A bitterly contested mayoral election will finally come to a
close today as Angelenos head to the polls to decide between
incumbent Mayor Jim Hahn and his heady challenger Councilman
Antonio Villaraigosa.
The finale to the 10-week runoff comes in the midst of a barrage
of negative campaigning from both camps.
The incumbent, currently behind in the polls but making headway,
has characterized his challenger as soft on crime, citing the
councilman’s votes against harsher penalties for child
abusers and gang members.
Villaraigosa has dismissed the criticisms as desperate
mudslinging, labeling the mayor as one of the dirtiest political
campaigners in the nation.
In their first wrangle for the mayor’s office four years
ago, Hahn successfully mounted a come-from-behind victory after
airing a television ad that placed Villaraigosa’s head
side-by-side with a lit crack pipe.
Though the mayor is currently employing similar tactics with his
most recent onslaught of negative ads, much has changed since his
first bid for office in 2001, and many believe that
Villaraigosa’s lead is too large to overcome this time
around.
After four years in City Hall, the mayor has lost some key
supporters.
Hahn, once widely supported by the city’s black voting
bloc, has seen his support slump among blacks after ousting police
chief Bernard Parks. Parks, whose run for the mayor’s office
was cut short after placing fourth in the primary election, has
thrown his support behind Villaraigosa.
Much of the mayor’s support from residents of the San
Fernando Valley evaporated after he opposed the region’s
failed attempt to secede from Los Angeles County.
Kam Kuwata, a spokesman for the Hahn campaign, said the
mayor’s support among these communities may not be as bleak
as many believe.
“Do you know what the numbers are going to be? Because I
don’t and until you know what the actual numbers are going to
be for election day, I don’t think you can assume
that,” Kuwata said, adding that Villaraigosa’s support
peaked too early just as it did in 2001.
Both candidates spent their last weekend before today’s
runoff reaching out to these communities, visiting black churches
across South Los Angeles and making appearances in the valley.
Villaraigosa, already enjoying hearty support from the
city’s Latino community, stressed the importance of dialogue
among the city’s racial groups, promising worshippers at one
black church that he would be “a mayor for African Americans,
Latinos, whites and Asians,” according to the Los Angeles
Times.
If elected, the councilman would be the city’s first
Latino mayor in more than a century.
On Monday Villaraigosa ““ along with labor activist Dolores
Huerta, former mayor Richard Riordan and a group of supporters
““ made a stop at one of Westwood’s busiest
intersections. The councilman weaved through stopped cars, shaking
hands with stopped motorists.
“He was going up to ordinary people stuck in traffic,
letting them know tomorrow’s election day. It portrays that
he’s willing to talk to anyone,” said Sherman Oaks
resident Ayda Safaei.
Though Hahn’s support has waned among some key
constituencies, the mayor picked up endorsements from the Los
Angeles County Federation of Labor, a powerful labor organization
representing nearly 350 locals, and the business-minded Los Angeles
Chamber of Commerce.
Though a low turnout is expected, more Angelenos are expected to
vote in today’s runoff than they did in the March primary,
when less than a third of eligible voters made it out to the
polls.
Kuwata said the key to a Hahn victory would be getting the vote
out.
“We have surgically gone through the community and found
out who our voter is and now we have an army of people that are
going to turn out the vote,” Kuwata said.
Several polling places have been set up in and around campus,
including De Neve Plaza.