He Paved the Way, Now He Makes Way

There is no doubt in my mind that Richard Alatorre could have been re-elected to the Los Angeles City Council if he had chosen to run. He could have raised the money and gotten the labor union support that counts for many votes in his 14th District, and he still has the guts and sheer nerve to win a tough campaign.

That said, there is also no doubt in my mind that Alatorre did the right thing in deciding not to run again for the Eastside seat he has held for the last 14 years.

It was the right choice for Alatorre, who has been burdened of late not just by investigations for alleged corruption but by a lapse back into cocaine abuse.

It was the right choice for Alatorre’s family--his wife and adopted daughter who have helped, by all accounts, bring stability into the personal life of a man who once lived as fast as any politician in town.

It was the right choice for Alatorre’s district, which he served faithfully, but which has begun to suffer as he became distracted and ever more deeply enmeshed in controversy.

Finally, it was the best thing Alatorre could do for the rest of the city’s Latino political leaders as they work to define a larger and, hopefully, productive and positive role for themselves in local civic affairs.

That final point has been overlooked in the many political obituaries and valedictories that have been written about Alatorre since he announced that he would not run for reelection. Nobody disputes the fact he was one of the founding fathers of modern Latino politics. But it is harder for his fellow politicos to openly acknowledge that the publicity about Alatorre’s troubles has become an obstacle to a greater role for Latinos in shaping local public policy.

I am not referring to politics. For, clearly, that is where Alatorre made his greatest contributions. From his days as a young aide in the state Legislature, he learned to play political hardball as well as anyone. He became such a consummate insider that twice his colleagues entrusted him with their very survival by allowing him to reapportion their districts. He did it once as an assemblyman and again after he was elected to the City Council in 1985. Both times he skillfully balanced the interests of incumbents against his own agenda and increased Latino political clout in the process.

Public policy is different. It comes after the politicking and is the far-less-glamorous work of finding consensus on complex issues like bringing businesses and new jobs to Los Angeles or updating the city’s charter or building a mass transit system that will get Angelenos out of their cars.

Alatorre had become increasingly ineffective on such issues as his problems mounted. Despite the fact he was a key member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, for example, two key projects in his beloved 14th District--whose residents are especially transit-dependent--would end up stalled.

The MTA is an agency with public-relations troubles of its own, of course. But it didn’t help matters when Alatorre came under federal investigation. The agency has since been forced to scale back a planned extension of the Red Line subway into Boyle Heights and halt construction on a Blue Line trolley extension through Lincoln Heights. Both projects may yet be saved, but it will be easier without Alatorre around.

Alatorre’s departure also will make life easier for the many Latinos who followed in his footsteps as political and civic leaders. Most of them publicly acknowledge his achievements. But they privately express concern that his troubles, along with last year’s cocaine-related arrest of City Councilman Mike Hernandez, had cast a shadow over all of them.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, who formerly represented the east San Fernando Valley on the council, often had to remind non-Latinos--even his own constituents--that he was not Richard Alatorre. Other, far less visible Latino activists have told me they held back from entering public life because they preferred not to expose themselves or their families to probing by the press.

It’s the news media who will probably miss Alatorre the most. Rather than focusing on his colorful style or his alleged wheeling and dealing, we’ll have to focus on the earnest policy wonks and idealistic activists who are lining up to run for his seat. And we’ll actually have to listen to what they say about the issues.

We’ll also have to study the real nuances of Latino politics rather than falling back on the lazy cliche that every political rivalry on the Eastside stems from Alatorre’s old feud with Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

If it’s any satisfaction to Alatorre--who was never really at ease with journalists--he also made our lives harder, not to mention quite a bit duller, by doing the right thing.