Three-Way Race for Umberg’s Seat

They’re both Latinos in their mid-30s. Both are Mexican immigrants and both have graduate degrees. They both sit on the Santa Ana City Council.

Now Claudia Alvarez and Jose Solorio are seeking the same Assembly seat June 6.

And they face a potent challenge from political newcomer Armando de la Libertad, 34, a Santa Ana bank administrator with the endorsement of his former boss, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), and others.

The 69th Assembly District seat is currently held by Tom Umberg, who beat Alvarez in 2004 by 327 votes and is being forced out of office by term limits. (Umberg served two terms in the 1990s.)

“It’s appropriately a Latino seat,” said Frank Barbaro, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party. The district encompasses most of Santa Ana, where three-fourths of the population is Latino, and parts of Anaheim and Garden Grove. It is the only Assembly district in Orange County where Democrats outnumber Republicans.

Two council members facing off against each other is an eye-catcher in politics. “I’ve never seen two council members from the same council in an Assembly race, at least not in Orange County,” Barbaro said. “I think it’s very, very unusual.”

The candidates don’t differ much on the issues, but each has an individual focus. Solorio, 35, focuses on more English for immigrants and opposition to education cuts. De la Libertad backs improving education and helping small-business owners. Alvarez, 36, calls for more public safety and after-school help.

All three have talked about helping the large uninsured population in the district, and all support abortion rights. Solorio and Alvarez support increasing the minimum wage. De la Libertad would study the issue more before voting, he said.

On driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, there is disagreement.

Alvarez supports the bill pushed by Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) that would give undocumented workers permission to drive. But the card could not be used as legal identification for other purposes, such as boarding a plane.

Solorio opposes it without more safeguards against fraud, and De la Libertad said he would study the issue.

De la Libertad has the endorsement of Sanchez. Alvarez and Solorio have many endorsements from Assembly members. Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido has endorsed Solorio. At a state Democratic Party convention last weekend in Sacramento, the party followed the recommendation of Orange County delegates and endorsed de la Libertad.

Alvarez leads the way in fundraising, with $142,000 collected by late March, compared with $100,000 by Solorio and $92,000 by De la Libertad.

Alvarez has received major backing from insurance companies, developers and medical associations. Solorio has major donations from unions and small businesses. De la Libertad has relied on numerous individual donations.

The winner of the Democratic primary is likely to win the general election against Republican Ryan Gene Williams, a community college student.

Because of the district’s overwhelming Democratic registration and voting patterns, the primary election will decide the race, said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant and publisher of the California Target Book, which analyzes congressional and legislative races.

“The question becomes, who does De la Libertad take votes from? It’s really a tossup between Alvarez and Solorio, and I’d give a slight nod to Solorio,” Hoffenblum said. “Those supported by labor coalitions tend to win Democratic primaries.”

Barbaro, the Democratic county chairman, disagreed and said Alvarez may have the edge.

“The Claudia strategy is to let the men divide the vote, and that is not a bad strategy,” he said.

Rueben Martinez, a longtime Democratic activist who owns the bookstore Libreria Martinez, said the competition among the three Democrats showed how Latinos had matured as politicians who get support from a wide range of voters.

Decades ago, Latino voters “didn’t have choices. There could only be one Latino candidate,” Martinez said.

Martinez is endorsing De la Libertad because he asked first, but he says all three “are sharp. They have high energy levels. They have thoughts and they have dreams.”

Alvarez moved to Santa Ana from Mexico when she was 10. She has spent nearly six years on the Santa Ana City Council and has been an assistant district attorney at the Orange County district attorney’s office for seven years.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice/political science from Cal State Fullerton and a degree from Loyola Law School.

Alvarez wants after-school help for children and more computer skills offered for adults and youth.

She also boasts of her work to increase public reporting of sex offenders’ locations and wants to work on getting help for uninsured children and their families. The Santa Ana City Council gave initial approval Monday to her proposal to restrict where sex offenders may live in the city. A final vote is set for May 15.

“I can relate best to the constituents because I shared the experience they are living,” Alvarez said. “Of course, once elected, I will be representing everyone.”

De la Libertad hopes to capitalize on the Sanchez endorsement, plus name recognition earned as a Wells Fargo Bank vice president based in Santa Ana.

At the bank, he designs community lending and investment programs to support low-cost housing, financial literacy, small-business development and job training. He has worked as a district manager for Sanchez and for the U.S. Census Bureau.

De la Libertad, who was born in Fullerton to immigrant parents, earned a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1996. He also holds a civil engineering degree from UC Berkeley.

After pulling out of the Umberg-Alvarez Assembly race in 2004, De la Libertad jumped in early in 2006, holding several fundraisers before Solorio had even declared himself a candidate.

De la Libertad wants to focus on the uninsured, job training, small-business loans and education.

Since June 2005, “I’ve been contacting voters steadily, personally and at events. We believe the race is up for grabs,” he said.

In 2000, he changed his last name from Ramirez to a name that means “liberty” in Spanish. “I made a personal and public commitment to the value my wife and I cherish most, which is liberty,” he said. “It’s the founding principle of democracy.”

Solorio came from Mexico with his migrant farmworker parents. He attended UC Irvine and was student body president in 1991. After graduating from UCI with a bachelor’s degree in social ecology in 1992, Solorio earned a master’s degree in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government in 1995.

Returning to Orange County, he held jobs in marketing and advertising before taking his current job as a marketing administrator at the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Solorio ran unsuccessfully for the Santa Ana City Council in 1996 and won in 2000, at age 29. He was reelected in 2004. Solorio wants to promote the teaching of English, fight gangs and create jobs.

With endorsements from leaders in several Orange County cities, Solorio boasts that he works well to build consensus.

“I think I have a proven track record of leadership on the City Council that prepares me to work in the state Assembly,” Solorio said. “I think I work well with others.... That differentiates me from my opponents.”