The Election That Wasn't

Allan Hoffenblum, a Los Angeles expert on legislative races in California, says, “If Dymally wins that senate seat, then ‘business’ will never get another vote from Dymally. So the business community is taking a real risk backing Rod Wright.”

In the most stark example of ethnic political kingmaking, the Eastside machine led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pressured two already-announced Latino candidates out of the race for the 46th Assembly District — a choice seat soon to be vacated by the termed-out Fabian Núñez.

Villaraigosa wanted an easy victory for his first cousin, former labor honcho John Perez, another openly gay candidate. Soon after that, says Hoffenblum, two viable Latino candidates, political aides Arturo Chavez and Ricardo Lara, “got the call from the big boys, deciding to winnow the field.”

Chavez and Lara dropped out several weeks ago. Now, the mayor’s first cousin is almost assured victory in June and November.

With all the hardball local politics unfolding, a relatively polite battle is under way for Senate District 23, to replace the departing Sheila Kuehl in a bizarrely shaped district that snakes roughly from the Grove shopping mall on Fairfax over the mountains to Oxnard.

Lefty enviros Lloyd Levine and Fran Pavley are running solid races, but the quiet and unassuming former Assemblywoman Pavley, who gained a reputation for working with both parties and co-authored the major anti-global-warming legislation, is considered the front-runner by many.

Levine hasn’t done himself any favors, proposing often-bizarre laws, including banning incandescent light bulbs and requiring pets to be neutered, and earning himself titles like Lloyd Levine (D-Outer Space).

With the June 3 election whittled to almost nothing by Núñez and Perata, Hoffenblum sums up the L.A. legislative races like this: “The Democratic voters are starting to feel like superdelegates. That’s how much attention and money is being spent on the few who will actually vote.”

* Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Isadore Hall's name. We regret the error