NEWS
photo by MATTHEW FLEISCHER
trunk in public
The Cudahy Booze Cruise Electioneering has never been this much fun By Matthew Fleischer The old man looks nervous. I can’t say that I blame him. We’re sitting in the back of a stretched Escalade limousine, surrounded by somber men in dark suits and sunglasses. It’s Election Day in the Southeast L.A. County city of Cudahy, and campaign fliers for incumbent mayor David Silva and his running mate Josue Barrios sit in a pile next to the old man. He picks one up and holds it between his legs with both hands, fiddling with it like a charm. Stockpiled in front of us is an impressive selection of booze: Patrón
tequila, Rémy Martin and several bottles of champagne. Since the polls opened this morning, this limousine has gone house to house, picking up voters, and dropping them off at the polls. Judging from the collection of used glasses filling the limousine’s cup holders, they had a pretty good time while doing so. For the past 20 minutes, the limo has been camped in front of City Hall, right next to a polling station. Outside, as voters stream by, more men in suits gather by the entrance to the building, chatting gregariously. Speaking only
for myself, they project an air of menace and authority. Most are city employees, like two-time felon and Cudahy administrative clerk Gerardo Vallejo. Police officers drive by and wave to Vallejo. This is not particularly reassuring. On a previous trip to Cudahy, several weeks ago, I saw a city vehicle packed with the mayor’s campaign signs parked in front of Vallejo’s house. That’s a violation of County election law – using city resources to promote one candidate over the other. No charges were ever
LACITYBEAT 4 MARCH 12-18, 2009
brought, however. A county official in the D.A.’s office declared the infraction “minimal and incidental.” This is just the second election in Cudahy in the past decade. The last election in 2007 was marred by reports of gang presence at the polls. In that election and this one, candidates running against the status quo have faced death threats, arson and vandalism of their homes and property. Despite nearly a dozen such incidents in the past two years, the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder has refused to send an election monitor to Cudahy. In their absence, I’ve come to Cudahy to look for violations of election laws. I’m no lawyer, but it sure seems to me like I’m sitting in an election violation right now. My laissez-faire attitude toward fashion and basic personal hygiene make it a stretch to peg me as a reporter, and get me inside the limo. But my attempts to strike up a conversation with the men in suits go unanswered. It could be because I’m a six-foot-two scruffy white guy in a city that’s 95 percent Latino. I’m not exactly inconspicuous. As the doors to the limo shut, and we start to drive away, I’m nervous. One week earlier I’d written a story comparing Cudahy to Afghanistan. Not a good way to make friends. And this is not a good town to be friendless in. Nearly a third of the police force that patrols Cudahy had ethical violations on their records when they were hired or have run into trouble while on the force. Crime reports for the last 30 years show that Cudahy is a major gateway for drug trafficking – not just in L.A. but throughout the country. At least four known gangs control the city streets by night. In my mind one, and perhaps only one, thing is clear: looking out the tinted windows of a stretch limo,