viernes, 18 de agosto de 2017
miércoles, 16 de agosto de 2017
Special election dates set in 51st Assembly District
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| This map shows the urban area of the state's 51st Assembly District in Los Angeles. |
By Alfredo Santana
Wave Newspapers
LOS ANGELES — The countdown to replace Jimmy Gomez in the
state’s 51st Assembly District officially kicked off July 24 as Gov. Jerry
Brown set Oct. 3 and Dec. 5 for a special primary and general election that
will be the third political campaign of the year for many Eastside voters.
The special election lines up six
Democrats in search of the Assembly seat, some with vast public and political
experience and others with professional medical backgrounds willing to pave the
way for a single payer’s health care plan, the program administered by the
government that would enroll medical providers to provide universal coverage,
with only one financial source for all payments.
Among the
potential candidates are Ron Birnbaum, a dermatologist; Luis Lopez, a director
at City of Hope cancer research and treatment center in Duarte; Francisco
“Franky” Carrillo, who was recently released from prison after serving more
than 20 years for a murder conviction that was reversed by a judge; Gabriel
Sandoval, an attorney who served in the U.S. Department of Education during the
Obama administration; Wendy Carrillo, a journalist who recently ran for the
34th Congressional District seat; and David Vela, a former member of the
Montebello school board.
Birnbaum
is a Navy veteran and the son of Argentinian immigrants. He launched his
campaign with a platform to change the landscape in California’s health care
services, and pledged to overhaul a “broken system” into one that covers the
poor, immigrants, minorities and gays and lesbians, in the heels of continuous
threats from the Republican Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“We spend
twice as much as most other nations on health care, but get heart-breaking
results,” Birnbaum said. “And it’s even worse in California. I can no longer
just toil on the sidelines and instead declare, with this great central purpose
of reforming health care, my run to represent you in the California Assembly.”
Lopez
started his bid for the Assembly seat on April 5, the day after primary results
pitted Gomez, now the 34th Congressional District representative, against
attorney Robert Lee Ahn.
In a
contentious 2012 campaign, Lopez lost the 51st Assembly District seat to Gomez.
Lopez disclosed he has $100,000 in cash for this year’s contest, and reported
June 30 he had $110,000 in total contributions.
“I heard
from neighbors that they wanted a community leader to build a progressive,
grassroots campaign about real-life issues facing so many: access to health
care, affordable housing, homelessness, environmental justice and access to
well-paying local jobs,” Lopez said.
Carrillo
is married with three children. He was convicted in the 1991 drive-by-shooting
killing of Donald Sarpy in Lynwood. After he served 20 years in jail, the court
reversed his life sentence when a witness recanted his testimony and the judge
presiding over the trial concluded there was no reliable evidence Los Angeles
sheriff’s detectives could have identified Carrillo as the prime suspect out of
six teenagers allegedly involved in the crime.
A year
ago, county supervisors awarded Carrillo $10.1 million for the 20 years was
imprisoned. Carrillo enrolled at Loyola Marymount University and earned a
bachelor’s degree.
“Because
of my experience, I am uniquely positioned to represent families who are
struggling to earn a living, find good schools for their children, and maintain
faith in the face of adversity,” Carrillo told radio station KPCC.
Sandoval
is a partner with the law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. He
worked with President Barack Obama as a civil rights lawyer at the U.S.
Department of Education and was an advisor to former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, who has endorsed him for the Assembly seat.
“I’m
running for the 51st District … because our community deserves a fighter who can
hit the ground running when it comes to standing up to the Trump administration
and advocating for our community’s interests and values,” Sandoval said.
Carrillo
worked as a communications aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders in last year’s
presidential campaign. A first-generation immigrant from El Salvador, she was
brought here as an undocumented immigrant by her parents and was taught that
hard work and community involvement would eventually pay off with important
accomplishments.
Carrillo
ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 34th Congressional District seat earlier
this year.
“I’ve been
on the frontlines of environmental justice, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights,
immigration rights and social justice movements,” she said. “I will fight for
gender pay equity, sexual assault prevention and against domestic violence.”
Vela
currently serves as senior vice president of Lee Andrews Group, a public
engagement company in Los Angeles that tailors messages coupled with visual
material for businesses and public agencies.
He already
has raised $105,529 for the campaign. He pledged to resist and fight back
President Trump’s attempts to curtail civil rights against all residents of
California, proposed to delete fees for students enrolled at community
colleges, tackle environmental polluters posing rapid risks for climate change
and devise programs to offer affordable housing and healthcare for all.
“I plan to
run a grassroots driven, people and community powered campaign that’s
competitive, aggressive and heavily focused on neighborhood level issues,
district-wide issues and policies that impact our state as a whole,” Vela said.
The 51st
Assembly District falls in most of the same territory covered by the Los
Angeles City Council District 1, which witnessed a hotly contested fight in
March and May between Councilman Gil Cedillo and challenger Joe Bray-Ali.
In
addition, Gomez defeated Ahn June 6 for the 34th Congressional District seat
that was vacated last December when Rep. Xavier Becerra was appointed state
attorney general by Gov. Brown.
The
district includes the neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Lincoln
Heights, Silver Lake, El Sereno, Echo Park, Koreatown, parts of Montebello,
downtown Los Angeles, Chinatown, Pico-Union, Monterey Hills, Montecito Heights
and Cypress Park.
The area
has nearly 224,000 registered voters. About 71 percent of its residents are
Latinos, 14 percent Asians, 10.9 percent white and 2.3 percent are blacks.viernes, 11 de agosto de 2017
miércoles, 9 de agosto de 2017
martes, 8 de agosto de 2017
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