After the votes were counted, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, with 30 percent of the vote, and City Attorney James K. Hahn, with 25 percent, claimed the top slots. It’s a result few predicted, but this race had more twists and turns than a grand prix race. If Villaraigosa, 48, defeats Hahn, 50, in the runoff, he’ll be the City of Angel’s first Latino mayor since Don Cristobal Aguilar presided over what was then a rustic Spanish settlement of 6,000 people 129 years ago.
Hahn is not without his own link to L.A. history. His late father was powerful county supervisor for more than 40 years, representing a predominantly black district. Black voters turned out in droves to support Hahn (who is white), despite taped phone calls on Villaraigosa’s behalf by Rev. Jesse Jackson.
When the campaign season ignited last fall, the sure money was on Steve Soboroff, 52, a wealthy real estate broker and city hall insider credited with helping to bring the Staples Center to L.A. Endorsed by his friend and mentor, Mayor Richard Riordan (who must leave after serving eight years in office, due to term limits), Soboroff was expected to coast into the runoff with the help of affluent white, conservative voters in the Valley. It didn’t happen. Soboroff placed third, with 20 percent of the vote. Nor did the electorate embrace openly gay, long-time City Council member Joel Wachs, a darling of elderly and retired Jewish voters. He came in a distant fourth, with 11 percent of the vote. Even more surprising was the dismal showing of Xavier Becerra, a three-term eastside congressman with blue chip credentials. So worried were the city’s Latino political honchos that Becerra would siphon Villaraigosa’s votes, they called a summit meeting last year and asked Becerra to drop out. With only 5 percent of the vote he might as well have.
Now, the specter of a Villaraigosa-Hahn runoff has energized a city not usually known for enormous enthusiasm over political campaigns. Villaraigosa has the momentum, with endorsements from Gov. Gray Davis, the National Organization for Women, the Sierra Club and L.A.’s most powerful labor unions. A one-time union organizer himself, Villaraigosa owes much of his strong showing to get-out-the-vote efforts by union workers. But he’s going to need more than labor’s support to win in the runoff. Whoever wins in June must be a coalition builder in a city that for the first time in history has no racial majority. Villaraigosa seems well on his way with a strong showing not only in the predominantly Latino East L.A., but with Jewish voters on the west side of town and in the Valley. With his animated style and rough good looks (tattoos from his youthful days as an East L.A. troublemaker have been lasered off), he’s certainly got the staid Hahn beat in the charisma department. As one local radio pundit put it, “Jim Hahn’s ties are more exciting than he is. And, he wears boring ties.”
Still, Villaraigosa can expect a rough road. By the end of the April election, the airwaves were burning with nasty ads directed at the major candidates. Hahn intends to make an issue of Villaraigosa’s pleas to President Clinton to pardon convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali. Hahn may be vulnerable for turning a blind eye to LAPD corruption that he should have weeded out as city attorney. Both candidates tout LAPD reform, improved schools and transportation. But both will no doubt be occupied with raising the huge amounts of cash needed to get a message across in this sprawling city that spans nearly 470 square miles. Who knows what’s in store before the finish line.
