Students shake hands with L.A. Board of Education candidates Jackie Goldberg, left, and Heather Repenning, right, at the Southeast Rio Vista YMCA at Maywood Center on April 11 in Maywood.
The numbers underscore that even though Latinos now make up nearly half the population of Los Angeles, they still lag behind in voting rolls and political clout in parts of the city. Some Latinos in the school district are not citizens, so they’re not eligible to vote. But even among those who are qualified, voter turnout in the heavily Latino southeast portion of Board District 5 remains low.
And voters appeared to embrace Goldberg’s message. She carried almost half the vote, but Repenning edged out Graciela Ortiz, a Latina school counselor and Huntington Park City Council member who won almost every precinct in the southern part of the district, by just 31 votes.Goldberg, a veteran politician, has argued that she was the only candidate with enough name recognition to ensure a charter school-backed candidate would not be elected.
During the March primary election this year, there were nearly three times as many votes cast in the northern part of District 5 as in the southeast. Goldberg’s campaign office is in the northeast, she said, “because it’s 75% of the voters.” But if elected, she wants to set up her headquarters in the southeast because “I feel like [those residents] get left behind.”
Heather Repenning greets parent Perla Esparza at a meeting with parents and voters at Tierra Mia Coffee in Huntington Park. Both candidates said they would have multilingual staff and pay attention to issues that southeast voters have said are important, particularly special education, and continue soliciting feedback from southeast constituents, including candidates they defeated.
White trustees, meanwhile, “are more concerned with the involvement of the state and federal government in school policy.” Latino board members are also more likely to advocate for immigrant students’ needs and for more teachers and school leaders of color.
SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU BEEN IDENTIFYING ANY CANDIDATE BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN? YOU FORGOT BLUE EYES VS BROWN EYES!!!
Diversity only works when we want it to.
Progressive California! 😂😂
1. If there weren’t any Latinos interested in stepping up, why is this news? 2. What is the “ratio” of American citizens in this District?
Good luck gringos I’m tired of Latinos thinking they can do a better job in a Latino neighborhood same thing with blacks. I want the best candidate to win because our future is at stake
So what. This is why we have elections. What makes anyone think a white board member can't represent the interests of all ethnicities? LAT race baiting. Again.
sounds like a problem for the Democratic Party of Los Angles County, no?
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Source: latimes - 🏆 11. / 82 Read more »
Source: latimes - 🏆 11. / 82 Read more »