ABSTRACT
In determining election equity, this chapter evaluates the concept of more Mexican Americans running for council seats in terms of the candidate pool for each election. It is important to a minority community that minority candidates are elected to city councils where none had served before, if only for symbolic reasons. Representational equity is determined by dividing the percentage of Mexican Americans on the council by the percentage of Mexican Americans in the community. Traditionally, Mexican Americans have been concentrated in the lower-status, lower-paying jobs in a city work force. The chapter examines what shifts, if any, occur in the distribution of the percentage of Mexican Americans at the various job levels following redistricting. However, changing from at-large to district systems has helped produce more Mexican American candidacies and more Mexican American winners and thus more Mexican American appointments to important boards and commissions.
