Chu jumps to early lead over Cedillo in 32nd Congressional District

There will be a runoff July 14 among the top vote-getters from each of the parties in the race. Because the district is strongly Democratic, however, it is widely expected that the seat ultimately will go to the Democrat. The seat, one of the few area elected offices without term limits, opened unexpectedly with the appointment of Hilda Solis as U.S. labor secretary.

From the start, the race was generally seen as a two-way contest between Cedillo, a labor union leader before his 1998 election to the state Assembly and later the state Senate, and Chu, a former member of the Monterey Park City Council and the Assembly.

Both are liberal Democrats with similar views and strong ties to labor in the working-class district. But their candidacies were testing the power of ethnic politics in the district, home to large numbers of Latinos -- about half the registered voters -- and a growing population of Asian Americans.

Cedillo, backed by such local politicians as Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Sheriff Lee Baca, worked to mobilize his Latino base. He raised about $717,000.

Chu, trying forge a multi- ethnic coalition, had backing from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and a host of elected officials from San Gabriel Valley cities and school boards.

Chu, who raised nearly $1 million, also had the support of the California Democratic Party and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which spent about $150,000 campaigning on her behalf.

The United Farmworkers Union endorsed both Cedillo and Chu, which some saw as an indication of conflicting loyalties within labor.

In addition to Pleitez, other Democrats on the ballot were former Monterey Park Mayor Francisco Alonso, former Solis aide Benita Duran, filmmaker Stefan "Contreras" Lysenko, attorney Nick Juan Mostert and kitchen designer Rafael F. Nadal.

Republicans on the ballot besides Betty Chu were restaurant owner Teresa Hernandez and businessman and police chaplain David A. Truax.

Christopher M. Agrella, the only Libertarian on the ballot, was guaranteed a spot in the July runoff. By contrast, the special runoff election in the Senate's 26th District, which includes some Los Angeles communities as well as Culver City and Ladera Heights, among others, was a lopsided contest.

Most of the action in the economically and ethnically diverse district was in the March primary.

Although they both campaigned energetically, neither Shifren, a rabbi, public school teacher and triathlete with conservative views, nor Henderson, a telephone technician who advocated raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, had the resources to reach voters in the heavily Democratic district.

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jean.merl@latimes.com