Sen. Gil Cedillo is not backing down on his vow to run against Assemblyman John A. Pérez next year, despite the latter's selection by Democratic colleagues Thursday to be Assembly speaker.
Before Pérez's decision to keep his Assembly seat, he had been exploring the possibility of running for the Senate seat of Cedillo, who is termed out of office next year. Both represent portions of Los Angeles.
Now the two appear to be on a collision course.
But Cedillo suggested an "ideal compromise" to The Bee this week: Pérez could move into the Los Angeles district of Democratic Assemblyman Kevin de Leon, who could then run for the soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.
Cedillo said he is fond of Pérez, wants him to be successful and "I hope that he uses that tremendous intellect and wisdom of his to run in (de Leon's) district. If not, it's up to the voters."
Neither Pérez nor de Leon have embraced such a swap.
Pérez characterized Cedillo's idea as novel but not something that he is interested in doing.
Ultimately, Pérez indicated, the threat of two friends and Democratic colleagues running against each other will blow over.
"We've known each other my entire life, we've been friends for a good number of years," Pérez said of Cedillo. "We've worked together, we've suffered together. As my mother was dying in a hospital, his wife was dying in the same hospital. We've spent many a night walking around together as we were dealing with those pains together.
"And I'm sure that over time he'll decide to take another path."
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