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This blog has always been a personal project to me, so you'll have to indulge me for a moment as I do a somewhat pedantic trod through the history of political parties in the United States. Ultimately, I hope to arrive at Los Angeles' political history.
At the time of Los Angeles' incorporation on April 4, 1850, the modern political party system had already solidified. In 1797 Tennessee was admitted as a state, and Andrew Jackson was one of its original Representatives in the House. He then served a year as state Senator before resigning and becoming judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Jackson became a major general in the Tennessee militia in 1802.
Jackson became famous for fighting the "Red Stick" Indians in the War of 1812, with the help of Davy Crockett. After the war, Jackson went back into politics as a senator from 1823-1825. He was involved in the controversial Presidential Election of 1824 when the House had to chose the President because none of the candidates managed a majority of electoral votes.
Jackson's second Senatorial term was the 18th United States Congress. This was a time of chaos.
One of the two original political parties in the United States was the Anti-Administration party. They favored states rights and farmers, and opposed the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson became their champion and they formed the Democratic-Republicans or Jefferson-Republicans. They won three straight elections.
The Federalist party collapsed, leading to an influx of candidates to the Democratic-Republicans. When the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts as President he was affiliated with the Democratic-Republicans, but the 18th Congress led to a bunch of factions.
Jackson's followers became the Democrats. They fought against elite and business interests, and stuck up for the white farmer. Poor Southern farmers became the party's base, and so the party was pro-slavery. For much of the history of the Democratic party, it was considered egalitarian and pro-Southern racism.
Adams' followers became the National Republicans also known as Adams Men, Anti-Jackson, and Anti-Masonic. Adams lost the bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, then they ran Henry Clay against Jackson's bid for re-election and lost again.
This party eventually became the Whigs, who were supporters of business and markets, economic modernization, and social reform. It was the party of the North, where all the banks were, and eventually collapsed under the issue of slavery. The abolitionist faction of the party became the Republicans.
The previously mentioned Henry Clay of Kentucky was able to negotiate compromises as a Senator that staved off Civil War for 40 years. These included the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which established the Missouri Compromise Line above which slaves could not be held, and the Compromise of 1850. John C. Calhoun, Clay's Democrat colleague from South Carolina, argued that white slaveowners were the real oppressed minority to ensure war took place.
All this history informs any discussion of early Los Angeles politics. California was admitted to the union by the 31st US Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850. This concerned the admission of new land won in the Mexican-American War (during with Davy Crockett died defending the Alamo).
Slave states in the South wanted to admit California as two states, with Southern California admitted as a slave territory. The Compromise of 1850 lopped off part of Texas' tip (creating Oklahoma's panhandle) so that Texas could be admitted as a slave state. Texas also gave up some Western lands to pay off debts. It also allowed California to enter the union intact as a free state. New Mexico and Deseret (nee Utah) were denied entry and remained territories.
So it should be somewhat surprising that California's first two Senators were Democrats, after all that was the pro-slavery party. Senators before the 17th amendment were appointed by state legislatures. California elected two Representatives on a general ticket, a Democrat and an Independent.
Well the two men only served two months, before the 32nd Congress was formed. Also, they couldn't have been more different. William M. Gavin who served four terms (non-consecutive) was known in Washington D.C. as a determined Southern sympathizer. John C. Fremont later became the first Republican Presidential candidate with the slogan "Free Soil, Free Men, and Fremont" The Free Soil party had opposed the expansion of slavery into the new territories.
You might recognize Fremont's name, he's got a bunch of streets named after him as well as a city in Northern California.
Gavin was re-elected, but Fremont was followed by John B. Weller - a Lecompoton Democrat (pro-slavery). California continued to elected Representatives on a statewide At-Large basis until 1865.
By that point, the country was four years into the Civil War. California was a Union state without slavery. The Republicans had elected their first President, Abraham Lincoln, and it became the popular party in Congress.
Formed around abolitionist Whigs, it was the party of the North. This also made it associated with business and financial interests, industrialization, and social reforms such as Prohibition and Women's Suffrage.
John Conness, a Republican, was a Senator for California from 1863 to 1869. He introduced a bill to establish Yosemite National Park, voted to abolish slavery, but also advocated for Chinese immigration and civil rights. California's other senator was a National Unionist/War Democrat; they wanted a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy. Unsurprising then that California had three Republican Representatives in the 39th congress.
The earliest Congressional District map I can find for California is from 1899. Notice how Los Angeles is in a district that stretches up the coast to Santa Cruz, while Orange County is in a district with the central valley.
In 1899 California had two Republican Senators, and all seven districts had Republican Representatives. The second district along the Nevada border originally elected a Democrat, but he resigned and was replaced with a Republican.
Republicans dominated national politics after the Civil War, with only Grover Cleveland winning as a Democrat. Politics of that time had moved on from slavery into a debate on the medal standard for currency. Farmers and the poor represented by Democrats like William Jennings Bryan wanted a dual gold-silver standard to make debts easier to pay off. Bankers represented by Republicans wanted the opposite.
You can see how the basic economic principles of the parties have remained the same, which the social policies have changed to meet the needs of their constituency. The rise of unions after the turn of the century made Democrats the party of labor as well as farmers. As labor became a multicultural enterprise Democrats had to become the party of tolerance in the North, which lost them the Democrats in the South who are now a Republican base. This of course leads to a fractured Republican party serving two masters.
After the 17th amendment Senators were elected by the people, and California elected a Democrat named James D. Phelan who lost a re-election bid over his "Keep California White" campaign posters. It's 11 representatives were a mixture of Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives.
This 1911 Congressional District map has Los Angeles with two Representatives (a Prohibitionist and a Progressive (who was replaced by a Republican when he resigned)). Orange county is no longer connected with the Central Valley, but with the desert areas along the Nevada border.
The Great Depression cost the Republicans their good standing with the public, as they were largely blamed for causing it. The party had survived two post-Civil War panics, but after 1928 was the last year the Republicans would win the White House without a Bush or a Nixon on the ticket (Bush Sr. was Reagan's VP, Nixon was Eisenhower's).
It was a democrat from New York who changed everything. New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt united farmers, labor unions, academics, and minorities into the New Deal Coalition. Here's where the old Democratic Party starts to end and the new Democrats emerge.
Los Angeles has continued to grow exponentially and now has districts 11-18 (six Democrats and two Republicans). While the Democrats have begun to embrace minority workers, they still have the stink of racism on them. California's Democrat Senator at the time, William McAdoo, is endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan. That tinge of racism won't be shaken off until the 1960s when the Democrats support the Civil Rights movement.
Labor in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as the two large public universities, has given California a solid Democrat base, but state has gone Republican in several elections since the New Deal. California actually went for Richard Nixon over John F Kennedy.
Los Angeles, however, went for Kennedy. The parties now are actually closer than they were at the turn of the century because of the crossover on social issues. Electoral maps pre-George W. Bush tend to be a landslide for one candidate or another and California went along with the winning party.
I lack a conclusion. Los Angeles politically is controlled by labor and minorities, and that continues to be the Democrats. It wasn't always that way, and it's fun seeing LA going from one of a few coastal counties in one district at the turn of the century to where it is today.
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