He's just 26 and making his first election bid in a crowded field of candidates that includes two seasoned, well-financed officeholders -- just the sort of hopeful who usually gets lost in the pack.
But Emanuel Pleitez has collected enough money -- much of it in online donations from across the nation -- to put on a substantive mail campaign, bolstered by an energetic staff of young volunteers. And, as he and his volunteers talk to voters in the 32nd Congressional District before the May 19 special election, opponents and politics-watchers alike are taking notice.
From the start, the 12-candidate race to fill the seat vacated by now-U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been viewed as essentially a contest between two Democrats -- state Sen. Gil Cedillo and Board of Equalization vice chairwoman and former Assembly member Judy Chu. Now, some are coming to view Democrat Pleitez as a potential spoiler who could split the Latino vote and swing the race to Chu, an Asian American in the San Gabriel Valley-based district, in which Latinos form the largest registered voter group.
Most experts still expect that the victory will go to Cedillo or Chu, known figures who have big campaign bankrolls and a slew of endorsements.
"One of those two is going to win that race," said veteran campaign consultant Rick Taylor.
But if Pleitez makes a credible showing in the polls and runs a "good, clean campaign, that sets him up for the next race, and there will be several seats opening" in the area at various levels of government, Taylor said.
Jaime A. Regalado, director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., said he saw no chance for Pleitez to win. "But the more he can identify himself as a young, smart Latino and appeal to young voters," Regalado said, the more "he becomes a wild card in terms of how he will affect a close race."
Pleitez said he is not interested in other races.
"I feel best prepared for this office," Pleitez said during a recent interview in his crowded El Sereno campaign headquarters.
A federal office "is where I can make the most impact" on such issues as the economy and the housing crisis, added Pleitez, who said he decided to run on Dec. 20, shortly after President Obama nominated Solis to the Cabinet post. He soon left Washington, D.C., where he had been working for the Treasury Department transition team, and moved back to his mother's home in El Sereno.
