Hahn to Face Challengers in 1st Debate

The five major candidates for Los Angeles mayor will face off tonight in the first debate of the campaign, signaling a higher profile for a race that has already been marked by an unusual degree of personal animosity.

Mayor James K. Hahn said he intends to highlight his record on public safety, which has emerged as the dominant issue. His four challengers -- all seasoned politicians and Democrats like Hahn -- will seek to stand out in a crowded field and make their case against another term for the incumbent.

The major candidates in the March 8 election all plan to lay out their vision for the city in a bid to capture the attention of voters who were distracted by the presidential campaign for months and are now immersed in the holiday shopping season.

The hourlong debate will feature Hahn, City Councilmen Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley) and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

Between a smattering of news conferences and the occasional news release, the candidates have largely spent the summer and fall working the phones and making the rounds at fundraisers in an effort to collect the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to wage a credible campaign.

Now, the race moves onto the public stage.

“This probably marks the formal beginning of the race for mayor,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst for KNBC-TV Channel 4 and a professor at USC. Even if most voters won’t really tune in to the campaign until next year, the stakes are high because “a stumble now by any of the candidates might be enough to begin to weed him out,” Jeffe said.

Despite the risk, the candidates said they could not wait to spar. They added that they intended to deliver positive messages, but suspected their opponents would take a negative tone.

“I hope we get to talk about some of the real issues facing the city,” Hahn said. “Certainly, I think people are getting fed up with the negativity. And I hope that all the other candidates want to talk about stuff that’s positive.”

The debate, which will be at the Museum of Tolerance in front of an invited audience, will include one-minute opening and closing statements.

In between, the candidates will field questions from journalists. There are 20 candidates, but only the five with significant financial backing and campaign organizations have been invited.

Hahn plans to focus on his record on crime, saying he has brought the rate down and reinvigorated a Police Department that was losing officers under Parks, the former police chief. In 2002, Hahn pushed Parks out of the department and hired William J. Bratton. A year later, Parks won a City Council seat and then entered the race for mayor.

“People can see for themselves, going to neighborhoods all across the city, things are getting better,” Hahn said.

But the mayor is open to charges that he has failed to bolster the ranks of the LAPD. The department has about 9,100 officers, fewer per capita than most major cities in the country.

Parks has been relentlessly hammering Hahn in a series of news conferences and caustic open letters addressed to the mayor. He says Hahn could improve public safety almost immediately if he were to do away with a schedule that allows some officers to work three 12-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, a charge Hahn and Bratton deny.

Alarcon and Villaraigosa have also released public safety plans, with each proposing to expand the LAPD.

Parks, however, said he intends to focus on another area during the debate.”My message ... is that I am the only candidate that is running that is not a politician,” he said.

He has served more than a year as a councilman.

“I am running because I believe it takes strong leadership to clean up corruption and provide direction.”

Parks faces competition, if he intends to run as an outsider.

Hertzberg declared that the debate would be his “first,” except for some “little community forums.”

“I’m not a career politician,” he said. “I haven’t done this.”

Hertzberg, a lawyer in private practice, served six years as an assemblyman representing the San Fernando Valley.

Alarcon said he planned to reveal some new ideas for the city that he believes will distinguish his candidacy.

Villaraigosa, who represents much of the city’s Eastside, also has served as speaker of the Assembly.

He called the first debate “an opportunity to have a conversation about what kind of city we want to live in.”

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Mayoral debate

The debate featuring the five major candidates will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on KNBC-TV Channel 4 in English and KWHY-TV Channel 22 in Spanish.