Hahn and Villaraigosa Spar Over Crime as Campaign Nears Finish

Turning in the campaign’s final days to the hot-button issue of crime, Mayor James K. Hahn and his opponent, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, accused each other Wednesday of failing to keep Los Angeles safe.

The Hahn campaign also launched a new attack ad featuring the mother of a dead toddler criticizing Villaraigosa for voting against stricter penalties for child abusers when he was in the state Assembly.

Villaraigosa, meanwhile, released a positive ad that tells viewers that his wife is a teacher, highlights his endorsements and talks about his pledge to stop road construction during rush hour. Villaraigosa’s negative ad attacking Hahn as “an invisible mayor” also continued to air, as did a Hahn ad criticizing Villaraigosa’s fundraising.

And further clogging the airwaves, two independent groups said they have launched ads on behalf of Villaraigosa, one on television and one on radio, in advance of Tuesday’s mayoral election.

Political strategist Darry Sragow, who is unaligned in the campaign, called Hahn’s ad criticizing Villaraigosa’s vote on the child-abuse bill “right out of campaign playbook.”

“It’s a last-minute hit that could easily be dismissed by voters,” he said. “On the other hand, what the Hahn campaign is hoping is that there are significant doubts among voters about Antonio’s commitment to fighting crime, and if there is substantial doubt, this may affect the decision of some voters.”

In the ad, Karey Jaeger, the mother of a dead 22-month-old, says, “It’s very difficult for me to understand how anyone could not support a law aimed at keeping child killers behind bars.” Villaraigosa, she says, was the only person to vote against the bill in the Assembly.

Villaraigosa offered his condolences Wednesday to Jaeger but staunchly defended his record, including his action on the 1996 bill.

“I voted for a tougher bill on the same point,” he said. That vote, he said, came a week after his vote against the bill favored by Jaeger. Villaraigosa said the bill he voted for, which “would have convicted the man who killed her son and put him away for 25 years to life,” was a better and more comprehensive bill. Although it did not extend the penalties for felony child abuse resulting in death, it more generally increased the penalties for first- and second-degree murderers. That bill died in the state Senate.

Political analysts said it was no surprise that crime and public safety have taken center stage in the campaign’s last days.

In the most recent Times poll, Hahn trailed Villaraigosa by 11 points but had made large gains among major voting blocs, particularly whites in the San Fernando Valley and blacks in South Los Angeles. Seeking to capitalize on that momentum, Hahn has relentlessly questioned Villaraigosa’s public safety record and repeatedly referred to his former opposition to gang injunctions. Villaraigosa has more recently said he supports the injunctions, but Hahn has assailed his opponent for what Hahn described as being on the side of gangs.

“I think that the difference is very clear in this city,” Hahn said in the mid-city area. “There is one candidate for mayor who has a proven record of fighting crime, and that’s me. And another candidate who has a proven record of standing on the wrong side of the issue.... I don’t think this city can trust our public safety to Antonio Villaraigosa.”

Villaraigosa hit back. He went to Pacific Palisades on Wednesday, where he touted the endorsement of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

“What Los Angeles needs is a mayor who will walk the beat of every part of Los Angeles,” Baca said. “Who will reach out to every portion of this city and leave no community behind and leave no community unattended, whether it’s fear of crime, whether it’s a lack of resources, whether it’s the quality of life in a neighborhood.”

The news conference was held at Mort’s Palisades Deli, which was held up in March for the first time in its 32-year existence. Residents say it was part of a rash of burglaries and robberies that have hit the Westside neighborhood in recent months.

Also on Wednesday, the California Teachers’ Assn. launched a $500,000 ad campaign supporting Villaraigosa’s election. The ad, which began airing on broadcast and cable television stations, opens with a flashlight following a man running through a forest. “Been looking for Mayor Hahn? So have the 700,000 students in our Los Angeles schools,” an announcer says.

Los Angeles developer Richard Meruelo also reported to the city Ethics Commission on Wednesday that he is spending $103,800 on a pro-Villaraigosa radio commercial featuring former Mayor Richard Riordan. Meruelo is the largest individual supporter of Villaraigosa’s campaign, and has made nearly $190,000 in independent expenditures on Villaraigosa’s behalf. His role has sparked controversy, as have some of his business deals, particularly the recent purchase of a 23-acre site near the Los Angeles River in Glassell Park. The L.A. Unified School District was negotiating to buy the land for a new high school when Meruelo bought it.

Meanwhile, two councilmen who support Villaraigosa, Jack Weiss and Bernard C. Parks, proposed Wednesday that the city attorney join the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority in looking into the awarding of a no-bid contract to the law firm of Harbor Commission President Nick Tonsich, a Hahn appointee. Hahn on Wednesday defended Tonsich’s service.

Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.