Latino Leaders Say They Feel Ignored by L. B. Candidates

LONG BEACH —  Mayor Ernie Kell points to support from black ministers, Luanne Pryor is a member of the NAACP and Councilwoman Jan Hall says she toured the offices of a Cambodian social service agency.

But somewhere along the way, Latino leaders say they have either been forgotten or ignored by the candidates.

“None of the candidates have approached us. They have not approached any of the Latino leaders,” said Irma Archuleta, president of the Long Beach Council of League of United Latin American Citizens. “It seems to me, this time they are not interested in considering the Latino community.”

Hall, Kell and Pryor deny they are ignoring Latinos. They say they have not received invitations to appear before LULAC or other Latino groups.

But the Latino complaints raise questions about the mayor’s race in the April 12 primary election: To what extent are the candidates reaching out to minority groups? And if a candidate gets the message through, will minorities flock to the voting booths?

All three major candidates have long-time roots in Long Beach, a city that bears little demographic resemblance to its past. The city of burger joints and chicken pie shops now sports Thai restaurants and Super Mex. The city’s white majority is shrinking--from 74.7% of the population in 1980 to an estimated 68.3% in 1987. It is headed for a projected 63.3% of the population in 1992.

Minority groups are gaining. Blacks are expected to nearly double their share of the population, from 11.3% in 1980 to 16.4% last year to 20.3% next year. The Latino population is rising more modestly, from 14% in 1980 to 15.6% in 1992.

And other racial minorities, including Asians, are on the rise from 14% of the population in 1980 to 16.4% in 1992, according Donnelly Demographics of Stamford, Conn., based on U.S. Census data. (The percentages do not equal 100% because because of overlapping groups.)

Against that backdrop, the city power structure remains almost as white as the days when Long Beach was a refuge for snow-weary Iowans. The school board is white except for John Kashiwabara, an Asian-American. The City Council is white except for Councilman Clarence Smith, a black whose District 6 is the most ethnically diverse in the city.

All of the nine candidates seeking to become the city’s first full-time, citywide elected mayor since 1912 are white. Kell and Hall represent council Districts 5 and 3 respectively--largely white, middle- and upper-middle class areas on the city’s east end. Minorities are scarce at the lavish fund-raisers they have thrown that have raised record campaign war chests.

Publishes Magazine

Pryor, a public relations executive, has launched her candidacy from the 2nd District where she publishes a classy magazine for fellow residents of the affluent Bluff Park area.

While they anchor their campaigns with traditional white support, all three major candidates say they recognize the changing face of Long Beach and are trying to broaden their efforts in minority neighborhoods.

Whether those efforts will pay off in votes is yet to be seen. Only 25% of the registered voters turned out in the 6th District for the August, 1986, special election in which Smith was elected.

Leaders of black and Latino organizations acknowledge that their groups are not cohesive as they would like, nor are they fully mobilized for the primary election.

Former Long Beach NAACP President Frank L. Berry said most of the voter registration and turnout effort in the black community will be geared toward June when Jesse Jackson will be on the Democratic presidential preference ballot. That could affect the mayoral race if there is a runoff, but would not affect the primary election.

Latino leaders say their voting bloc is ill-defined and turnout is perceived as being low. The city’s Latino organizations have not banded together or created a political arm to exercise their muscle with candidates for Latino causes. Armando Vazquez-Ramos, executive director of the Pan American Center in Long Beach, said the Chicano Political Caucus, once a spark plug for Latino political activities, has disbanded.

David Dominguez, president of the Hispanic Business Assn./Chamber of Commerce, said the Latino community has to show more clout on election day. “I think it’s going to require that the Hispanic community (see) that raw numbers and statistics don’t mean a damn thing if you don’t make them work as a power bloc,” he said.

‘Can’t Fault’ Candidates

Because Latinos remain politically unorganized, Dominguez said he “can’t fault” candidates for ignoring them. But other Latino leaders do not take the cold shoulder as well.

“They are paying attention to other communities, mainly black and Asian, but not the Hispanic community,” complained Roberto Uranga, Long Beach LULAC vice president, board secretary to the Hispanic Business Assn./Chamber of Commerce and a school board candidate.

Uranga said none of the mayoral candidates is addressing Latino issues. Latinos are sorely under-represented in the city government work force. A city study shows that of 4,168 municipal employees, 16% are black; 9.5% Latino and 5.5% Asian. More community services also are needed that cater to Latino households, said Uranga, a city personnel analyst running for the 2nd District seat of the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees.

“I think I can say in general there has been no effort by any candidate for mayor to reach out for a Latino constituency,” Vazquez-Ramos said.

Kell said he has tried to appeal to the Latino community. But he acknowledges that his Latino support is weaker than it is among other minority groups. “I probably don’t have as much of the Hispanic community as I do the black community,” he said, adding that he cannot explain the phenomenon.

Hall said she has tried to address Latino issues through her work as a city councilwoman. She said the council’s Personnel and Civil Service Committee, which she chairs, recommended that the city aggressively recruit more Latinos.

Both Hall and Kell said that if the Latino community is interested in reaching the candidates, they should invite them to functions. Archuleta said LULAC feels that the candidates should reach out.

‘Need Our Vote’

“They are the ones who need our vote,” she said. “They’re the ones who should come to us.”

In the race for mayor, there has been one recent bid for Latino votes. Pryor delivered her closing statement at a League of Women Voters mayoral debate last Saturday in both English and Spanish. Pryor said she delivered a Spanish-language closing statement because “I wanted to reach out and tell them I care about them.”

But LULAC’s Archuleta derided the action as “patronizing” because it was not accompanied by any plan for addressing Latino issues.

Among blacks, Kell has the coveted endorsement of Councilman Smith. Smith said his primary reason for supporting Kell is the backing the mayor has given him in advancing his programs and ideas on the City Council.

Kell also said several prominent black ministers back him.

“I have fairly good rapport with the mayor,” said the Rev. John McClung, a Kell supporter who is pastor of the Living Word Missionary Baptist Church, which has a heavily minority congregation of about 200. “I know that he has more or less targeted the central area quite a bit.”

But the NAACP’s Berry, who is 32nd Congressional District coordinator for Jesse Jackson’s campaign, said: “Kell hasn’t been very responsive to the needs of the black community.” Although the NAACP does not endorse candidates, Berry said he backs Pryor, a member for three years, over Kell and Hall.

“Pryor has the most to say that relates to the concerns and problems of the black community. The other two seem to be carrying on business as usual,” Berry said.

NAACP President Joseph Kennerson said that he, too, supports Pryor. Pryor and candidate Bud Huber are the only two candidates who have endorsed the idea of a civilian police review board to oversee the Police Department, a position strongly supported by the NAACP.

The Cambodian community, which has grown to an estimated 10% of the population in only a few years, is being actively courted by the candidates.

Than Pok, executive director of the United Cambodian Community, said Hall has asked about problems and toured the offices, that he attended a Kell fund-raiser and that Pryor sent a packet information about herself, but that he has not read it yet.

He said Cambodian Americans are concerned about crime and looking for ways to move into the mainstream.