Passing Baton Can Leave Runner in Dust

The good news for Orange County’s Latino community: There were plenty of Latino candidates to choose from this year in some races.

That was also the bad news for Nativo V. Lopez, the self-styled godfather of local Latino politics. A plethora of Latino hopefuls in his Santa Ana school board race may have deprived him of reelection.

“In fact, (the crowded field) backfired on Nativo Lopez,” said Art Pedroza of Santa Ana, a Republican activist. “There were so many good Latinos on the ballot, he lost.”

Well, Nativo hasn’t lost yet. Initial results place him fourth out of nine candidates, eight of whom were Latinos. Victory goes to the top three vote-getters.

The once-fiery activist held out hope that absentee ballots, to be counted next week, will help him retain his seat on the board of the Santa Ana Unified School District. At the same time, his closest allies held a news conference Thursday charging that polling irregularities prevented Latinos from casting ballots, although they presented no evidence.

Still, Nativo’s poor initial showing startled some observers. He seemed to hold all the strong electoral cards--he ran as an incumbent, raised more money than his opponents, enjoyed name recognition and unexpected bipartisan endorsements. He also had a natural community base as head of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a grass-roots group that serves mostly low-income immigrants.

So what gives?

Democracy, I suspect. With more and more young Latinos running for office, many for the first time, local elections are proving unpredictable. While seemingly entrenched veterans get dislodged, untested newcomers get elected by substantial margins.

Some say this electoral effervescence is a sign of the political maturation of the Latino community in Orange County. It’s a maturity that, as with life itself, comes in phases.

Minority Political Clout, in Phases

John Palacio, Santa Ana’s school board president, who was not up for reelection this year, believes Latinos are in the third phase of political growth for minorities. At first, he explained, nobody runs because no one thinks a candidate would stand a chance. Then, some Latino candidates start having success at the polls.

Now, Palacio said, “everybody feels they can win.”

Latinos won in local races across Orange County, Palacio noted, including in Los Alamitos, Anaheim, La Habra and Stanton.

But beware the final phase, he warned. That comes later, when Latino politicians fail to act as strong advocates for the community and are voted out.

Ironically, Nativo has had a strong hand in sparking the electoral awakening that now gives him so much competition. Six years ago, in response to Proposition 187, he led a local citizenship drive, helping fuel the growth in registered Latino voters.

His success nearly destroyed him. You’ll remember that Nativo was accused of voter fraud in 1996 by former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, defeated that year by newcomer Loretta Sanchez. Dornan’s accusations stirred up more anti-immigrant hysteria and led to local, state and federal investigations of Lopez and Hermandad. No charges were ever filed.

(An electoral aside: It’s strange that Republicans are now crying about a recount of presidential votes in Florida. This is the same party that dragged out the Dornan/Sanchez dispute for a whole year, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in their vain attempt to prove the sick stereotype that Mexicans can win only by cheating.)

The Fledgling Overtakes the Veteran

This year, the candidate who beat Nativo--and two other well-known incumbents--is a stocky, dark-skinned teacher and boxing coach named Sal Tinajero. It was the first run for the 29-year-old, who emerged with 16.6% of the vote, compared with Lopez’s 13.9%.

The result is doubly ironic, since Tinajero was backed and helped by Nativo, who also nurtured another first-time candidate, Lucy Santana. She was the fifth-place winner, with 13% of the preliminary vote count.

There are inherent risks in grooming candidates who will split the vote with you, noted Juan Garcia, editor of the weekly newspaper Union Hispana, published by Hermandad. “A lot of (Nativo’s) effort went for Sal and Lucy,” Garcia said.

Yet Tinajero got support from both sides of the political spectrum, including the Republican Lincoln Club and Rosemarie Avila, the conservative school board incumbent who’s in second place so far. Tinajero said Avila liked his community work as a Little League coach and Sunday school teacher.

Those local roots “just rose up on election day” to help him win, Tinajero told me. Former students and their families repaid his efforts in the ballot booth.

Strong civic credentials also helped another first-time winner, Claudia Alvarez, a deputy district attorney who speaks English with a Latin accent. Alvarez was elected to the Santa Ana City Council, trouncing Nancy Lutz, wife of outgoing Councilman Thomas E. Lutz, who represents the non-Latino old guard.

In another ward, the council seat went to yet another first-timer, Jose Solorio, a protege of Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, who also won reelection by a wide margin. Pulido has stuck to the status quo, so it will be fascinating to see if Alvarez or Solorio can bring any new leadership to a city arrogantly unresponsive to its Latino majority.

Alvarez walked relentlessly door-to-door, introducing herself to voters. Older white residents found “this young person” to be “so delightful,” said Michele Morrisey, a neighborhood leader who lost her bid for a council seat in a different ward.

To these voters, Alvarez represented up-and-coming Latinos, professional and personable. They liked her enough to abandon Lutz, the safe choice of the white establishment. As of Friday, Alvarez had 53% of the vote. She obviously crossed ethnic lines to get them, just as Tinajero did in the school board race.

“I think that’s hopeful in a town where race can become a divisive factor in politics,” said Morrisey. “To win, everybody needs everybody.”

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Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com