School Board Candidate Rallies Troops

By Jorge Casuso

Oct. 3 -- School Board candidate Oscar de la Torre jump-started his campaign -- which has been clouded by questions about his registration status -- with a spirited rally Thursday on the steps of City Hall attended by more than 50 supporters.

De la Torre's speech -- which focused on the need for a quality education for all students -- was punctuated by cheers from supporters, most of them Latino, who waved orange lawn signs with black letters that read, "Proven Leadership. Oscar for School Board."

"We said we need to come out and let people know that this campaign will not be put aside or stopped," de la Torre said. "Today we want to let everybody know that there are issues important to people of this district, and that's more important than when someone was registered.

"We're going to work really hard, and even if we don't win the election, we're not going to stop fighting," he said. "The campaign is not an easy thing. This is a movement for justice, for a living wage, for education."

De la Torre -- who worked as a counselor at Samohi before opening the City-funded PicoYouth and Family Center last year -- said that the district needs to be held accountable to ensure that "all students are being heard" and "treated with equality."

"You don't have to live in a house with parents who went to college and encyclopedias and computers," said de la Torre, who said his parents had a sixth-grade education. "You can live in a neighborhood with gangs, and if you have the will, you can make it."

Several of de la Torre's supporters also spoke, including a Samohi student and teacher and Ana Jara, whose bid for one of four open school board seats ended when she failed to hand in the 100 valid signatures necessary to make the ballot.

De la Torre thanked his supporters for sticking with him campaign, despite efforts to remove him from the ballot. "When they heard there were people who wanted to take me off the ballot, they said, 'We got you backed,'" he said.

Questions about de la Torre's registration status first surfaced a month ago, when County records showed that the candidate was registered outside the school district when he pulled papers to run for one of four open seats on the school board, a violation of the State Election Code.

City officials asked the County Registrar to remove him from the ballot, but were told that any challenge to de la Torre's candidacy would have to wait until after the election.

On Monday, City Clerk Maria Stewart dropped her request after De la Torre produced a photocopy of an overseas voter registration application he said he signed the day before he pulled papers to run for office. The County registrar has not been able to locate the original, which de la Torre said was circulated by a volunteer for MTV's "Rock the Vote" registration drive.

De la Torre said he plans to launch a full-fledged campaign this weekend, placing signs on lawns across the city, canvassing voters door-to-door and phone banking. He also hopes to register 500 new voters in the Pico Neighborhood, which traditionally has a low voter turnout.