As Race Heats Up, Hahn Aims Some Heavy Fire at Hertzberg

Mayor James K. Hahn, who is in a battle with four prominent challengers, has aimed some of his sharpest attacks in recent weeks at one: former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

Hahn and his campaign aides have blamed Hertzberg for the state’s crumbling highways, derided him as a “Sacramento politician” and tried to tar him as a consultant to a public relations firm accused of fleecing the city.

As the race accelerates toward the March 8 election, both men are competing for votes in Hertzberg’s home base in the San Fernando Valley, a place critical to Hahn four years ago and probably key to his quest for a second term.

Hahn campaign advisor Kam Kuwata denied that the mayor had singled out Hertzberg.

“We have been equal opportunity,” the aide said of attacks on Hahn’s rivals.

Indeed, in the last few months the mayor’s campaign has also gone after Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, whom Hahn beat in a hard-fought runoff in June 2001, and Councilman Bernard C. Parks, whose reappointment as police chief Hahn opposed.

But the face-off between Hahn and Hertzberg is becoming a more pronounced feature of the campaign and might be an indication of how the beleaguered mayor is plotting to keep his job.

Several political observers and other campaign strategists speculated this week that Hahn’s advisors would rather be in a runoff with Villaraigosa than with Hertzberg.

Unlike Hertzberg’s, Villaraigosa’s base is among Latinos and liberal whites, whose votes appear less likely to subtract from Hahn’s total.

“They want to have a rematch,” said longtime local political consultant Rick Taylor, who is not working for any of the mayoral candidates. “They will try to cut Hertzberg’s legs out from under him.”

There were early indications that Hahn and Hertzberg would tangle with each other.

Although the mayor generally refrained from commenting on his rivals as they entered the race to unseat him, Hahn traded barbs with Hertzberg on the day he declared his candidacy last spring.

And when Hertzberg announced in the summer that he was surpassing the mayor in fund-raising, Hahn advisor Bill Wardlaw said he felt sorry for Hertzberg’s donors.

“They’re backing a loser,” he quipped.

More recently, the attacks have gotten more intense.

After Hertzberg unveiled a 10-point transportation plan last week that he dubbed his “Commuters’ Bill of Rights,” the Hahn campaign quickly accused the Sherman Oaks Democrat of failing as Assembly speaker to fund local transportation projects.

Hahn campaign manager Julie Wong also noted that while Hertzberg was in the Legislature, lawmakers passed a proposition to require that gas taxes be used for transportation projects, but included a loophole that allows Sacramento to divert the money in tough budgetary times.

Days later, when Hertzberg criticized Hahn’s links to Fleishman-Hillard after a federal grand jury indicted one of the company’s executives, Wong struck again, noting Hertzberg’s ties to the public relations firm, which has been accused of overbilling the Department of Water and Power by more than $4.2 million. Wong even included invoices to show that Hertzberg attended meetings with Fleishman executives.

“If Bob Hertzberg burps, they issue a press release,” said veteran Republican political strategist Dan Schnur, who is not backing any candidate in the race.

The Hahn campaign is also taking Villaraigosa seriously, knocking him for his political roots as an assemblyman and his connections to controversial donors.

But over the last month, when Villaraigosa unveiled proposals to boost affordable housing development and raise revenue to pay for more police officers, the Hahn campaign barely took note.

The recent attacks come after a relentless effort to tar Hertzberg for his links to the unpopular state government.

Hertzberg represented the Valley in the Assembly between 1996 and 2002, serving as speaker in his last two years.

After the first mayoral debate last month, Hahn campaign workers handed out state campaign finance reports showing how Hertzberg took contributions from Enron and from Browning Ferris Industries, which operates the controversial Sunshine Canyon Landfill in the northwest Valley.

Hertzberg campaign strategist John Shallman said his candidate was not surprised by Hahn’s attacks.

“They have a history of running scorched-earth campaigns, and we have every expectation he will run the nastiest campaign he can,” Shallman said. “We have resources, and we are going to use them to fight back and tell our story.”

Hertzberg may have his work cut out for him, however. He has more than $1.5 million in his campaign war chest, but the Sacramento label has hurt many earlier Los Angeles mayoral candidates.

And although a negative campaign can be risky because voters can turn on the attacker, well-executed attacks can be highly effective, campaign strategists said.

Noting the successful attacks on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s record, Taylor said, “If the presidential election proved anything last year, negative works.”