Third in a series
Re “Cubas Has a Tall Wall – of Color – to Scale in the 9th District”
[img]1900|right|Ana Cubas||no_popup[/img]As if he hadn’t entered the race last October with an acknowledged advantage over six rivals – largely because of his Sacramento profile –Curren Price roars into Tuesday’s runoff for the 9th Council District in South Los Angeles fueled by a vault full of funding poured in by the biggest labor players in town.
Using the same fiscal strategy in the March 5 primary, Mr. Price, however, only edged Ana Cubas by 275 votes, and she thinks she can flip that margin on Closing Day.
Jacketed against the early morning chill, Ms. Cubas is found in a no-frills ground-floor office at the rear of a graffitti’d building, the anti-glamourous side of running for office. You are not likely to ever find the tall, dapper Mr. Price in such a raw setting.
From the outside, the building looks abandoned, and all the way down the street you can hear the thumping sounds of a dance class loudly pounding out unavoidable sounds.
Inside, a fire is burning in Ms. Cubas, and it is manifested in calm, composed rhetoric.
Her opponent has the money and she has the difference-making desire, she says with the spunkiness of a rookie.
In the hardscrabble neighborhoods just south of downtown and just east of USC, it is of prime concern to many voters that Mr. Price is black and Ms. Cubas is Latina, a Salvadoran by birth who emigrated at the age of 10, 32 years ago.
The headline issue here is not jobs or school breakfasts or healthcare.
“Clearly this is about electing someone who can unite Latino and African American communities because of the demographic shift in the 9th (from majority black to majority Latino),” says Ms. Cubas.
To season an already sizzling pot, Mr. Price’s funding from corporate interests has dwarfed hers, some say 7 or 8 to 1.
“I want to emphasize my opponent’s donations,” says Ms. Cubas, “from chemical companies, tobacco companies, liquor associations.
His Values and Mine
“If you want to know about his intentions and values, you need to look at who he is indebted to. Those people will come collecting. They will come to him and say, ‘Okay, we supported you. We gave you millions of dollars. Now you need to help us.
“Fundamentally, that is the difference between us. It goes back to our core values. It goes back to why we are in it. I am in it to help the community. I believe he is in it to jump from one political office to the next. He is in it for himself.”
At this point, Ms. Cubas lifts one of her well-worn sneakers for a visitor to inspect the sole, where the ribbing nearly is worn down.
“By Election Day,” she said with a grin, “the bottoms should be flat, completely worn down.”
Campaign manager John Hill says the candidate is tireless in her door-to-door shlepping around, through and crisscrossing the 9th District.
When a resident answers her knock, Ms. Cubas has to talk fast. “I am running for City Council,” she says, “because I believe our district can be No. 1 in jobs and academic development, No. 1 in green space, No. 1 in the quality of education and No. 1 in the quality of city services. I need your help to implement that vision. I know there are a lot of needs in the district, and I will work very hard with you to be sure we make our vision a reality.”
(To be continued)
