by Alex Meneses Miyashita
Gloria Molina
Critics of the current supervisor district map of Los Angeles County are renewing efforts to presgoessure the U.S. Department of Justice to file suit against the county.
They are pressing for the five-member Board of Supervisors to be reconfigured to provide its Latinos, who make up about half of its 10 million residents, a significant say in county elections. They insist that federal involvement is essential to force a county that operates with a budget of more than $22 billion larger than about 80 percent of states— to redraw its district map.
The county hires more than 100,000 employees and its population is surpassed by only eight states.
The Justice Department declined to discuss the status of the request other than to say it is being reviewed.
Opponents of the current configuration argue that the voting clout of Hispanics is undermined since the large majority of them are contained in only one of five legislative districts.
The current plan disenfranchises Hispanics, they add, because while one of the voting districts had a Spanish-surname voter registration of 63.9 percent in 2006, all others were below 27 percent.
Their fight calls for a more balanced distribution of Hispanics in these districts.
The one majority Latino district is occupied by supervisor Gloria Molina.
That comprises Hispanic representation of only 20 percent in the county’s board of supervisors when the county as a whole is more than 47 percent Hispanic.
“You have the largest number of Latinos in the country outside of Puerto Rico whose vote is being diluted,” said Joaquin Ávila, an assistant professor of law at Seattle University and consultant in the case. “(It) is a major problem and it needs to be addressed.”
Scores of national and local Hispanic organizations are calling on the Justice Department to file a lawsuit in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The list of supporting organizations include the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the American GI Forum, the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA), The Latino Coalition, La Raza Lawyers Association of California and the Mexican-American Bar Association of Los Angeles County, among others.
Most recently, the HNBA sent a letter dated March 12 to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging the Justice Department to provide an update of the investigation.
The Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Association has spearheaded the call to have the districts redrawn since 2003. It has put together more than 3,500 pages over the years documenting the case and building its argument.
The LACCEA requests that two of the five supervisor districts have Spanish-surname voter registration of more than 50 percent.
“Those positions are really important,” said Cruz Reynoso, law professor at the University of California, Davis, and former associate justice of the California Supreme
Court. “It can form the base for higher political offices” for Latinos.
The Justice Department closed investigation of the initial 2003 request filed by the LACCEA in 2005. It reopened it in 2006.
Although the Department has not indicated when it will finish its review, supporters of the county’s redistricting say they remain optimistic given the federal government acknowledges it is investigating the issue. But they are not without concern.
“It’s taking too long for the Department of Justice to come to a decision,” Avila says.
The HNBA states in its most recent letter that it has “repeatedly urged the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct s careful raview of the LACCEA Complaint,” and expresses “deep concern and disappointment” on its lack of response.
Avila claims the evidence that has been presented shows a “very compelling pictura” that “elections in L.A. County are racially polarized.”
“It’s important to note that the over-concentration of Latinos in that supervisor district (# 1 ) is just growing,” he adds. “If we get it before a court, I’m vary confident that (it) would rule that such over concentration violstes section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
Alan Clayton, equal opportunity director for the LACCEA, said the county “could spend $20 million in defense of their current districts without worry,” adding, “The county has t:remendous resources. If the Department of Justice doesn’t sue them, I’m afraid they’re going to do nothing to change their current districts.” Hispanic Link.
