Hahn Unleashes a TV Ad Blitz at Villaraigosa

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn began a final burst of television advertising in his reelection campaign Tuesday with a scathing spot that accused rival Antonio Villaraigosa of doing “special favors” at City Hall for Florida campaign donors.

Dogged for months by accusations of impropriety in his fundraising, Hahn is using his first television ad of the runoff race to raise doubts about Villaraigosa’s integrity.

It aired a day after the city councilman had started running an equally harsh ad that rips Hahn for criminal investigations of city contracting and the mayor’s fundraising.

“After collecting their money in Florida, Villaraigosa did special favors for many of these Florida businesses in the L.A. City Council,” an announcer says in Hahn’s ad. “Now the district attorney has opened an investigation of Villaraigosa’s fundraising.”

The ad, debuting two weeks before election day, shows Villaraigosa saying, “I’ll lead by example.” The announcer concludes: “The Villaraigosa example of special favors for special contributors: Los Angeles just can’t trust Antonio Villaraigosa.”

Hahn’s ad draws on Villaraigosa’s recent acceptance of $47,000 in donations from employees of two Florida firms and their family members.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said last week that he was opening a preliminary “money laundering” inquiry. His announcement followed news reports that some employees seemed confused about the donations or had difficulty explaining them -- and that the companies could be interested in concessions contracts at Los Angeles International Airport.

Villaraigosa, who pledged last week to return the donations, has denied helping the Florida contributors.

“These are desperate lies from a desperate man,” said Ace Smith, his campaign manager. “And from the same guy who ran the dirtiest campaign in American history four years ago, it’s not surprising.”

Hahn’s ad went on the air after seven days of unchallenged commercials from Villaraigosa -- a delay that underlines the troubled circumstances of the mayor’s campaign. Low poll ratings have led to lackluster fund-raising, which has made it hard for Hahn to buy the television ad time that he needs to reach voters with an anti-Villaraigosa message.

With that backdrop, Hahn had little choice but to “launch a blitzkrieg,” said Steven P. Erie, a political science professor at UC San Diego.

“What you have to aim for is a knockout punch,” he said. “You have to go negative in a very, very big way. You have a very small window of opportunity to engage voters.”

He called Hahn’s predicament “a reversal of the normal pattern” for incumbents. Typically, they leverage the powers of office to raise large sums of campaign money, which then discourages strong challengers from trying to unseat them -- or puts those who do at a disadvantage.

But in Hahn’s case, the mayor’s weak poll ratings last year drew four major challengers, who joined forces to attack him for months over the criminal probes of city contracting and his campaign fundraising.

In the March 8 election, Hahn captured 24% of the vote, squeaking into the runoff with Villaraigosa, who won 33%. Since then, Hahn has been unable to raise cash as quickly as Villaraigosa. For the 10-week runoff race, each was required by city law to start from scratch.

But as of April 2, reports show, Hahn had raised barely $408,000, while Villaraigosa had collected $653,000. On April 18, Villaraigosa reported that he had raised $1.8 million. Two weeks later, Hahn has yet to reach that milestone.

Kam Kuwata, a senior Hahn campaign advisor, played down the significance of Villaraigosa’s head start in TV advertising. With the help of labor union volunteers, Hahn’s campaign calls more than 5,000 voters a day, he said.

“TV is not the only way to communicate,” Kuwata said. “We put a significant amount of our campaign resource dollars into our grass-roots program.”

Hahn also has had the help of nearly $1 million in independent expenditures on his behalf, much of it from labor unions. Independent spending on Villaraigosa’s behalf has reached nearly $700,000, including $185,000 in new radio ads purchased by an arm of the United Teachers-Los Angeles union.

Until Tuesday night, Hahn’s paid advertising for the runoff was mostly by mail, which is cheaper than television but reaches far fewer voters.

In fliers to African Americans, he has touted his record in appointing blacks to city jobs. In mail to conservatives, Hahn has hammered Villaraigosa’s votes, as a state assemblyman, on crime, describing him as soft on gang violence and child abuse.

On Tuesday, Hahn campaigned in MacArthur Park, where he boasted of a drop in crime in the area under Police Chief William J. Bratton.

“I think the Hahn-Bratton approach has proven results -- especially in a place like this,” Hahn said.

During his news conference, helicopters buzzed overhead: A robbery suspect had barricaded himself in a liquor store down the street. Police surrounded the store, and the man was taken into custody after being shot with a stun gun, said police spokesman Lt. Paul Vernon.

Amid the hubbub, Hahn also renewed his attack on Villaraigosa’s approach to gang violence. Asked about his failure to keep a 2001 campaign pledge to expand the city police force by 1,000 officers, Hahn blamed the “budget mess created by the Sacramento politicians” and named Villaraigosa, a former state Assembly speaker, as the main culprit.

“He created the mess that kept us from having the money that would have hired more police officers,” Hahn said.

Villaraigosa, who has made attacks on Hahn’s ethics the focus of his campaign, continued defending his fundraising practices Tuesday in Westwood, where he appeared with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) at Fairburn Avenue Elementary School.

“I know that my challenge and my responsibility in a city where people have lost trust and confidence in the mayor is to restore that trust and confidence,” he said.

In explaining his attack ad, Villaraigosa accused Hahn of distorting his record. “We want to set the record straight on the important issues of the campaign, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said.

He added: “These commercials are a way of saying, ‘Hey, he’s got a record as well.’ And we want to share that with the people of Los Angeles.”

The commercials during the runoff have been notable for their negativism. Usually, given adequate fundraising, candidates air “positive” spots extolling their plans and, having created a rationale for their election, then savage the foe.

In this case, Villaraigosa’s first ad -- on education -- criticized Hahn before praising the councilman. It aired for six days before the anti-Hahn fundraising commercial was added.

Hahn’s ad Tuesday returned the favor. In it, his campaign cited $179,000 in donations from Florida to Villaraigosa, saying that “many of them” were from corporate interests that are seeking L.A. city contracts. The total money in question, however, is about one-quarter of that amount.

Times staff writers Daniel Hernandez and Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.