August 20, 2000

Dear Mr. Netkin:

Although Antonio Villaraigosa may have at one time in his past leaned far to the left, he seems to have moved to the center. For example, having been a labor-union advocate, he is now a moderate who supports the Valley Secession Study and last year he refused to join Latino leaders in demanding that then school Superintendent Ruben Zacarias be retained, and refuses to join those attacking Police Chief Bernard Parks over the Rampart Division scandal.

Antonio Villaraigosa's past is the past, and should consider him a fair politician who is concerned about all the people of Los Angeles.

Name Withheld

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August 20, 2000

Dear Madam:

Thank you for your email letter.

Antonio Villaraigosa is a shrewd politician who knows how to hit the hot buttons of the various ethnic, religious, and political groups, who may disagree on some issues, in an effort to climb the ladder of politics. For example, he makes it widely known in the English language news media that he supports a woman's choice of abortion, But doesn't talk about abortion in the Spanish language news media because he knows the majority of Hispanic voters are against abortion.

I'm not clear as to why having been (and still is) a labor-union advocate and now supports the Valley Secession Study somehow brings him closer to the political center. -- it only shows his shrewd knowledge of which hot buttons to press for different groups.

Your letter which makes it seem that Villaraigosa has eased up on his advocacy of  labor-unions, is nullified when you consider that on June 11, 2000, Antonio Villaraigosa showed up in support of 20,000 mostly Mexican illegal immigrants gathered at the Sports Arena for an AFL-CIO sponsored "workers rights" rally. While Villaraigosa says he wants to create jobs in Mexico to solve the illegal immigrant problem, his appearance at the rally strongly suggests that he is still a left of center union advocate who is interested in unionizing illegal immigrants in California.

As far as joining other Latino groups in trying to retain Ruben Zacarias as School Superintendent, we again see that his decision was based on which way the wind was blowing. He sure got a lot of Latinos mad at him, but the issue of the collapse of education in California is being largely addressed by non-Hispanic voters and in this case, he was out to please them. Villaraigosa knows he can keep Latino radicals on hold without loosing their loyalty.

Running for mayor, Villaraigosa needs the support of Chief Parks.  Not joining up with radicals against the L.A. police is the politically right thing for him to do at this time if he wants to be mayor. But there's no telling what his attitude towards the police would be if he were to be mayor.

Hal Netkin

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