Latino Clout in San Fernando Vote : Redevelopment Issue May Cool Off

The overwhelming reelection of two San Fernando City Council members is expected to quiet the controversy over redevelopment of the city’s oldest Latino neighborhood, city leaders said Wednesday.

The campaign, which focused on redevelopment and housing conditions in the city’s south side barrio, also may have marked the beginning of what some believe is an era of Latino political clout. Voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was 35%, the largest in the last three municipal elections, with the highest turnout coming from the barrio.

Mayor James B. Hansen and Councilman Jess Margarito defeated challengers Beverly Di Tomaso and Paul Arnold by margins of more than 2 to 1 in an election that brought out 2,109 of the city’s 6,018 registered voters.

All four candidates said they were surprised by the lopsided results, which showed comfortable winning margins for Margarito and Hansen in all but one of the city’s 12 precincts. Hansen received 1,432 votes and Margarito received 1,387, according to final returns released Wednesday.

“The whole city voted for us,” Hansen said. “I had no way of knowing it was going to turn out this way.”

Di Tomaso, who received 665 votes, said the results were especially disappointing because “people on the streets gave me such positive responses. I really thought I had a shot.”

Arnold, who described himself as an underdog, received 588 votes.

Candidates Were Uncertain

A week before the election, incumbents and challengers predicted a close race and were uncertain how the voters on the city’s heavily Latino south side would respond at the polls.

A council-initiated proposal to put the south side neighborhood into redevelopment had touched off protests two months ago because residents feared they could lose their homes through eminent domain, the city’s power to take private property for public use and compensate the owners.

Di Tomaso, who was loosely aligned with Arnold, launched a tough anti-redevelopment campaign in the barrio, forcing Margarito to defend the proposal to angry constituents who had supported him in his 1984 election. This also put Hansen on the defensive in the south side because the two were campaigning together.

“I’m very proud of this community because this was an extremely tough campaign,” Margarito said. “But they were able to see beyond the negative issues spread by the challengers and supported our record.”

The incumbents received about four times as many votes as the challengers in the three south side precincts. Hansen and Margarito said their overwhelming victory in this area signals an end to the redevelopment controversy.

“People in barrio understand now that redevelopment is not a tool to displace them, but a tool to improve the area,” Margarito said.

A citizens committee that will recommend how the City Council should proceed with redevelopment will be able to study the issue objectively because the campaign “heat has been turned off,” Hansen said.

In evaluating the election, Margarito said the south side Latino vote proved to be extremely important and will continue to be for any candidate.

“We went almost 20 years without political representation and we are not going to forget it,” said Margarito, whose 1984 election was the first time in 18 years a Latino was elected to the council. “What we see now is a political empowerment in the south side.”

Hansen said he was pleased that he and Margarito received citywide support, which reinforced his feeling that “we are a united town.”

Both winners said they will continue to pursue established council goals. Margarito will push for citywide housing improvements and Hansen said he wants to form an anti-graffiti task force.