Posted on August 8, 2011

Bid for More Latinos on L.A. County Board Sets Up Fight

Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2011

An epic redistricting battle is shaping up at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that could result in the first nonwhite board majority in modern history and further reduce the clout of Republicans in county politics.

Latino activists are pushing for the county to create a second Latino-majority district, saying demographic shifts in the last decade demand it. Latinos now make up 48% of the county population, up from 45% in 2000, census data show. And Latinos constitute a third of the county’s potential voters, up from a little more than one in four a decade ago.

“I hope the board is going to recognize the demographic changes in this county,” said Gloria Molina, the county’s first nonwhite and first person of Latino heritage to be elected supervisor in more than a century. Molina won her seat two decades ago after civil rights groups prevailed in a legal fight that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Latino representatives successfully argued that supervisors had drawn boundaries since the 1950s to protect white incumbents and dilute the Latino vote.

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A plan backed by Molina and Latino activists would radically overhaul the districts of Republican Don Knabe of Cerritos and Democrat Zev Yaroslavsky of the Westside. Knabe’s largely white district, which hugs the county’s western and southern coastal edges, would be redrawn as the new majority Latino district, shifting deeply into Molina’s current district toward the eastern San Gabriel Valley.

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A second Latino district could also increase the liberal majority on the board. If four votes went to Democrats, they would suddenly gain a four-fifths majority, a critical threshold for decisions such as allocating money for competing programs.

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Knabe spokeswoman Cheryl Burnett said the plan adding a new Latino-majority district would be disruptive to constituents who have grown familiar with their supervisors over the last two decades. “The supervisors and their offices know the issues … and know what their constituents expect and need,” she wrote in an email response to The Times.

Burnett pointed to the success of Latino politicians such as L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “There’s nothing that currently prevents a Latino from running for, and being elected as, supervisor of any of the five county supervisorial seats,” Burnett wrote.

But Molina and MALDEF suggested that the county may be inviting another federal voting rights lawsuit if it chooses a status quo option.

To protect the rights of minority voters, the Supreme Court has ruled that, in certain circumstances, electoral bodies must draw districts that ensure a minority group “has the effective opportunity to elect … candidates of [its] choice,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt.

Latino political power is weakened because there are stark differences in voting patterns among different ethnic groups in L.A. County, Levitt said. Research shows that Latinos generally coalesce around a candidate and other groups often vote to defeat that candidate, he said. That is particularly pronounced in lower-profile local elections, he said.

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