Crenshaw Key Arena in House Race

If there is a center of the 32nd Congressional District, an ethnically diverse swath stretching from the Coliseum to Mar Vista, from Inglewood to the Wilshire Corridor, it is the Crenshaw district, the heart of black cultural and political life in Los Angeles.

Made up of communities such as View Park, Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills and Leimert Park, the district includes some of the most affluent African American communities in the country. It is also the last bastion of concentrated black voting strength in Los Angeles.

“In election after election we come out to vote in droves,” boasted United Homeowners Assn. President Tony Nicholas, who lives in View Park. “We work polls and have block captains going door to door, making sure that people vote.”

To mine those votes, most of the 18 candidates vying to replace the late Rep. Julian Dixon in Tuesday’s election have made a point of emphasizing their connection to Crenshaw Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Former state Sen. Diane Watson likes to say she has lived in the district all of her 67 years. State Sen. Kevin Murray reminds voters that he attended Windsor Hills Elementary School. And the area has been Councilman Nate Holden’s political stomping ground for decades.

Even two Republicans in the field stress their ties to the area. Millionaire philanthropist Noel Irwin Hentschel, who lives in Bel-Air, grew up near Crenshaw and recently purchased a second home in View Park. Attorney Mike Schaefer, who lives in Las Vegas, visited the area on a recent campaign swing and checked into a $35-a-night motel on Slauson Avenue. (Congressional candidates do not have to live in the district.)

Most of the candidates have opened their headquarters in and around Crenshaw. Mayoral candidates Steve Soboroff, Antonio Villaraigosa and James K. Hahn have also set up regional offices in the area.

“It makes a statement that you are committed to the African American community when you are right there in a historic part of the community,” said Parke Skelton, political consultant for Villaraigosa.

The area has a rich history of launching political careers. Using Crenshaw as his base, Tom Bradley put together the multiethnic coalition that elected him mayor five times. Dixon, who died in office Dec. 8, launched his career there.

But that was 30 years ago, when black political power was on the rise.

“When Dixon took office, it was the beginning of the emergence of black political power,” said commentator and Southwest College political science professor Kerman Maddox. “Now we’re struggling to hold on to the power that we have.”

That struggle results largely from the changing face of Los Angeles, where countywide the black population dropped about 300,000 in the 1990s. At the same time, the Latino population continues to increase in areas that were once mainly African American.

The percentage of African Americans in the 32nd District has declined in the last decade from 40% to about 33%--about equal to the percentage of Latinos, the 2000 census found.

But black voting remains strong, largely because of high turnout in communities such as View Park-Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights.

“It’s interesting that you see no African Americans running in the mayor’s race, but they are lining up for this one congressional seat,” said UCLA political scientist Franklin Gilliam. “That’s because the changing demographics for Los Angeles and the nation as a whole are such that black majorities are dwindling in cities and counties.”

Although changing demographics will ultimately reshape the electorate, many observers point out that a shift in political power won’t be immediate. Many Latinos are new immigrants and not yet citizens.

“It’s a long process,” said Anthony Thigpenn, executive director of AGENDA, a grass-roots voter education project. “It takes time to get citizenship to be eligible to vote.

“It takes time to get into the voting habit, especially when you don’t have the churches, block clubs and long-standing neighborhood associations that are part of the foundation of a voting base. That infrastructure takes time to build.”

Karen Bass, executive director of the Community Coalition, said African Americans and Latinos have long had similar interests.

“It’s a mistake to assume that Latinos will not vote for an African American,” she said. “We can draw on our long history of coalition-building. Bradley was an example of that.”

Though future success may hinge on coalitions between blacks and Latinos, this year’s winner could be determined in communities such as Culver City, Palms and Mar Vista, where white voting strength is high. That’s because 15 of the 18 candidates are African American.

“The black vote may be divided,” said Robert Neff, vice president of the Culver City Democratic Club. “If that happens, the eventual winner will be decided by the voters west of La Cienega Boulevard, where there is a significant white and Jewish vote.”

Whatever shape the 32nd District may take in the future, the current campaign is shaping up as an old-fashioned political brawl.

Among other things, there have been accusations that district boundaries will be redrawn to weaken black representation, and claims that front-running candidates have ignored the major issues: economic redevelopment, transportation and school improvement.

Watson has raised the possibility that reapportionment, which is triggered by new census figures, may come at the expense of African Americans.

She told an audience last week that she believed congressional district boundaries were being redrawn to “collapse” the seat of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson) to shift black votes to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has endorsed Murray. That would eliminate a congressional seat that historically has been held by an African American.

“There is a war going on,” said Watson, who refused to elaborate.

“That is patently false,” said Kam Kuwata, a spokesman for the state Assembly redistricting project, which will oversee the drawing of new district lines.

Waters said she endorsed Murray because his “youth, energy and six-year record in the state Legislature makes him, by far, the best choice.”

Such inferences that Watson, 67, and Holden, 71, are too old irritate both candidates.

“My age is my strength,” said Holden. “My experience in office will enable me to do the job right away. Besides, good health is all in God’s hand. Age has nothing to do with it. When your time comes, your time comes.”

Watson also holds up her experience as an important credential.

“If elected, I won’t need an orientation,” she said. “I’ll hit the ground running.”

But longshot candidate Leo James Terrell, a civil rights attorney, said front-runners such as Watson and Murray “are just looking for jobs.”

Though the Crenshaw district may have some of the most affluent black neighborhoods in the city, it also has areas that are desperately struggling economically and schools that are performing poorly.

“We are a community of haves and have-nots,” said candidate Philip Lowe, who owns a financial investment firm. “What’s needed is better access to capital.”

Lowe, a relative newcomer to politics, has sent out mailers and bought radio spots denouncing his front-running opponents as “cookie-cutter politicians who are long on talk but short on solutions.”

Tad Daley of Baldwin Hills, who was chief deputy of former Sen. Alan Cranston’s Global Security Institute, has run a grass-roots campaign on world issues. He seeks a ban on nuclear arms and genocide and more effort to fight AIDS in Africa.

And Hentschel, chairwoman of American Tours International, who in 1998 was a candidate for lieutenant governor, said her message is about inclusiveness.

“We need economic development in key parts of the district,” she said.

Schaefer is big on economics too, particularly around Slauson, where he spoke from a pay phone because his motel room didn’t have one.

“I can stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel if I wanted to, but I have to reflect the modesty of my district,” he said. “I’m not a big spender. I’m conservative on money matters and moderate on human issues.”