The result of Tuesday’s mayoral runoff could represent a
historic turning point for Los Angeles, a city in the midst of a
widespread racial shift.
With a landslide victory over incumbent Mayor Jim Hahn,
Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa became the city’s first
Latino mayor since 1872 ““ winning the backing of blacks and
valley whites while widening his already strong support among the
city’s growing Latino population.
Many believe the election represents a long-delayed shift in the
city’s political makeup.
Though the city’s Latino population has swelled
dramatically in recent years, no Latino had taken the helm of the
city hall since the frontier era, when the city had a population of
just 6,000.
The shift has been attributed to changes within the city, both
in terms of demographics and attitudes.
“The numbers have shifted. Less people are worried about
having a Latino mayor,” said Chon Noriega, director of the
Chicano Studies Research Center and a professor at the School of
Theater, Film and Television.
As the 2001 mayoral runoff came to a close, many believe Hahn
exploited racial tensions to achieve his last-minute surge in the
polls. The Hahn camp aired a barrage of negative television ads
that placed Villaraigosa’s face side by side with a lit crack
pipe, an association many deemed racist.
“From the moment that Hahn really tried to stigmatize
Villaraigosa (by) linking his ethnicity with crime, he was not just
initiating something, he was tapping into a broader state of fears
in which Los Angeles had just become a city where the largest
single group was Latino and a good portion of those Latinos were
not citizens,” Noriega said.
Noriega attributes those fears on misplaced blame.
“It’s a very palpable fear among some of the people
that live in Southern California. The Latino immigrant population
is serving as a scapegoat for some very legitimate fears about the
ability to do well in the economy, to succeed, to have their family
do well,” Noriega said.
Hahn, whose father was endeared by the city’s black
community during his time as county supervisor, saw much of the
support that came with his famous last name crumble during his four
years in office.
Many UCLA students who took to the polls Tuesday said race
played a role in their decisions.
“If Villaraigosa is elected mayor, we have someone whose
background sympathizes with many of the working class in L.A.
There’s going to be a mayor who actually represents the large
population of Latinos in Los Angeles,” said second-year
political science student Michelle Montes-Romero.
Noriega said because Latinos tend to use city buses more often
than other groups, they should expect some of the biggest changes
to revolve around public transportation.
Villaraigosa based much of his campaign on a promise to set the
framework for a rail system that would span the entire city.
“I don’t think you’ll see a drastic shift one
way or another; the issues (that Latinos care about) are fairly
similar to those that others in the city are concerned
about,” Noriega said. “There will be a higher degree of
inclusiveness.”
Villaraigosa spent much of his first day as mayor-elect
crisscrossing the city, expressing a message of unity.
“I’m an American of Mexican descent and I intend to
be a mayor for all Los Angeles. In this diverse city, that’s
the only way it can work,” Villaraigosa said at a job
training center in South Los Angeles, as reported by the Associated
Press.