Supporters of a plan to help boost Latino representation on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors pushed back Tuesday against the suggestion that the Asian American community would suffer under their proposal.
Last week, a coalition of Asian American social service groups, many of which have contracts with the county, announced they supported Supervisor Don Knabe’s call to largely preserve current boundaries instead of drawing a second Latino-majority district.
The Asian groups warned that creating a second Latino district would dilute their influence. One leader criticized the two nonwhites on the board, Gloria Molina, who is Latino, and Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is black, for failing to pay attention to Asian American issues. They described Knabe as more responsive.
In an interview Tuesday, Ridley-Thomas said his plan to create a Latino-majority district also would give Asian Americans the greatest share of the electorate in a single district. Under his proposal, a northern county district now represented by Michael D. Antonovich would become 19.3% Asian American among potential voters –- the highest percentage of Asians in any district under any currently proposed plan. Molina’s existing East L.A. and San Gabriel Valley district has 18.2% adult-age Asian citizens.
No comments:
Post a Comment