Assembly Candidate’s Residency in Dispute

The fight between two rivals to succeed Democrat Gil Cedillo as representative of the state’s 46th Assembly District heated up Tuesday when supporters of one candidate accused the other of not living in the district.

The accusation came at a news conference at an aging apartment building near MacArthur Park, which Assembly candidate Fabian Nunez lists as his official residence. Maria Del Angel, who opposes Nunez, alleged that he actually lives in Claremont-- far from the 46th District, which covers parts of Los Angeles’ downtown and Eastside.

Del Angel and other residents displayed photographs taken from a videotape last week that purported to show Nunez, 35, at the Claremont home of his ex-wife and three children.

“He is lying to us and we are asking him to withdraw” from the race, Del Angel said. “How can he care about our community when he doesn’t live here?”

Reached afterward, Nunez called the accusations “nothing more than a publicity stunt.”

“I’m divorced,” he said, noting that his children live with their mother in the town at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. “I have a right to be with my children. There’s nothing wrong about driving my kids to school. Pedro Carrillo wouldn’t be making these charges if he was a divorced father,” he said, referring to his chief opponent in the March 5 primary.

While Del Angel and others at the news conference said they were not supporters of Carrillo, they acknowledged that the allegations initially went to Carrillo, whose attorney, Otto Pena, hired investigators to make the videotape.

Nunez served three years as the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s political director and was head of governmental affairs for the Los Angeles Unified School District when he declared his candidacy. Carrillo is a senior chief deputy to Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles). Maywood City Councilman Tomas Martin is the third candidate in the race.