Judy Chu

Judy Chu can trace the beginnings of her career as a San Gabriel Valley activist and political leader back to the early 1970s and her freshman year in college. As the young math major, intent on a career in computer science, was crossing the UC Santa Barbara quad one day, someone thrust into her hand a flier about a new Asian American studies course. She decided to give it a try. "It was like a light went off in my head," Chu recalled.

What's in a name? Just about everything, it turns out, in the 32nd Congressional District. Democrat Judy Chu and Republican Betty Chu, along with Libertarian Christopher M. Agrella, rose out of a field of 12 in Tuesday's election to advance to a July runoff. Judy Chu's campaign consultant, Parke Skelton, calls it "the Chu-Chu runoff." Judy, who outpolled Democratic state Sen. Gil Cedillo and six other party members, is considered the heavy favorite, given the district's strong Democratic tilt.

U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis has not yet been confirmed as Labor secretary, but the race to replace her is in full swing. This week, candidate Judy Chu, chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, received a coveted distinction in local politics: a nod from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. "She's got a tremendous labor background," said Ed Rendon, political director for the Teamsters Joint Council in Los Angeles, which is a member of the federation's Committee on Political Education.

The appointment of Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis as Labor secretary has prompted 12 candidates to jump into a rare special election to replace her in the San Gabriel Valley-based 32nd Congressional District. Most politics experts, however, see the May 19 primary race as essentially a two-way contest between two seasoned, liberal Democrats: state Sen. Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles and state Board of Equalization member and former Assemblywoman Judy Chu of Monterey Park.

A campaign that made the most of Judy Chu's strong ties to the San Gabriel Valley, her skills as a coalition-builder and her support from organized labor is credited with propelling her to the front of a crowded field in Tuesday's hot race for the vacant 32nd Congressional District seat.

Blanca Figueroa is the mayor of South El Monte and a proud Mexican American who sometimes signs off her e-mails with the Spanish translation of her official title: "alcaldesa." One of the first things she'll tell you about herself is that, as a teenager, she met Cesar Chavez. And that when her family moved from East Los Angeles to South El Monte in 1960, they endured the racist comments of certain neighbors who soon joined the "white flight" out of that place.

State Board of Equalization member Judy Chu, who forged multiethnic coalitions during more than two decades in public office, was winning Tuesday's special election to the San Gabriel Valley-based 32nd Congressional District as returns were being tallied. If Chu's wide lead in early returns holds up as expected, she will become the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, according to the Office of the House Historian and the Congressional Research Service.