Story Created:
Jul 8, 2010 at 7:45 PM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 9, 2010 at 9:29 PM PST
Several Southern California Latino Democratic elected officials on Thursday praised their party's gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Jerry Brown, for his efforts on behalf of Latinos as governor, and criticized his Republican opponent, Meg Whitman.
"He marched with Cesar Chavez and the farm workers for safe working conditions, demonstrated a commitment to diversity in hiring and fought for decades for California's working families,'' Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, said during the campaign event at Cal State Los Angeles.
As governor from 1975-83, Brown signed the Agricultural Relations Act, which gave farm workers the right to organize, and a law requiring employers to provide information to workers on toxic substances produced or handled in their workplace, including pesticides and fertilizers.
Brown also made several landmark appointments of Latinos, including Cruz Reynoso as the first Latino on the Court of Appeal, and later to the California Supreme Court, and Mario Obledo as secretary of health and welfare, the first Latino in a modern-day California cabinet.
"We are up against a Republican willing to spend more money than has ever been spent on a California election and we'll have to win with hard work,'' Brown said. "I'm pleased so many of California's Latino leaders have chosen to stand with my campaign and tell voters the truth.''
Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, both evoked the name of former Gov. Pete Wilson in their criticism of Whitman.
Wilson, Whitman's campaign chairman, has been one of the most unpopular elected officials among Latinos since 1994, when he fervently supported Proposition 187, the ballot measure that sought to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, other than emergency health care.
Cedillo called Wilson a "notorious immigrant basher'' and said Whitman "does not support comprehensive immigration reform, does not support any earned path to legalization and wants to repeal AB 540 and kick undocumented kids out of our state and community colleges.''
AB 540, signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2001, allows immigrant students, including illegal immigrants, to pay the lower in-state fees to attend University of California, California State University and community colleges.
"Today we get more of the same from Jerry Brown: no details, no leadership and no plan,'' Hector Barajas of the Whitman campaign told City News Service. "After 40 years in politics, it's fitting that Governor Brown's Latino outreach includes a lot of Sacramento politicians, but excludes any specific plans for creating jobs or fixing our public schools.
"Rather than solve the state's $19 billion deficit, which is costing Californians $52.3 million a day, these politicians would rather shirk responsibility and fight for their status quo candidate.''
Barajas also criticized Brown for "carefully avoided discussing the real travesty that is denying thousands of California students a chance to receive the higher education necessary to compete in our global economy.''
"The real answer to open up opportunities for Latinos and all Californians at our public university systems is to finally fix the chronic budget crises in Sacramento and prioritize what's important,'' Barajas said. "Thousands of eligible California students have been unable to enroll because of repeated tuition hikes and painful enrollment cuts.''
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