West Covina's "Rainbow Coalition" Wants Fred Sykes to Lead Community in Seeking Socioeconomic "Promised Land"

Dateline West Covina, California, Nov. 9, 2011 (MabuhayRadio News Service)

An emerging “Rainbow Coalition” of the City of West Covina in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County in California elected yesterday Fredrick Sykes as the first Black-American member of the City Council. The various minority groups in West Covina total 85% of the city’s population. Mr. Sykes has also been recognized as an “Adopted Son of the Filipino-American Community,” as spearheaded by the member Filipino associations of the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) of Los Angeles.

In respect to media endorsements, Mr. Sykes was first endorsed by this publication, the www.mabuhayradio.com. Then the San Gabriel Valley Tribune followed and indirectly by the Weekend Balita, when it published an article about his candidacy in its Front Page, as per this hyperlink: West Covina Fil-Am Groups Endorse Sykes for City Council

H ere are the results (with the top two being elected or elected):

Steve Herfert (incumbent Mayor)                          3,113 votes or 29.65%

Fred Sykes (sole opposition)                                2,818 votes or 26.84%

Karin Armbrust (incumbent councilmember)        2,582 votes or 24.59%

Herb Redholtz (Planning commissioner)              1,886 votes or 18.92%

The vote totals came from 100% of the city’s 36 precincts and absentee ballots. There are a few remaining “Provisional Ballots” that will be counted by the County Registrar’s Office after it establishes the voters’ eligibility to vote. But the number is not sufficient to alter results as tabulated above. The voter turnout was low. Only 21.29% (or 10,499) of the 49,304 registered voters decided to cast their ballots.

The “Moses” of West Covina

T he West Covina-based members of the MBC were the persons that first asked Mr. Sykes to serve as the city’s “Moses.” They wanted him to lead the city’s population to its Promised Land. Many minority voters claimed that the all-White City Council and the essentially all-Caucasian city agencies like the Planning Commission have led the city to incur huge budgetary deficits, as 90% of the budget goes to fund the city’s police and fire departments. Minority voters said that it high time to end the city as the “Land of Broken Promises” made by “promising” politicians (pun intended).

Like Moses, newly-elected Councilmember Sykes hopes to lead the city population, especially its minorities (that actually compose the majority), to undertake fundamental structural reforms that will improve the residents’ quality of life on a balanced budget. Several Latino- and Filipino-American members of the coalition that worked for Mr. Sykes’ victory are now eyeing to field other minority candidates for the next city-council election slated for November 2013 wherein three seats will be up for election.

With the election of Mr. Sykes, it is expected that more minority voters will register and vote in the coming local, state and federal elections.

(To be continued . . .) # # #