Firebrand organizer takes key role in California politics - By AURELIO ROJAS, Scripps News, DC
The widow of political kingmaker Miguel Contreras, the most dynamic labor leader in recent California history, now inhabits his office and, friends say, his spirit.
A powerhouse in her own right, Maria Elena Durazo, the new chief of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, is a union organizer with few peers and a heroine to busboys, cooks and maids.