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Campaign 2005: Huizar Steals the Thunder
By TONY CASTRO, Staff Writer 09.NOV.05
City Elections: Villaraigosa gets two more strong supporters on the City Council.
School
board member Jose Huizar has proven Antonio Villaraigosa’s political
muscle, riding his coattails to an outright City Council victory that
consolidates the mayor’s power at City Hall and on the Eastside.
Huizar,
37, avoided a runoff in Tuesday’s city elections by defeating former
Councilman Nick Pacheco and eight other candidates to win
Villaraigosa’s former seat representing District 14.
Together
with former Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson’s expected easy triumph in
District 10, which includes south Mid-Wilshire and La Cienega areas,
Huizar’s election gave the mayor two additional supporters on the
council.
Villaraigosa endorsed Huizar, who also tapped into many
of the mayor’s fundraising sources to become the first immigrant to win
election to the Los Angeles City Council.
In the context of Los
Angeles’ Third World cultural diversity, the accomplishment rivals that
of the election of the first African American and first Latino almost
half a century ago to the City Council.
“The distinction is
significant and it shows that the immigrant is integrating into the
political system even quicker than anyone expected,” says Harry Pachon,
president of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of
Southern California.
For Huizar, the fourth of five children of
Simon and Isidra, who brought him to Los Angeles from Zacatecas, Mexico
when he was five, Tuesday’s election also marks another step in
realizing the American Dream that has included an undergraduate degree
from UC Berkeley, a law degree from UCLA and a master’s degree in
public affairs and urban and regional planning from Princeton.
With
all but one of 71 precincts reporting, yesterday morning, Huizar had
17,334 votes, or 54.38 percent of the vote, far ahead of Pacheco with
8,463 votes, or 26.55 percent.
None of the other eight candidates had more than 5.16 percent of the vote.
Running
with the backing of a majority of the City Council and the endorsement
of the Los Angeles Times, Huizar raised $436,625 for the campaign, more
than twice the amount raised by Pacheco.
For Pacheco, the defeat
— his third straight, including his 2003 loss to Villaraigosa — may
mark an end to his political career, which seemed promising in 1999
when he was elected to the seat.
His controversial 2003
campaign, including personal attacks against Villaraigosa’s family,
ended in him being roundly denounced in political circles — and
ultimately with limited backing in the Latino Eastside, given the
popularity and political rise of Villaraigosa.
 
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