http://www2.nando.net:80/noframes/story/0,2107,500055031-500090451-500327591-0,00.html
Los Angeles mayoral candidate traveled unlikely path
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press
By MICHELLE DeARMOND
LOS ANGELES (November 9, 1999 6:48 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Growing up on the rough streets of East L.A., Antonio Villaraigosa was not the sort of guy who worried about maintaining his "political viability," as a young and ambitious Bill Clinton once put it.
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REAL PEOPLE AGAIN..........."  |
| Former MEChA leader Antonio Villaraigosa with Mexican leader Ernesto Zedillo. The only one missing in this arrogant lot is Gray Davis. Now foreign nationalist Villaraigosa has decided to run for mayor of an illegal alien bloated Los Angeles. |
Villaraigosa dropped out of high school, spent time as a tattooed lowrider, fathered two out-of-wedlock children with different women and had a run-in with the law. Since then, however, he has become a lawyer*, speaker of the state Assembly and one of California's rising political stars.
Now he is planning to run for mayor of Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city. And he believes his past - and willingness to admit his mistakes - give him an edge.
"I think we're looking for real people again," said Villaraigosa, a 46-year-old second-generation Mexican-American. "The truth is so many people have been turned off by politicians who say, `I smoked pot, but I didn't inhale.'"
If successful in 2001, he would be the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar left office in 1872.
More important, he could emerge as a national Hispanic leader able to capitalize on the changing demographics of both California and the country. Nationwide, Hispanics will become the largest minority group - ahead of blacks - by the end of 2004.
The demographics have already shifted in Los Angeles, where Hispanics make up 54 percent of the city's 3.8 million people - but only a fifth of its registered voters.
"Getting one's ethnic group members elected is still the No. 1 indicator of political integration of any community," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute near Los Angeles. "He would really become prominent on the national stage among all Latino communities."
Despite growing numbers, Hispanics still have few national leaders with name recognition. Henry Cisneros was one. But the former U.S. housing secretary fell from grace in a scandal involving false statements to the FBI about money he paid a former mistress. He now serves as president of the Spanish-language television network Univision.
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LOS ANGELES MAYOR?  |
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Washington demanding amnesty for millions of illegal aliens (Clip From "Bonds of Our Union")  Remember what Mario Obledo said... |
Other prominent Latino politicians include Aida Alvarez, head of the Small Business Administration; Energy Secretary Bill Richardson; and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas.
"At this moment in the country, we're blessed with a reservoir of bright, young Latino talent. Antonio is among the best," said Cisneros, whose election as mayor of San Antonio in 1981 catapulted him to national prominence.
Villaraigosa is reluctant to cast himself as a Hispanic leader, which is partly a reflection of political reality. He has expressed interest in serving as a U.S. senator or governor, neither of which he could win by catering solely to Hispanic voters.
"You're damn right I'm for Latinos, because for a long time nobody did, and I'm proud of that," he said. But he said he doesn't need to be reminded "every two minutes" of his ethnicity.
To succeed Mayor Richard Riordan, a conservative white Republican businessman who must step down after two four-year terms, the liberal Democrat may have to "be a lot more moderate than he's used to be being," said Bill Mabie, chief aide to state Sen. Richard Polanco, another prominent Hispanic from Los Angeles.
Villaraigosa opposes the death penalty and supports gay civil rights.
Of the seven candidates in the race so far, only City Attorney Jim Hahn, a Democrat, is widely known.
Villaraigosa was elected to the Assembly in 1994 from a largely Hispanic district that includes his birthplace. He was booted from one high school and dropped out of another, fathered the two children before he was 25 and was acquitted of assault for a fight in which he said he was defending his mother. His alcoholic father left the family.
But he eventually finished high school, graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles - thanks to affirmative action, he notes - and earned a law degree.
Villaraigosa was a community activist, then a labor leader, investigator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
As a politician, Villaraigosa has demonstrated flexibility and gained a reputation for building coalitions. He helped devise a record $9.2 billion school bond ballot measure with the Assembly's former GOP leader that voters later approved.
* - From everything
I have read, Villaraigosa failed the bar exam three times.
He is not a lawyer.
Glenn Spencer
