14th District City Council Race: Who is Jose Huizar?

Jose Huizar has been endorsed for Mayor Villaraigosa's former city council seat by seven current members of the council despite running against former city councilperson Nick Pacheco: Tony Cardenas, Wendy Greuel, Tom LaBonge, Alex Padilla, Ed Reyes, Grieg Smith and Jack Weiss.

This is a pretty unprecedented level of support for a challenger of an "open" Council seat. The question is, why does Jose Huizar have such support and who the heck is he? All I know about him is that he's been on the Los Angeles Board of Education since 2001.

As for his opponent, I have received email from something called "Team Pacheco" touting the accomplishments of the former 14th District Councilman and current candidate for the position.

Neither of the two seem to have campaign websites up yet even though the special election is November 8, 2005.

There is some talk about some other third candidates but I think most people think either Pacheco or Huizar (likely Huizar) will be the next 14th District City Councilman.