Villaraigosa’s Campaign Tries to Recapture Spark

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa first lost the endorsement of the county’s main labor council. Then on Tuesday, he failed to win the support of the county Democratic Party.

Now, heading into the last month and a half before the March 8 election, Villaraigosa is grappling with how to craft a winning campaign without two powerful institutions that gave him crucial organizational and financial firepower during his unsuccessful 2001 run against Mayor James K. Hahn.

At the same time, he also finds himself running against the high expectations he set in the last race.

Some political insiders say his campaign seems to lack the electricity that made him a darling of the national media in 2001, when he captivated many voters with the dream that he might become the city’s first Latino mayor since 1872.

“It’s not new any longer. Obviously, some of that luster, some of that sparkle, is not going to be there,” said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles. “Four years later, it’s a tougher sale.”

Villaraigosa says he is undaunted.

He interprets the county Democratic Party’s decision to stay neutral as a blow to Hahn, who also vigorously sought the endorsement.

And he brushes aside unfavorable comparisons to the sparkle of his earlier campaign as “insider babble,” predicting that he will advance to a May runoff.

“I didn’t get into this because I was nostalgic about four years ago. I lost that election,” he said. “This is not the same race.”

Indeed, it is not the same race.

Villaraigosa is better-known and is challenging a mayor whose administration is under investigation.

But he also has one loss behind him. And Hahn has had four years to push an agenda favorable to powerful constituencies in the city, such as labor unions.

Hahn’s campaign strategist Bill Carrick said the loss of support from the party and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has left Villaraigosa’s campaign critically wounded.

“His candidacy has got real problems,” Carrick said. “He is not putting together the coalition he had last time. It is not happening.”

In the 2001 election, Villaraigosa received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state Democratic Party, while labor officials and union locals across the country spent more than a million on his behalf. This time, county labor officials said they might spend up to $1 million on mailers to promote Hahn’s bid for a second term.

Cal State Fullerton political scientist Raphael Sonenshein called Villaraigosa’s failure to win the key endorsements a setback, but hardly a fatal blow, or even a particularly surprising one.

“What were the odds that a county Democratic Party was going to endorse against an incumbent Democratic mayor?” he asked.

Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, agreed. “The damage to Villaraigosa is far less than one would think,” he said, adding that Villaraigosa must now build a “get-out-the-vote apparatus,” something he did not have to focus on last time because union laborers and party activists provided a cadre of motivated volunteers.

Campaign officials say they are moving forward on that front and have an “outreach” event scheduled for this weekend. And, in another little boost, the Northeast Democratic Club endorsed Villaraigosa on Wednesday.

Four years ago, Villaraigosa’s campaign seemed to burst onto the Los Angeles political scene and roll forward with a sense of almost unstoppable momentum.

A progressive Democrat with a background as a Los Angeles union organizer, Villaraigosa had just finished a term as speaker of the California Assembly, one of the state’s most powerful positions.

He had a winning smile and a compelling personal story that led from barrio beginnings to the ornate hallways of state power.

Though not well-known among voters, one by one, some of the most influential people and groups in Los Angeles joined his campaign.

He collected endorsements from the county Federation of Labor, the county Democratic Party, the Sierra Club and the National Organization for Women.

And he also won support from such political heavyweights as billionaire businessman and philanthropist Eli Broad, former Mayor Richard Riordan and Sheriff Lee Baca.

This time around, many of those players have backed Hahn, another challenger or have not yet endorsed.

On the campaign trail back then, Villaraigosa brought exuberance and his ever-present grin.

His habit of trying to shake every hand and bond with every voter drew comparisons to former President Clinton. He spoke so much that he grew hoarse by the middle of the race.

While many in Los Angeles spoke excitedly about the prospect of electing the city’s first Latino mayor in modern times, Villaraigosa took pains to cast himself as a candidate for all Angelenos, and he promised to unify the city.

“When we’re finished with this coalition, this place isn’t going to be big enough,” he told thousands of jubilant supporters who packed Union Station on the night of the April primary.

Villaraigosa finished first that night.

But in the June runoff, he lost to Hahn by 8 points. Despite his effervescence, his committed volunteers and the blessing of power brokers, he was unable, in the end, to broaden his appeal to enough voters.

Two years later, he sought a City Council seat that represents much of the city’s Eastside and pledged to do the job for four years.

But then, things changed. Hahn suddenly seemed vulnerable. Some of his aides began receiving subpoenas as county and federal investigators probed allegations of corruption in city contracting. And one by one, powerful politicians began entering the race.

First came state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), then former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, and finally, former Police Chief and now Councilman Bernard C. Parks.

As each candidate appeared poised to slice off a crucial section of the mayor’s base, Villaraigosa, too, began to flirt with getting into the race -- despite urgings from some friends to stay out.

He finally announced in August, long after his opponents had begun raising money and laying the groundwork for their campaigns.

He has worked hard to catch up.

During the last three months of 2004, Villaraigosa raised more money than either the mayor or Hertzberg by nearly $200,000. He has also been frugal with his spending and has as much money as Hertzberg does to spend on television advertisements.

“I feel very confident about it. I feel a lot more confident than I did four years ago,” said Villaraigosa’s strategist, Parke Skelton, asserting that this time around his candidate is “known by 90% of voters in the city.”

Still, Villaraigosa’s demeanor in recent weeks has seemed to reflect his awareness that the stakes are high.

He is still energetic. He still smiles constantly. But at times, he appears cautious, even guarded, on the campaign trail.

In debates, he speaks less of grand visions about uniting the city and more about bread-and-butter matters such as parks and potholes, traffic and police.

Other times, though, his trademark impulsiveness and ebullience are on full display. At a Martin Luther King Day parade in the Crenshaw District on Monday, he and other City Council members rode in convertibles, waving to the crowd.

At one point, Villaraigosa jumped out of his car, dashed over to people sitting on the curb and enthusiastically pumped their hands.

At a breakfast honoring union workers at the Los Angeles Convention Center, he and Hahn crossed paths.

The mayor, who spoke at the event, arrived minutes before he took to the stage and departed minutes after, spending little time schmoozing with the union members who were picking at their eggs.

Villaraigosa, who did not have a speaking role, stopped by almost every table to deliver salutations and embraces.

Mike Garcia, the president of Service Employees International Union Local 1877, said he felt “ambivalent” that the county Federation of Labor could not support Villaraigosa.

“He’s a tremendous leader,” Garcia said of Villaraigosa. On the other hand, he said, in Hahn, the labor union has “an incumbent mayor who has been working hard for us, working hard for labor.”

“It will be interesting to see how it all plays out,” Garcia said.

Times staff writers Matea Gold and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.