Some Mayoral Name-Dropping : Prominent Latinos Line Up Behind Bradley in Vote Drive

Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday opened his campaign to carry Los Angeles’ Latino neighborhoods with the help of a well-known Latino name, Jorge Jarrin, son of Jaime Jarrin, who broadcasts the Dodgers’ baseball games in Spanish.

Jorge Jarrin, the sportscaster’s eldest son and a Bradley coordinator in predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, was with the mayor at a breakfast at an Olvera Street restaurant attended by Latino elected officials, attorneys, physicians and business people who are supporting Bradley’s bid for a fourth term.

Jarrin was low man on the political seniority list, overshadowed by the Democratic political powers of East Los Angeles who joined the mayor in the Old Plaza area where Spanish colonial Los Angeles began. Sipping tasty Mexican hot chocolate and coffee at tables loaded with plates of spicy scrambled eggs were state Sen. Art Torres, considered a bright Latino hope for future statewide office; Assemblywoman Gloria Molina, the Legislature’s first Latina; Board of Education member Larry Gonzales and Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, the early favorite to succeed Eastside City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder, who says he is quitting in July.

But despite his youth and lack of political experience, Jarrin was a noteworthy participant, a sign of how Bradley and his campaign staff are trying to use grass-roots organizing to bring out a big Latino vote against his main foe, City Councilman John Ferraro, who is also planning to campaign hard in Latino areas.

As East Los Angeles coordinator, Jarrin, who was a Latino community coordinator for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, will recruit volunteers to man phone banks and work in the Bradley headquarters at 2325 Brooklyn Ave. in Boyle Heights, in the heart of East Los Angeles.

Jarrin’s ability as an organizer is expected to be enhanced by the fact that his father is one of the best-known Spanish-language broadcasters in the area, the Latino voice of the Dodgers, who is heard throughout the city each time the Dodgers play.

Also on hand was Jarrin’s boss, Robert Morales, Bradley field director who is on leave from Torres’ staff. His presence, as well as that of Torres as master of ceremonies, was evidence of the support of top-level East Los Angeles leadership for the Bradley campaign.

Cites Priority Issue

Bradley spoke of that leadership’s priority issue, an April 9 ballot measure he is backing to expand the Los Angeles City Council from 15 to 17 seats. It is designed to produce new councilmanic districts that would make it easier for a Latino and an Asian to be elected to the council, which now has no such representation.

Ferraro voted against the Bradley plan in the City Council and has said that he would support such an increase only if it would not increase city costs.

Replying to that, Bradley said, “I think it can be done without significant increase in cost. There are some who say ‘we don’t want to do it because it would be so costly.’ Not so; it need not be so. We are going to serve the same number of people with two additional elected officials. The staff which exists today . . . can simply be divided. No reason why cost should be a factor.”

Cost Not an Issue

Then he added, “Whatever the cost, democracy, the opportunity for equal representation is so important that (cost) ought not to be an issue.”

Bradley, replying to reporters’ questions, declined to back Alatorre’s effort to persuade a majority of the council to appoint him to Snyder’s seat if Snyder quits. Bradley said he favors a special election to fill the job. And, rather than pledging to endorse Alatorre, Bradley said he would not back anyone until East Los Angeles political leaders agree on a candidate.