L.A. Mayoral Candidates Take Campaign to Boston

The campaign for mayor of Los Angeles took a road trip to Boston last week, with three declared candidates and one likely contender working the floor and backrooms at the Democratic National Convention.

The candidates came away with fistfuls of business cards from Democratic activists in other states who they hope will help raise cash.

“It was very good. I talked to my friends from all around the country,” said former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who plans mayoral fundraisers in Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and Texas, in part based on acquaintances he renewed at the convention during 22 hours of nonstop room-hopping. Hertzberg flew in on a red-eye, worked through the day and night, and jumped on a plane home early the next morning.

Mayor James K. Hahn, City Councilmen Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa (who has not officially announced yet) also made the rounds, schmoozing and talking up their candidacies.

“I found people in other states -- in Florida, Illinois and Ohio -- are, amazingly, fully aware of the upcoming mayor’s race,” Parks said. “We are talking about possible fundraising with them.”

The city’s $1,000 cap on individual contributions means candidates for mayor will increasingly look outside California for money to be competitive, said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein, who is not involved in any of the campaigns.

“It was smart to go,” he said. “There is an awful lot of opportunity in terms of media interviews and developing fundraising contacts from around the country.”

Villaraigosa Makes Best of Nightmarish Situation

You know that nightmare in which you are supposed to give a talk to an audience and you realize that you don’t have the speech with you?

It happened to Villaraigosa.

When he stepped to the podium to begin his nationally televised speech to the convention last Monday, the teleprompter contained an early version of his speech, one that he later had significantly rewritten.

“I froze, and then I just smiled,” said Villaraigosa, whose most commented on feature is his radiant smile.

And then he went on with the speech before him.

Not Everyone Is Pleased With State Budget Deal

Amid all the backslapping and handshaking last week over passage of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first state budget, there were some seriously disgruntled legislators.

“This is a budget of delays and deferrals, gimmicks and big, fat IOUs,” said state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough). And she voted for the budget.

A recurring theme took hold among budget opponents, who likened Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to a free-spending married couple.

“It’s a budget embraced by a governor who promised to ‘cut up the credit card’ but instead has chosen to issue six brand new credit cards and charge more than $10 billion new debt on them,” said Sen. Debra Bowen of Marina del Rey, the only Democrat to vote against the budget.

Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) reprised a similar household analogy, noting that last year he said the budget was “a rotting porch just waiting to collapse.”

Now, he said, “This year -- if all goes well -- we will spend $5 billion more. The porch is gone. Now the very financial structure of our house is being eaten away.”

McClintock also had perhaps the most obscure line in the debate, one he also has used in the past to describe the state budget.

“Shakespeare’s words come to mind,” McClintock said. “ ‘Age, thou art shamed. Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods.’ ”

DWP Commission Chief Responds to Trailer-Gate

First, the questions were about political influence over contracts.

Then, about pricey and possibly padded bills for public relations.

And now, there are questions about whether the president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission is misusing his taxpayer-funded assigned parking space.

It seems that Dominick Rubalcava has been parking a trailer he owns in the DWP headquarters garage on and off for two years.

Now, normally, this would probably not raise many eyebrows.

But, following on the heels of other controversies at the DWP, trailer-gate has set off critics of DWP’s management.

“Basically, he is treating city property as his own,” said Jim Alger, a longtime DWP critic. “He should reimburse the city for the storage costs.”

The trailer is built to carry two motorcycles and is the size of a small car, Rubalcava said, explaining that he has stored it in the parking space at DWP headquarters that is assigned to him as an unpaid commissioner.

There are plenty of empty parking spaces in the garage, he said, so when he drives to the DWP offices for work he can easily find a spot to park without depriving others of parking.

Word of his trailer is making the rounds among neighborhood councils, so, faced with adding another ding to the dent in the DWP’s reputation, Rubalcava said, “I probably won’t park it there anymore. It’s not a big deal.”

Points Taken

* Some thoroughbreds already have moved to the gate in the race for the Democratic primary in the 42nd Assembly District, which includes much of West Los Angeles, even though the election is not until 2006. William Brien, former president of the Beverly Hills school board and grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, has raised $50,000. Former Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer has raised $181,000. Abbe Land, a West Hollywood city councilwoman and former mayor, also has joined the race, but not yet reported her fundraising to- tals.

* A juicy film role is being readied for state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who is responsible for such acclaimed movies as “Boogie Nights,” says Santa Monica attorney Paul Gough, a Burton friend who is Anderson’s uncle. “The part does involve a politician who is kind of grouchy and loud-mouthed, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch,” Gough teased. Burton gruffly dismissed the idea that he would appear in a movie, but his denial seemed suspiciously like a man rehearsing to play the role of a grouchy politician in a film.

* In a feat that could ensure a sweet future in Orange County politics, Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes won first place at the Orange County Fair for his oranges.

You Can Quote Me

“Our vice president, he said a really bad word. If I said that word, I would be put in a timeout. I think he should be put in a timeout.”

-- Twelve-year-old Ilana Wexler of Oakland, founder of Kids for Kerry, addressing the Democratic National Convention about an expletive uttered recently by Vice President Dick Cheney at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont on the Senate floor.

This week’s contributors include Times staff writers Noam N. Levey and Jean O. Pasco.