Mayoral Candidates Opt for Ground Game on Last Day

Months of rancorous campaigning in the Los Angeles mayoral race drew to a close Monday, with candidates scattering across the city in a final burst of handshakes and personal appeals to voters who will head to the polls today.

Mayor James K. Hahn and his four lead challengers toned down their harsh rhetoric in the campaign’s final hours. Instead, they stuck largely to promoting their candidacies as they fanned out to Panorama City, Hollywood, San Pedro and other spots across the city’s vast, traffic-clogged terrain.

The major candidates, all Democrats, also spent much of the day trying to stir enthusiasm among the campaign workers who will goad supporters to show up and vote before polls close tonight. The election, Hahn told several dozen union volunteers downtown, “is about hitting those phones, calling everybody you know, hitting the pavement, knocking on those doors.”

As Hahn campaigned for a second term, his main challengers -- state Sen. Richard Alarcon of Sun Valley, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and City Councilmen Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa -- pressed their case for shifting direction at City Hall.

“It’s time for a change,” Villaraigosa told crowds over and over on a 13-stop daylong journey from Boyle Heights to the Crenshaw district by way of Sherman Oaks and the Westside.

Hertzberg, a Sherman Oaks lawyer, campaigned on Hahn’s home turf in San Pedro before heading back to more familiar political territory in the San Fernando Valley. Parks dashed from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where he touted efforts to lure a professional football team to Los Angeles, to the Valley, where he spent much of his day passing out campaign fliers. And Alarcon, stumping in the pre-dawn darkness, greeted sanitation workers and Metrolink commuters in his Valley Senate district.

Polls open this morning at 7 and close tonight at 8. If no one wins more than 50% of the vote in the mayoral election, the top two candidates will meet in a May 17 runoff.

Also on the ballot today is City Controller Laura Chick, who is running for reelection against challenger Mervin Evans, a management consultant. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo is also seeking a second term, but he has no opponent.

Seven members of the City Council are seeking reelection, three of them with no opposition. On the Westside, an open seat in the 11th District has drawn a spirited contest between candidates Flora Gil Krisiloff, Bill Rosendahl and Angela Reddock.

A large share of the electorate has already cast ballots by mail. By Monday afternoon, the city clerk’s office had received just over 100,000 ballots, said City Clerk Frank Martinez. The city mailed out 198,000 absentee ballots. Voters must return them to a polling place or to the clerk’s office no later than 8 p.m. Postmarks do not count.

Overall, the clerk’s office expects roughly a third of the city’s 1.5 million registered voters to cast ballots. If any contest is close, the final tally may not be known for weeks, said Arleen P. Taylor, chief of the city clerk’s election division. “It’s a pretty painstaking process,” Taylor said.

In the mayor’s race, the campaigns bombarded voters Monday with mail, home visits and phone calls, many of them automated. And despite the less combative tone of the candidates in their public appearances, the tenor of their television advertising remained brutal.

After months of struggling to capture the public’s attention, the candidates also managed to grab top spots on the local news as they raced across the city promoting themselves.

Hahn wrapped up his campaign day with an appearance at Hollywood’s Sunset Room, where roughly 150 supporters gathered beneath a mirrored disco ball and chanted “Four More Years!”

“From Boyle Heights to Westchester, from Winnetka to downtown, this is a town that works,” Hahn shouted in remarks timed to put him live on the evening news. “And works for everyone.”

Earlier, Hahn campaigned in San Pedro, the Valley and the Mid-City area, starting at the Omelette & Waffle Shop near his San Pedro home. With his sister, Councilwoman Janice Hahn, and several dozen supporters, Hahn ate waffles with bananas and whipped cream for breakfast.

“I’m hoping for No. 1 on Tuesday,” he said.

Hahn repeatedly returned to the central themes of his campaign, touting a drop in crime on his watch and his hiring of William J. Bratton as police chief.

“People are going to be surprised how many people appreciate that we’ve worked hard to make this a safer city,” Hahn told radio host Steve Harvey on KKBT-FM (100.3).

On a more aggressive note, Hahn predicted success in making the runoff -- and in winning reelection in May.

“We will bury whoever is left on Wednesday,” he told reporters in North Hollywood.

That remark drew a sharp response from Hertzberg, who said it was “sad to hear that kind of talk.”

“This idea that I’m going to bury you, it’s the exact same reason he’s in the ethical problems that he is today,” Hertzberg told reporters. Greeting scores of seniors in Reseda over their lunch of soup, bread, vegetables and chicken, Hertzberg marveled at how “phenomenal” several of the elderly women looked.

“I’m going to hug and kiss everyone,” said Hertzberg, who has made hugs a trademark of his political style.

Hertzberg, who along with Villaraigosa was the target of a Hahn attack ad shown repeatedly Monday on local television stations, was more confrontational than rivals in the final stretch of the campaign.

In San Pedro, where Hahn had touted efforts to fight pollution from the harbor, Hertzberg said, “What is happening at the port is unconscionable.”

“The fact that you have a mayor of the city of Los Angeles who lives in the port and has done virtually nothing to solve this problem is really a crime,” he said.

Villaraigosa campaigned Monday morning on Cesar Chavez Boulevard in Boyle Heights, where supporters waved campaign signs at motorists. The candidate hopped on and off MTA buses to make quick plugs to passengers during their 7 a.m. commute. In Spanish, he told people at a bus stop: “Everyone has to vote, if you can vote.”

Later, he stood with Los Angeles police, traffic officers and building inspectors to announce the shutdown of an alleged drug house in Highland Park.

“Today, we’re taking one more step in reclaiming our neighborhood,” said Villaraigosa, who helped tape a “Vacated” sign on the crumbling building.

In Eagle Rock, Villaraigosa greeted seniors at a Filipino community center. Using the Tagalog word for “long life,” he told them “Mabuhay,” with a bow.

“Mabuhay!” the seniors shouted back.

He also took the hand of an elderly woman and danced a mambo.

At a Westside mall, a teenager told Villaraigosa, “I’ve seen your commercials. Something about Enron.”

“No, no, that’s the other guy,” said Villaraigosa, referring to a Hahn attack ad.

In Van Nuys, Villaraigosa recalled his bitter 2001 runoff contest with Hahn, saying, “I won’t have my record misrepresented again, and I won’t be demonized twice.”

Parks continued Monday to cast himself as a business-friendly candidate who would be tough on fiscal matters. He touted his plan to attract a National Football League team to the Coliseum as an important step for L.A., and vowed to hold the line on salary increases for city employees.

He said he would discontinue pay hikes for city workers “until revenues catch up with the salary and benefit increases city employees have received under Mayor Hahn.”

Parks also said he was dismayed that the media has not always portrayed him as a top candidate. “This race is not a three-person race,” he said, referring to polls suggesting Hahn, Hertzberg and Villaraigosa were in a tie for the lead. “It’s wide open.”

The councilman spent most of the day in the Valley, talking to business owners and shoppers in strip malls. In Northridge, Parks met a local Rotary Club at the China Olive Buffet restaurant, where the members sang “God Bless America.”

Accompanied by his daughter Andrea, Alarcon rode in a bus emblazoned with campaign signs to a factory in Pacoima. He also boarded a Metrolink commuter train in North Hollywood. And at his campaign office in Sun Valley, Alarcon said that his candidacy will have been good for Los Angeles, regardless of how the election turns out.

“People really need a populist message,” said Alarcon, who has emphasized his plan to stem the influence of campaign money at City Hall.

Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak, Richard Fausset, Jessica Garrison, Daniel Hernandez and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Today’s elections

Although the race for mayor of Los Angeles has received the most attention, eight City Council seats also will be decided, and there are municipal elections in 35 other cities in Los Angeles County.

Polls: The polls will be open from

7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. To find your polling place or view a sample ballot for your city, go to www.lavote.net/locator.

Help line: The city of Los Angeles’ election help line is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (213) 978-0444.

Results: Go to www.latimes.com for complete election results.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times