Business owners involved in a handful of controversial multimillion-dollar development projects in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden's district have donated large amounts of money to the Pasadena mayoral campaign of the councilman's son, Christopher R. Holden.
Some of the contributors say that they were directly asked to give to the younger Holden's campaign by current and former aides to the councilman.
Chris Holden has received more than $45,000 from Koreatown businesses, more than a quarter of the $176,000 in cash contributions the mayoral candidate raised between July 1998 and March 6. Many of Chris Holden's Koreatown contributors also made $500 donations--the legal maximum for Los Angeles candidates--to the senior Holden as well.
The councilman is running for reelection in the April 13 Los Angeles City Council primary election. The projects whose participants made the contributions in question stand little--if any--chance of going forward without the elder Holden's support. Under law, the City Council acts as Los Angeles' final court of appeal on all zoning and land use decisions. By tradition, other council members defer to the wishes of the colleague in whose district the project is situated.
Chris Holden, a longtime Pasadena city councilman who was selected as mayor by the council, is running in that city's first direct mayoral election April 20. Many of the Koreatown contributors to his campaign are linked to a handful of controversial projects in Los Angeles' 10th Council District, including a Western Avenue nightclub that is still awaiting a conditional use permit from the city, a proposed Wilshire Boulevard health club and restaurant complex, and an 8th Street supermarket.
Opposition from neighbors and competing businesses has frustrated the projects' developers, who have sunk millions into the ventures.
Donors denied in interviews that Nate Holden had asked them to give money to his son's campaign, and said they did not expect their contributions to influence the success of projects in the 10th District. Some, however, acknowledged that they do not know Chris Holden, and donated money at the request of Steve Kim, a Nate Holden deputy, and Bill J. Robinson, a former Holden aide who works as a zoning and permitting consultant in Koreatown.
Chris Holden acknowledged that Robinson and Kim have been raising money for him. "They're raising money because they know me. A lot of people are raising money on my behalf," the younger Holden said.
