Tom Bradley's Rainbow ... The rainbow coalition was based o

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Poli 103A California PoliticsThe Battle of Los
Angeles II Old and New Rainbows
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Rainbows and the Politics of Race

• Tom Bradleys Rainbow
• The End of the Rainbow
• The Riots and Their Backlash
• Rainbows within Rainbows
• New Immigrant Coalitions

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Los Angeles City CoalitionsTom Bradleys Rainbow

• After losing to Sam Yorty in 1969, Tom Bradley
  defeated him in the 1973 mayors race. Black
  voters, Jews, and other Westside liberals
  coalesced behind Bradley.
• The rainbow coalition was based on the common
  goals of activist government and political
  inclusion, rather than any class solidarity.

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Los Angeles City CoalitionsTom Bradleys Rainbow

• The senior partners in the coalition were
  blacks and Jews.
• The percentage of city commission appointments
  going to blacks rose from 6 under Yorty to 20
  in 1991, and affirmative action expanded
  opportunity in jobs like police and fire
  departments.
• Jewish commission appointments rose from 9 under
  Yorty to 36 in 1991.

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Los Angeles City CoalitionsTom Bradleys Rainbow

• The junior partners in the coalition were
  Latinos and Asians.
• By 1991, Latinos made up 16 of commission
  members and Asian Americans made up 13, both up
  from negligible numbers under Yorty.
• Both groups also increase their proportions of
  city jobs.

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Los Angeles City CoalitionsTom Bradleys Rainbow

• The coalition fractured over growth.
• In order to gain financial support for his runs
  for the governorship in 82 and 86, Bradley
  became more closely tied to downtown developers.
  Leveraged growth to pay for making LA a world
  class city.
• This led to challenges from the Westside (Zev
  Yaroslavskys 1986 Prop. U) and the black
  community (Nate Holden in 1989).

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Los Angeles City CoalitionsTom Bradleys Rainbow
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The End of the RainbowThe Riots and Their
Backlash

• After a Ventura Co jury found four LAPD officers
  not guilty of beating black motorist Rodney King,
  violence swept LA from April 29-May 2, 1992.
• Most of those arrested were black and recent
  Central American immigrants.
• 50 people died, 1000 structures burned, and 450
  million in damage was done.

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The End of the RainbowThe Riots and Their
Backlash

• The rioting and increasing crime rates further
  divided the Bradley coalition.
• 2500 Korean American merchants lost their
  businesses, and many didnt support Mike Woo in
  1993 mayors race.
• Growth in Jewish law-and-order conservatism,
  especially among those who moved to the Valley.
  Woo only got a narrow majority of the Jewish
  vote.

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The End of the RainbowThe Riots and Their
Backlash

• Richard Riordans election in 1993 brought an end
  to the rainbow coalition.
• Riordan was an investment banker who had become
  one of LAs leading philanthropists.
• A political moderate, he was pro-choice, tough on
  crime, and promised to be fiscally conservative.

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The End of the RainbowRichard Riordans
Coalition
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Rainbows within Rainbows
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Rainbows within Rainbows

• LAs Jewish community has split into Valley
  moderates, Westside liberals, and conservative
  Iranian immigrants.
• Black leadership split between Mark Ridley-Thomas
  and Maxine Waters.
• Latino splits between poorer, more recent
  immigrants with ties to service labor
  (Molinistas) and middle class with ties to
  business (Eastside PRI)

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Rainbows within Rainbows

• In the 2001 mayoral race, the growth machine and
  conservatives sat on the sidelines as Steve
  Soboroff, Riordans protégé, failed to make the
  run-off.
• Jimmy Hahn narrowly defeated Antonio Villaraigosa
  to win, claiming 59 of white voters, 80 of
  blacks, 18 of Latinos, and 65 of Asians.

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Return of the Rainbow?

• In 2005, Antonio Villaraigosa revenged his
  defeat, winning the mayors race because
• He erased his deficit in the Valley, where Hahn
  had fought a move for Valley secession
• He split the black vote, which went 4-1 for Hahn
  in 2001
• He continued to capture about 80 of Latino
  voters.

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Discussion Questions

• How likely is it that LA will elect a mayor who
  is not Latino in the near future? What
  conditions might bring this about?