TERA Invites Your Questions for Candidates in the 51st Assembly District Race

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In less than the time that it’s likely to take for a jury to decide whether former senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards is guilty of electoral corruption, a primary election will be held for a hotly contested race in California’s 51st Assembly District, which encompasses all of Northeast L.A., including Eagle Rock, as well as East L.A. and parts of Echo Park, Silver Lake and Downtown.

The primary ballot, scheduled for June 5, will be followed by a general election on November 6.

The 51st District battleground is completely new, having been recently created by the California Redistricting Commission on the basis of the latest U.S. Census data.

It’s a primarily Latino-populated area contested by four Democratic and progressive Latino candidates:

• Luiz Lopez, president of the East Area Planning Commission; nonprofit healthcare director of communications at AltaMed Health Services; former co-chair of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.

• Jimmy Gomez, political director for the United Nurses Association of California; formerly worked as a deputy in the the office of former L.A. City Council Member and mayoral candidate Michael Feuer, and the Office of former U.S. Congress Member Hilda Solis.

• Arturo Chavez, district director for State Assembly Member Gil Cedillo and former field deputy for City Council Member Ed Reyes.

• Oscar Gutierrez, former accounts executive and television producer.

All four of them will be present at a Meet the Candidates forum at the , at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25.

The forum is being hosted by TERA (The Eagle Rock Association). TERA has invited Patch readers to send in their questions for the candidates. A selection of the best questions will then be posed to the candidates—live—during the April 25 pre-election forum.

Click here to read about the candidates and how they tried to distinguish themselves from each other at a similar public forum in Glassell Park last month.

Please use the Comments section below to send your questions as concisely and clearly as possible. Or email Eagle Rock Patch editor Ajay Singh directly at ajay.singh@patch.com.

Meet the Candidates Forum, Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd., 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 25.