A tale of three cities: Latino candidates fall short in three hotly contested mayoral races. (How They Voted, 2001).

Political operatives in Los Angeles, New York City and Houston should not have been blamed if they thought 2001 would be the year of the Latino. In each city, a Latino candidate mounted a vigorous campaign for mayor; in each city strong multiracial coalitions supported their efforts; but in each city, the Latino candidate was defeated.

What went wrong?

"In a sense, those mayoral races came a little too early for the Latino community," says Dr. Louis DeSipio, professor of political science at the University of California-Irvine. "Two of the candidates, those in New York and L.A., were quite good, but didn't have skills yet--the grassroots, campaign, professional skills--to get out the vote at that level. And those races showed that."

LOS ANGELES, JUNE 2001

In Los Angeles, last summer's mayoral race pitted Antonio …