" It was one of many high school visits that project workers are launching this year--all with the blessing of Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias. "
"But Perez said the classroom presentations are much more fruitful because they have captive audiences."
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Monday, December 1, 1997 d
Politics: Effort at churches and campuses aims to change the area's electorate by adding 35,000 to the rolls.
By HUGO MARTIN, Times Staff Writer
A nonprofit group has launched a drive to register 35,000 Latino voters in the San Fernando Valley, an effort that--if successful--could significantly reshape the area's political landscape.
To achieve its goal, the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project is relying on some unusual tactics, such as appealing to potential voters at high schools and community colleges and in churches with large Latino congregations. "We are just trying to pile up the numbers," said Antonio Gonzalez, executive director of the nonpartisan organization. "The Latino electorate in the San Fernando Valley is really going to surprise people."
The group is not going at it alone. It has teamed up with the influential Valley Organized in Community Events (VOICE) and the Mexican American Political Assn. "They have just about every Latino organization on board to help them register," said Xavier Flores, head of the Valley chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn.
If successful, the effort would add to the momentum Latino voters have gained at the polls in recent years.Latinos have made up a larger portion of the statewide electorate annually for the past three years. And last year, for the first time, Latinos in the city of Los Angeles had a higher representation at the polls than blacks.
The Valley has already seen the impact of a larger Latino vote. In 1993, Richard Alarcon became the first Latino elected to represent the Valley on the Los Angeles City Council. Last year, Tony Cardenas won office as the Valley's first Latino assemblyman. Southwest project officials estimate that about 30,000 Latinos in the Valley are registered to vote, but that more than 70,000 are eligible and unregistered.
Latino activists and political observers say the registration drive could redefine the political character of the Valley, where voters have traditionally been more conservative than those in the rest of the city and in the county as a whole. The Valley's conservative nature was clearly seen last year when its voters--particularly whites--strongly supported Republican Mayor Richard Riordan over his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Tom Hayden. Riordan won 74% of the Valley vote, in contrast to 60% citywide.
Also last year, Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure, got only 38.6% of the vote citywide but won the support of 53% of voters in City Council districts that are wholly in the Valley.
Although it is difficult--if not impossible--to predict how Latinos will vote in any particular race or for a specific ballot measure, their voting patterns show that the Southwest project's registration drive will probably benefit the Democratic Party.
According to a 1996 Times exit poll, 71% of Latino voters identified themselves as Democrats, with only 17% calling themselves Republican. The GOP is well aware of this lopsided trend and has launched an outreach program to register Latino voters in the Valley and in Ventura and Riverside counties. Part of that effort focuses on registering Latinos as they leave Catholic churches.
The California Republican Party is also putting a strong emphasis on reaching middle-class Latinos in the suburbs, who tend to be conservative on such issues as abortion, taxes and crime.
"The true test is who can win the heart and soul of the Latino middle class, which is exploding," said Mike Madrid, deputy political director for the state Republican Party. No one is suggesting that the Southwest project's registration drive will turn Latinos into a dominant voting force in the Valley. Instead, scholars and pundits say Latinos can make the biggest impact in close races in which they can swing the election one way or another.
Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Political Institute, compared the Latino vote to the kicking unit of a football team. "In a close game, the special teams could make the difference," he said. "That will be the role of the Latino vote."
Because of the potential to swing close races, the beefed-up Latino electorate in the Valley is expected to get much more attention from politicians.
One of the first tests of the impact of the registration drive will be the June primary race for the state Senate seat held by Democrat Herschel Rosenthal, who will be forced out of office next year if term limits are upheld. The two key hopefuls for the seat are former Assemblyman Richard Katz and Alarcon, who is seeking to be the first Latino state senator from the Valley. Both camps say they believe that Latino voters will make their decisions based on the track records of the candidates, not their ethnicity.
"People will vote for who will do the best job," said Katz, who previously represented a district that was 62% Latino. Alarcon agreed. "Latinos, like everyone else, want someone who will represent them across the board," he said. But ethnicity appeared to play a role when Alarcon won a close race in 1993 over Lyle Hall, a fire captain who is white. Although Alarcon ran neck and neck with Hall in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Alarcon led nearly 3 to 1 in precincts that were predominantly Latino. He beat Hall by 234 votes. * * *
In a break from its previous registration efforts, the Southwest project is making a concerted push to register young Latinos, particularly those between 18 and 24, who have one of the worst voting records of any age group.
Isai Perez, a Valley coordinator for the Southwest project and former aide to Cardenas, is on the front lines of this new effort. On a recent morning, he and Natalie Jaramillo, a project volunteer, appeared before the 30 or so students of Barbara Stawski's U.S. government class at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.
It was one of many high school visits that project workers are launching this year--all with the blessing of Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias. But rather than spend most of the morning preaching to the students, they played a slick, MTV-produced video with a hard-driving soundtrack that included oldies and rap music. The video flashed the images of actors Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales and Jennifer Lopez, all of whom urged the students--in Spanish and English--to register to vote.
When the presentation was over, nearly every student filled out voter registration applications provided by Perez and Jaramillo. "It was good," Della Zambrano, 17, said of the presentation. "Most people don't pay attention and don't think about voting."
In past registration drives in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the Southwest project has relied primarily on setting up tables outside supermarkets or walking door to door in heavily Latino neighborhoods. But Perez said the classroom presentations are much more fruitful because they have captive audiences.
So far, the group's Valley effort has yielded about 2,000 registered voters. Southwest project workers say they are careful to make sure that Latinos who register are U.S. citizens, have no felony convictions and are at least 18 years old. But they are also registering 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by the primary election June 2.
VCT note: How are they going to find out if someone is a U.S. citizen? They have consistently said that such questions are an invasion of privacy.