Cedillo Leading in Bid to Succeed Caldera

In early returns, former union leader Gil Cedillo was leading fellow Democrat Vickie Castro in a special election Tuesday to fill the vacant seat in the 46th Assembly District.

With half of the district’s 45 precincts reporting, Cedillo, former general manager of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, had 2,449 votes, or 38.76%, officials from the county registrar-recorder’s office said.

Castro, a Los Angeles school board member, had 1,337 votes, or 21.16%.

Asked about his lead, Cedillo said: “It’s still very early, but obviously, I’d rather be ahead than behind.”

Democrat Ricardo Torres, a lawyer, was third in the early balloting with 852 votes, or 13.48%.

Republican Andrew Kim was the top vote-getter among the three GOP candidates with 845 votes, or 13.37%. Kim lost the race for the seat in 1996 to Louis Caldera, the three-term assemblyman who resigned in September to take a position in the Clinton administration. Tuesday’s election was called to fill his unexpired term.

The lone Libertarian on the ballot, computer repair technician Patrick Westerberg, had 97 votes for 1.54%.

If no candidate wins a majority of the ballots cast, the top vote-getter in each party will qualify for a runoff election Jan. 13. The winner of the Democratic primary would be considered the favorite, given that party’s huge majority in voter registration.

The district, which has the lowest number of registered voters of the state’s 80 Assembly districts--64,630--includes parts of the Eastside and downtown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, West Adams, Pico-Union and Koreatown. Registered Democrats outnumber Republican voters 4 to 1.

Castro, 52, was considered a front-runner early on because of her name recognition after serving six years on the school board. Endorsed by county Supervisor Gloria Molina, Castro stressed her support for bilingual education programs, the MTA subway project for the Eastside, and training and apprentice programs to provide jobs for residents.

She also was endorsed by Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and City Councilman Richard Alatorre, who usually opposes candidates supported by Molina.

For his part, Cedillo, 43, relied on his union background to gain the endorsement of several groups, including those that represent Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles police officers. During the campaign, he stressed his ability as a “coalition builder” to forge alliances with sometimes unlikely partners to get things done.

In a strange twist, Alatorre also endorsed Cedillo.

In addition, Cedillo gained the backing of Alatorre’s chief Eastside ally, Democratic state Sen. Richard Polanco, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Meanwhile, Torres, 33, sought to differentiate himself from the other candidates by pursuing what he termed a “pragmatic” agenda. Among other things, he called for City Councilman Mike Hernandez to resign because of his drug arrest, supported the use of court injunctions to fight street gangs, and asked Republicans in a mailer to vote for him, describing himself as the “right” Democrat in the race.

The other candidates, including Democrat Manuel J. Diaz, the three Republicans and Westerberg, the Libertarian, mounted largely grass-roots campaigns because they didn’t have the money or endorsements that Castro, Cedillo and Torres were able to obtain. Only a couple of them mailed out campaign literature to the district’s voters.

In recent days, Castro used her mailers to attack Cedillo over a variety of issues. One mailer questioned his contention that he graduated from UCLA. It pointed out that officials of the UCLA registrar’s office refused to confirm or deny whether Cedillo graduated because of “outstanding obligations” to the university.

Cedillo, who insisted that he graduated from the Westwood school in 1977 with a degree in sociology, later said that the obligations are fees he owes for overdue books, adding that he intends to pay them.

Last weekend, Cedillo cried foul when it was learned that the National Rifle Assn. paid $12,000 for a Torres mailer. Cedillo said the NRA has no role in an inner-city district where drugs, street gangs and guns are rampant.

Later, a Torres campaign official said the candidate had no control over what the NRA could do in the race because Proposition 208 allows such groups to independently spend money on behalf of a candidate.

Caldera left the Assembly post to become managing director of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that promotes volunteerism.

Times staff writers Erika Chavez and Amy Oakes contributed to this story.