2 Councilmen Aim to End ‘Carpetbagging’

When Alex Padilla ran for the Los Angeles City Council seat from the community where he grew up, three of his five opponents had moved into the district just before the election.

They included Raul Godinez, who quit as mayor of San Fernando to move into Los Angeles and run for the 7th District seat in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Councilman Nick Pacheco, who also won election this year in an East Los Angeles race that featured multiple candidates who had moved into the district to run, is still upset.

One candidate, Victor Griego, moved into his brother’s house just before the filing deadline.

Padilla and Pacheco have joined forces to push for longer periods of residency for candidates for city office.

“It hopefully will eliminate political opportunism,” Pacheco said.

Padilla said the practice, known by critics as “carpetbagging,” compromises “the true spirit of democracy and representation.”

City law allows council candidates to run for office as long as they have lived in the district for 30 days before filing declarations of intent to run.

The proposal directs the city attorney to report on the “maximum residency requirements which may be legally imposed on candidates.”

Others say that in this era of term limits, the city should do everything it can to encourage participation in the political process, and longer residency requirements could block some viable candidates from running for office.

“Things that are restrictive are not good for democracy,” said Xandra Kayden, president of the League of Women Voters’ Los Angeles branch. “The more requirements you put on, the more difficult it is to participate in the system.”

The league has not taken a position on the issue, but Kayden said voters can decide for themselves whether to support someone who moves into a district to run.

In 1975, the California Supreme Court invalidated a city charter provision requiring candidates to reside for at least two years in the jurisdiction in which they run for office.

At the time, there were indications that a 30-day residency requirement would be upheld by the courts, so the City Council put it in a charter amendment, which received voter approval.

Assistant City Atty. Tony Alperin said he would have to review the issue to determine whether the city can legally increase the residency requirement.

“The reason we changed it from two years to 30 days was based on a court decision,” Alperin said. “But we’ll take a look at it again.”

Alperin said the court decision was based on concerns that the two-year residency requirement unreasonably infringed on the ability of people to move freely throughout the state without giving up political rights.

“It has to do with the travel right, the right to move from one place to another and whether placing a residency requirement of two years is reasonable,” Alperin said.

Padilla said it has been nearly a quarter-century since the court ruling invalidated Los Angeles’ charter provision, and he wants to know whether subsequent rulings or legislation might allow for a longer residency requirement than the current 30 days.

“It hasn’t been revisited since then. Maybe the political time is a little different now,” Padilla said. Asked how long he would like the requirement to be, he said, “as long as is legally possible.”

Padilla easily won a runoff with a campaign that reminded voters that he was the only “home-grown” candidate.

Pacheco used the same tactic in his runoff with Griego, who moved into the district from South Pasadena.

Griego said he was born and raised in Boyle Heights, and had lived in South Pasadena for just a few years before moving back into the district to run.

He said the proposal to increase the residency requirement is “undemocratic.”

“It’s unreasonable, especially the way people are prone today to move because of jobs and school,” said Griego, who has moved back to South Pasadena. “It would discourage people from running for office.”

Godinez also opposes any change. He was born in San Fernando but grew up in what is now the 7th Council District. He moved back into his parents’ house in the district just before the election, but says he had a long history with the area.

“I don’t think it [the proposal] is necessary,” Godinez said. “It limits your choices. If someone is deemed not to have any roots in a district, the voters will be able to weed those candidates out.”