Central Los Angeles district. “I don’t know why that guy thinks he has a chance,” he said when sizing up his June 8 runoff opponent.

“That guy” is the Rev. Madison Shockley. He thinks he has a chance because, despite being a first-time candidate, he has cornered Holden into what could be his toughest council race since taking the 10th District seat in 1987.

For the second time in a row, Holden has failed to win a majority of votes in the primary election, forcing a runoff. Twice facing a runoff is in itself unusual for an incumbent, but Holden confronts another election year rarity: Four members of the City Council have turned against their colleague by endorsing Shockley.

The council’s most consistent provocateur, Holden has represented an area including large sections of the Crenshaw district, Koreatown, Mid-City and West Adams for three terms. He has held his seat by relentlessly pursuing publicity for himself and public works projects for his constituents, becoming one of the most colorful and enduring figures in Los Angeles politics.

Holden has survived sexual harassment suits by women who worked for him, charges by opponents that he actually lives in Marina del Rey, and--more recently--disclosures that he may either have exploited loopholes in or violated campaign finance laws.

Now, as he makes his final run due to term limits, Holden is betting that, for one last time, he can rely on his tried and true formula--turning mended sidewalks and filled potholes into votes.

Holden’s appeal is plainly apparent during his forays among the homeowners who have been the backbone of his political support. Imani and Maynard Brown called out to Holden as he walked past their house in the western edge of the district. “Thank you for the stop sign,” said Imani Brown. “I told you he was a man of his word,” her husband added.

The Browns, both 44, said they had told Holden’s office that they needed a stop sign on their block to slow down the cars cutting through their neighborhood between Olympic and San Vicente boulevards. By delivering the stop sign, Holden locked up their vote.

“All I care about is how well he responds to the needs of our community,” Imani Brown said.

Racially Mixed District

As Holden seeks to reap the rewards of his years of delivering such services, Shockley is hoping that the councilman’s political capital has been spent. The challenger has tried to portray Holden--who said in 1995 that he would not seek another term--as mired in the politics of the past.

Shockley claims to be the candidate who can unite residents of a district that may be the city’s most racially mixed. Holden, Shockley says, represents “old-style ethnic identity politics” that focus on African American interests at the expense of others.

Racial plurality defines the 10th District’s 218,000 residents, 41% of whom are Latino, 35% African American, 14% Asian American and 10% white, according to the 1990 census.

As the pastor of the Congregational Church for Christian Fellowship, Shockley convened a series of discussions on race relations in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. Although Shockley’s congregation is mostly African American, the church’s Head Start program serves mainly Latino children, Shockley said.

If elected, Shockley said, he will bring residents together around such projects as turning vacant lots into mini-parks and forming neighborhood councils that would advise him on policy issues. Such councils, Shockley said, will give neighborhoods a voice they now lack.

Rejecting Holden’s claims to be a master of constituent services, Shockley accuses the councilman of a heavy-handed leadership style that has in fact neglected residents’ concerns. He cites as examples the deterioration of some of the district’s main corridors, such as Pico, Washington, Venice and Jefferson boulevards, which are filled with motels, body shops and other businesses that many residents consider low-rent eyesores.

Shockley Seeks to Add Supporters

Although he is aggressively courting Latinos and new voters, Shockley acknowledges that he needs to draw backing from former Holden supporters to win.

He will depend on people like West Adams resident Walter Matsuura. Matsuura, 68, voted for Holden in the past, but said he decided to back Shockley when Holden reneged on his 1995 promise not to run again.

Matsuura said his support for Shockley, however, grew into resentment toward Holden when he and a few of his neighbors put Shockley campaign signs on their lawns. After posting the sign, Matsuura said he received a call from a neighborhood activist who asked him to take the sign down.

The activist told Matsuura that he feared Holden, if reelected, would withdraw his support for historic preservation projects in the neighborhood as retaliation for the Shockley signs.

“Frankly I’m very disturbed. It’s my right to back who I want and I won’t be intimidated,” Matsuura said.

Some who support Shockley say that he represents a new model for African American politicians as black communities disperse, weakening traditional geographic voting blocs. The African American share of the 10th District population has dropped steadily in the 1990s, but Shockley and his supporters believe that black candidates can still win office by appealing to voters of all races.

“Madison attracts a broad base. He retains his cultural identity but isn’t a one issue candidate. That’s the way of the future,” said lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who is backing Shockley although he supported Holden in the past.

Shockley’s campaign was born out of a multiracial committee. Shockley was asked to run for the council by Coalition L.A., a group of labor and community activists who first tried to win a council seat in 1997, by running three candidates in a failed bid against Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr.

After Shockley finished second in the April 13 primary with just over 20% of the vote, to Holden’s 49.37%, his campaign took on a new partner. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Holden foe, is playing a leading role in Shockley’s campaign.

Ridley-Thomas has walked precincts in the district for Shockley several times a week, and Shockley set up a phone bank operation in Ridley-Thomas’s vacated campaign headquarters.

Holden Cites Independence

Holden has tried to turn Shockley’s coalition-based campaign and support from Ridley-Thomas against him. “I am independent. I am nobody’s rubber stamp,” he said, contrasting himself with Shockley.

As Shockley highlights his Harvard education and an endorsement from Harvard professor Cornel West, Holden touts a different kind of expertise.

“He has no concept of how to put in a stop sign or a traffic signal. He wouldn’t even know who to call,” Holden said of Shockley.

Although apparently simple, Holden’s approach actually reflects a deep understanding of his district’s voters, said Assemblyman Herb Wesson, a longtime Holden staffer and supporter whose son is coordinating field operations for the Holden campaign.

Despite the diversity of the overall district population, its voters are a more homogeneous group. More than 60% of the district’s registered voters are African Americans, according to political consultants who work in the area.

When it comes to the regular voters who decide elections, the color that matters most is gray: More than half of those who regularly vote in the district are over 65, the consultants say. Holden’s strength, Wesson said, is that, “He has done a good job in the campaign reconnecting with . . . the heart and soul of the 10th District.”

But even with strong support among the area’s most reliable voters, campaign consultants say low voter turnouts in the district make the race too close to call.

A little more than 16,000 people voted in the district’s 1995 council runoff, in which Holden defeated lawyer Stan Sanders by 1,378 votes. Nearly twice as many voters turned out for the 5th District council race that day, which Michael Feuer won by a margin of more than 10,000.

Because of such low turnout numbers, both Holden and Shockley know that more than ever, every vote will count Tuesday.