Local News in Brief : Latino Activists to Challenge Bernardi
Two Latino political activists have announced that they will challenge Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi in the April municipal election in the heavily Latino East San Fernando Valley 7th District.
Irene Tovar, a former chairwoman of the Hispanic Caucus of the state Democratic Party, and Jose Galvan, past president of the Valley chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn., bring to four the number of challengers to Bernardi. Three are Latino.
The 7th District was redrawn in 1986 to increase the chances of election of a third Latino--the first from the Valley--to the 15-member council.
The district is projected to be 69% Latino by the 1989 election. But political experts say Latinos still have a long way to go to win the seat, noting that fewer than one-fourth of the Latinos in the district are registered to vote.
Nonetheless, some Latino politicians are reported to be interested in running as a way of building political support so that they will stand a better chance of winning the seat once it is vacated by the 76-year-old Bernardi.
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