Two Eastside Machines? Let’s Hope Not

Election-night parties can be very revealing. In the euphoria and relief that mark the end of a victorious campaign, candidates and their most ardent supporters often say, or do, things that they wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

That happened Tuesday night at the victory celebration for Gloria Molina, the Democratic assemblywoman from East Los Angeles who scored a surprisingly easy win over Board of Education member Larry Gonzalez for the right to represent the newly created 1st District, just north and west of the downtown area. It was an emotional night for Molina’s backers, who had a tough challenge in Gonzalez. Not only was he well-funded; he also had the support of two of the most powerful Latino political leaders in the city, Councilman Richard Alatorre and state Sen. Art Torres.

Amid the din of joyous celebration I was approached by a prominent Molina supporter who shouted into my ear, “Now there are two machines!”

Two machines? Dios mio! I hope not.

I suppose that heady reaction was to be expected from someone who worked hard to put Molina onto the City Council, where she will be the first Latina ever to sit in that 15-member body. Because Molina has successfully bucked Alatorre and his political allies several times before, her campaign seemed to attract every Latino activist who ever felt wronged or slighted by the “Eastside machine.” So maybe there’s an element of gleeful vengeance in talk of a “second machine.”

But in the clear light of day that always follows election-night revelry, Molina and her backers must realize that there’s no need for a second Latino political machine in Los Angeles. First, as I have pointed out before, the political clique that Alatorre and Torres lead is not really a “machine”in the sense that the word is understood in American politics. Alatorre and Torres can’t deliver elections the way the late Mayor Richard Daley used to in Chicago, or the way Tammany Hall’s operatives did in New York City at the turn of the century. Now, those were machines. Torres and Alatorre have an organization effective at fund-raising and campaigning, but it is not unbeatable--as Molina proved.

Even if one accepts the idea that Alatorre and Torres control a machine, does that justify creating a second one? That implies to me that Latino activists and voters in this city will henceforth have to march in lockstep behind the leaders of one or the other. Thankfully, that is not feasible in a community as diverse as the 4 million Latinos in the Los Angeles area are. In fact, one thing that I find encouraging about Molina’s victory is that it may finally convince outsiders that Latinos are diverse, and speak with different voices even on issues that they all agree on--not unlike Anglos, blacks and other ethnic groups. The idea that Latinos must rally behind one candidate in an election is out of date, unrealistic and downright condescending.

But the most important reason for not even thinking about a second machine is that it would make internecine political battles like the one between Molina and Gonzalez routine.

That may happen anyway, unfortunately. Molina is sure to support another Latino to take her Assembly seat in Sacramento, and Torres and Alatorre will probably back a candidate of their own. A similar face-off is likely in the election to fill the Board of Education seat that Gonzalez gave up.

Now, I can accept the fact that some political infighting is inevitable on the Eastside and in other large Latino communities. But lately this has started costing lots of money, a scarce resource too valuable for Latinos to waste. Molina and Gonzalez each spent more than $200,000 in a campaign that drew fewer than 12,000 voters to the polls. Why should Latinos, even well-heeled Latinos, be asked to ante up again and again in round after round of what is basically a contest for power?

Contests between candidates are the essence of democracy. Contests between machines for the glorification of the boss are something else. Of course, there may be rich Latinos who don’t mind paying for these intramural squabbles. But it would be a major step toward political maturity for Latinos if the successful and prosperous leaders of their community (attorneys, doctors, businessmen and the like) were to take some of the money that they donate to individual politicos and put it into an independent political-action committee.

There is no Chicano PAC in California, partly because most of the money that Latinos put into politics is given to politicians like Alatorre and Molina. And if they sometimes use it to play kingmaker, who can blame them?

But a Chicano PAC with money to spend on candidates (both Latino and non-Latino) or issues important to the community would add a whole new facet to the growing political clout that Latinos have in this country. And have no doubt that a Chicano PAC based in Los Angeles, where so much Latino wealth and talent is concentrated, would be a major force in the politics of not just California but also the Southwest and the entire nation.

Why, people might even start calling it a machine.