This column was supposed to be about Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich, but then San Pedro stole the show.
The deal was to meet the candidate for Los Angeles city attorney at the San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant and get to know the lesser-known of the two candidates in the city attorney's race. Trutanich is a local boy who hung out on the docks and punched in at the StarKist cannery, and I like getting to know a man on his turf.
Especially if the turf is Pedro, as they call it, a blue-collar burg without polish or pretense, shouldered up high on a hill above the port, a million miles from L.A.
By rights, Trutanich should have been out of the race by now and back to his law practice. Yeah, he was tapped to run by L.A. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, but City Councilman Jack Weiss practically had his name on the city attorney's door already. Generally, in L.A., we don't elect, we anoint.
Weiss had Westside money. He had Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as head cheerleader. He had been a prosecutor for the U.S. attorney, and he was the undisputed favorite.
And then a guy many of us had never heard of forced this runoff. The election is nine days away and too close to call, especially after a city pension board member resigned last week for co-hosting a Weiss fundraiser in violation of city rules. That's just the kind of audacity Trutanich says he's trying to run out of City Hall.
"You must be Mr. Lopez," Trutanich said after popping out of his Mini Cooper like Charlie the Tuna out of a can.
His eyes were red and his shoulders rounded despite an optimistic smile. He had slept only two hours, he said, but he thinks he can win, and sleep is a luxury he can't afford.
"Let me see if I can find Tommy to have lunch with us," Trutanich said inside the fish market as he wormed back behind the counter as if he were an employee.
Tommy Amalfitano, the founder, wasn't around. Neither was his mother, who's 86 but still comes to work every day and once a week hosts a fish dinner at her house for family and friends like Trutanich.
Trutanich moved across the bridge to Long Beach's Naples neighborhood for several years before hopping back over to Harbor City so he could run for office. But you'd never know he left Pedro.
"Hey, how's Sonny?"
"You seen Jimmy?"
"Yeah, I got signs for you but I was out last night. Why don't you come by the house later?"
