Once again the Latino American Political Association has endorsed a candidate proven to be harmful to Latino families. Former DA Bonnie Dumanis joined Summer Stephan as a LAPA choice in the 2018 election. Stephan is running for District Attorney after being appointed by Dumanis when Dumanis left the office to run for County Supervisor Dist. 4.
LAPA’s logo tells the world they are non-partisan, not their mission statement, mind, their actual logo. Claiming to be non-partisan suggests an organization can be trusted to put partisanship aside and present candidates to their constituents in a balanced fashion.
That is not happening at LAPA, and in this political climate where folks are being yanked from their jobs and deported because of the Republican agenda, unfairly presenting candidates to Latino voters matters, a lot. I have neighbors and many friends from Mexico who feel terribly unsafe due to the Republican white supremacists in charge at the federal level. If an organization victimized by law enforcement holds forums and slants them toward issues that matter only to gun owners and police fraternities it makes us all unsafe.
The change in immigration policy is pretty obviously a crisis for Latinos but at another of LAPAs candidate forums, for County Supervisor (D4), leading up to LAPA’s endorsement, not one question was asked about keeping families together or addressing DACA. The questions were about issues that concern gun aficionados and concealed carry advocates. Why?
Dumanis is a member of a party led by a racist, a party that is embracing community-crushing ideals such as privatized schools, voter disenfranchisement, deportation, throwing dog-whistle insults at Mexico and gang databases based on neighborhoods not crime. These are serious public safety concerns.
In her Mayoral campaign Bonnie Dumanis took money from Mexican national, Jose Azano, spent it and then participated in his prosecution for donating to her campaign as a foreign national. The woman is a menace and LAPA should hide in shame for endorsing her and for pretending to have evaluated the candidates fairly.
The group wasn’t always a lie, I’m told. But now, it is full of conservative police, prosecutors, current and retired sheriffs and misguided Latinos for Trump. Why are the members of LAPA not being true to what their logo says “Non-Partisan Leadership since 1973“?
I asked Lori Saldana, one of the candidates running against Dumanis who participated in the forum. She explained LAPA from experience saying, she was endorsed by the organization in her first Assembly race. In an email Lori also said, “I’ve noticed that their membership has changed over the years. They still use the ‘Latino’ designation that often describes indigenous/immigrant Spanish speaking communities. But none of the questions that were presented to our panel were about immigration rights, family disruptions, racial profiling, or the poverty and low wages that are persistent problems within immigrant communities of color.”
Dumanis, treats her friends well but her friends are no friends to the Latino community. Delores Chavez, LAPA’s current president, whose Facebook picture shows a red, white and blue, star spangled stiletto under the words “Trump Girl,” is a member of the Republican Woman’s Federation.
The LAPA twitter page cover banner is a group shot around a “Latinos for Trump” poster. I ribbed Delores about supporting Trump a little bit on Facebook and she distanced herself from the group shot saying it wasn’t LAPA and she seemed to believe she didn’t know it was on LAPA’s Twitter page.
Make no mistake, Dumnais is a right-wing Republican, vindictive to people of color and and an obstacle to public safety. We will need to unite together to defeat her in the primaries on June 5th and end her political career in San Diego. It would be a lot easier if we are well informed about the issues.
