Padilla in 7th District

In attempting to woo voters in the 7th District City Council runoff June 8, both Alex Padilla and Corinne Sanchez have stressed basic city services. But if at first glance the two appear to have similar agendas, they are quite different in experience and in their stands on issues, as can be seen on today’s Valley Perspective opinion page. The candidates’ stands on the issues lead The Times to endorse Alex Padilla, despite his opponent’s greater wealth of experience.

Corinne Sanchez, 52, has led the nonprofit El Proyecto del Barrio for two decades, providing health care and job placement for the northeast San Fernando Valley’s poorest residents. There is no denying Sanchez’s commitment to her community or her real-world experience at getting things done. But The Times cannot endorse her candidacy because of her stands on issues that are of critical importance to her district and to the city.

We don’t demand, or expect, any candidate to be in lock-step with us on all issues, but in Sanchez’s case, we disagree too often and too profoundly. We also find some of her newer positions--possibly seized upon as a way to bolster her underdog candidacy--inconsistent with her own record. She supports, for example, an ill-thought-out moratorium on apartment buildings in her district despite the dire need for housing that low-income residents can afford--and despite her own lifelong work with the poor.

On the issue of secession, Sanchez supports splitting the Valley from the rest of Los Angeles if a study showed that a breakup would harm neither. We believe such a rift in itself is fundamentally harmful. But we were more disturbed by Sanchez’s decision to drop her support for city charter reform, an effort even many secession backers support as a way to improve city services. Whether the problem is city government, transportation or the schools, her solution is to break things apart.

Padilla, by comparison, says of these issues vital to his district and his city, “My preference is not to break things up, it is making things work.” That is a position The Times can--and does--endorse.

We make this choice despite our concern--which we’ve raised repeatedly, to Padilla’s irritation--over his inexperience. Only 26, the legislative aide has galvanized the under-30 crowd, infusing city politics with welcome young faces. That’s a plus. What still makes us uneasy are the older faces in his entourage, familiar faces belonging to some of Southern California’s best known and most highly paid political consultants. They give Padilla’s campaign an air of machine politics at odds with his image as the young candidate of fresh ideas, and reinforce nagging worries that, without a longer record to examine, voters won’t really know what, or whom, they’re getting.

But in the end, it is the future, not the past, that sways us. We choose Padilla’s solutions for the city’s problems over Sanchez’s. If he can, as he promises, rally this long-neglected district to speak up for itself, interest young people in politics, find ways to make city services work without tearing them apart--and stay independent of his high-paying supporters--then District 7 and the city of Los Angeles will be better off with Alex Padilla on the City Council.