Election to Give Latinos New Political Clout in San Diego : Politics: Redrawn district will elect City Council member under rules designed to end dilution of ethnic group’s voting power.

SAN DIEGO — In a special election today in this border city where one in five residents is Latino, voters will do something they have never done before: elect a Latino to the City Council who has not been handpicked by the Anglo Establishment.

Although the nine candidates in the 8th Council District generally shy away from such expectations, some political observers say that the election will spur Latinos to greater political involvement in the state’s second-largest city.

“It’s going to take several elections like this to get Latinos more involved, but this is a start,” said Art Madrid, who as mayor of La Mesa is San Diego County’s most prominent Latino elected official. Once a top assistant to then-San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, Madrid served three terms on the La Mesa City Council before becoming mayor of that suburban city.

At stake today is a seat from the poorest and most southerly of San Diego’s eight council districts, stretching from San Ysidro at the international border to the inner-city neighborhoods of Barrio Logan and Golden Hill in the shadow of downtown.

In the 1990 census, the 8th District had a population of 61.5% Latino, 19.3% Anglo, 8.8% African-American and 9.8% Asian-American. Citywide, the figures were 20.7% Latino, 58.7% Anglo, 8.9% African-American and 11.1% Asian-American.

In what is a common story throughout California, Latinos in San Diego have yet to grab a share of the political power commensurate with their growing numbers.

Although Latino students make up 29.8% of the enrollment in the San Diego school system, there has never been a Latino school board member. With the recent retirement of Assemblyman Peter Chacon, there are no Latino state legislators from San Diego.

Twice in the past 20 years Latinos have been appointed by the City Council to fill vacancies in the 8th District, but both appointments ended in political disgrace.

Jess Haro, an importer, was appointed in 1975 but removed in 1978 after pleading guilty to lying to the U.S. Customs Service about the value of goods imported from Mexico. Uvaldo Martinez, an urban planner, was appointed in 1982 but removed in 1986 after pleading guilty to misusing a city credit card to buy meals and drinks.

Although Martinez and Haro self-destructed, three Anglos who held the 8th District seat during the past two decades used it to launch successful campaigns for higher office. The most recent is Bob Filner, elected in November to Congress. Today’s special election is to pick a successor to Filner.

The cumulative effect of the Haro and Martinez scandals, and the steppingstone strategy of Filner and the two others, has been political instability in the 8th District that some observers say has kept the district from developing clout at City Hall to overcome mounting problems of drugs, gangs and crime.

“No other part of the city would tolerate a situation where people can’t go to the store, can’t go to church, where there’s no safe path,” said candidate Michael Aguirre, 43, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice who lost to Filner in 1987.

“This district has been a dumping ground for everything that other districts didn’t want,” said candidate Juan Carlos Vargas, 31, an attorney and former Jesuit novice. “Other districts get streets and sewers. We get homeless shelters, halfway houses and crisis shelters.”

Their “stepchild-no-more” rhetoric appears to be taking hold. A poll published recently in the San Diego Daily Transcript, a legal newspaper, showed Aguirre and Vargas in a virtual dead heat.

Trailing but within striking distance were Andrea Skorepa, 44, a community activist, and Francisco Estrada, 39, a former aide to Filner. Other candidates were far back, including one, Pedro Moreno, 40, a deputy city clerk who calls himself the only “homeboy” because he has never lived outside the district. Also running are Daniel Clark, an aeration consultant; Jim Perez, 39, bus district information specialist; Lincoln Pickard, 51, a property manger, and Raul Silva-Martinez, 42, a lawyer.

Although Latinos make up 61.5% of the district’s population, they account for about one-third of the registered voters, a fact attributed to apathy and a youthful population.

Because of the district’s ethnic diversity, the campaign has seen a multicultural blend that is rare in San Diego. A flyer for one of Estrada’s campaign events promised “Latin music, African-American drums, (and) Filipino dancing.”

The district’s problems have bred a kind of rough-edged humor. Vargas tells stump audiences: “I’m the guy who stands on your street corner and is not selling drugs.” And Skorepa warns: “Having a gang member in your house is God’s way of telling you that your family is severely messed up.”

Changes in the way politics is played in San Diego have set the stage for the vote.

One change was a voter-approved amendment in the City Charter in 1988 that mandated that council members be elected solely from districts. For half a century, San Diego had used a hybrid system where council primaries were held in the district but runoff elections were citywide.

The amendment was approved after a lawsuit by the Chicano Federation of San Diego County alleged that the citywide format was discriminatory because no Latino had been elected to the council without first having been appointed.

To settle the lawsuit, the City Council agreed in 1991 to redraw council boundary lines to include the largest possible percentage of Latinos in the 8th District, thus maximizing the chance of a Latino being elected.

Madrid said whoever is elected today will be thrust into a prominence shared by Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez as bright lights of the Latino political movement.

The candidates, however, are downplaying such talk.

“That’s flattering,” Skorepa said, “but it’s also sad when you think we’ve got so precious few Latino elected officials to pick from.”

San Diego Special Election

San Diego voters today will choose the city’s first elected Latino city council member. At stake is a seat from the 8th District, stretching from San Ysidro at the international border to the inner-city neighborhoods of Barrio Logan and Golden Hill.