Term Limits Push Big Names to Seek 2 Assembly Openings

Shuffled by term limits, some of Los Angeles’ better-known political veterans jumped into campaigns this week in two historically African American-dominated districts covering the area from South Los Angeles to Watts and Compton.

In the 48th Assembly District, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas filed papers in search of his next political job, seeking to fill the seat that Assemblyman Roderick Wright is giving up because of term limits. Wright, meanwhile, is eyeing the council seat held by Ridley-Thomas, who is reaching the end of his eight-year limit.

In the 52nd District, Assemblyman Carl Washington is being forced out by the law, and that has opened the door for former Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally, 75, who has been out of politics for nearly a decade. Washington, who lost earlier this year in a City Council race against Jan Perry, is now considering his options.

“Term limits have had a devastating effect,” said Brenda Shockley, president of Community Build, a nonprofit community development organization created in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. “There is no chance to build a political career anymore. Even when you’re elected, you are always wondering where to go next.”

Others see the movement as healthy, however. Term limit advocates argue that they force change in a system that otherwise gives incumbents a huge advantage, discouraging new people from entering politics.

At a minimum, the current contests make clear that the limits force movement.

“It creates opportunities and forces good people to compete against each other, creates a survival of the fittest,” Wright said.

Ridley-Thomas agreed.

“I’m in my prime with a lot of experience under my belt, and it serves no one’s interest for me to stand on the sidelines,” the councilman said.

In addition to Ridley-Thomas, a civil rights leader who has held a council seat since 1991, other Democratic candidates for the 48th District seat are: Mike Davis, a senior deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and Roberto Garcia, a graduate student at USC. Republican Gerard Toussaint Robinson and Libertarian Nolayan Herdegen also filed notice of their intent to run.

Dymally’s competition in the 52nd District is expected to include Democrats Alexander Gallardo-Rooker, a vice president of Communication Workers of America Local 9400; Shirley Allen, an executive director of a nonprofit organization; Lois Jean Hill, an applications specialist with the Los Angeles Unified School District; and Paramount Mayor Diane Janet Martinez. Republican Mark Anthony Iles also is running for the seat.

Primary elections in both districts are scheduled to take place in March, with the general election next November. Both districts are heavily Democratic.

Martin Ludlow, a senior deputy for Assemblyman Herb Wesson with strong union support, had raised money and gathered endorsements to run in the 48th District until Ridley-Thomas announced his plans to do so. Ludlow toyed with the idea of running against Dymally but ultimately dropped out.

“My heart wasn’t in that race,” Ludlow said. “All is fair in politics. It just wouldn’t make sense for me to run against Mark, and my heart wasn’t in running [against Dymally] in the 52nd District.”

Both districts are in the midst of the shifting demographics that have transformed many Los Angeles neighborhoods in recent decades. Once solidly African American, the areas today are majority Latino, though Latinos continue to be underrepresented in voting rolls.

That has helped motivate some of the candidates, though others argue that ethnicity should not be considered a significant factor in the campaigns.

“I’m running because we run the risk of losing the district in what has been historically the African American column,” said Dymally. Gallardo-Rooker and Paramount Mayor Martinez both are Latino and enter the campaign with significant political backing.

Gallardo-Rooker said the future is not in preserving an African American seat but in bringing all groups together.

“We are about building coalitions, not just with Latinos but with the African Americans,” Gallardo-Rooker said.