Ferraro Tries to Squeeze In on Hahn’s Act

In a display of political bravado, mayoral challenger John Ferraro popped up uninvited Friday at the office of Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, trying to squeeze in on a press conference that had been scheduled by the longtime ally of incumbent Mayor Tom Bradley.

Ferraro, a city councilman, had just completed a morning press conference attacking Bradley, when he decided to swing by Hahn’s press conference on Southern California Rapid Transit District fares, Ferraro campaign spokeswoman Sandy Conlan said.

“It was sort of a last-minute inspiration,” she said.

Accompanying Ferraro was his campaign manager, Ron Smith, who also is running the Los Angeles city attorney campaign of Murray Kane, an opponent of Hahn’s son, James Hahn, who is the city controller.

“It would have been very, very awkward . . . I’ve never seen that happen,” said Dan Wolf, Supervisor Hahn’s press deputy.

A shocked Hahn said his reaction to Ferraro’s presence was: “What are you doing here?”

However, Hahn, no amateur in the publicity game, also intuitively knew the answer. In a campaign, politicians sometimes do funny things to get media coverage, he said.

Ferraro said he merely wanted to support Hahn’s call for maintaining the current 50-cent basic bus fare by using a portion of $72 million in transit funds held by the county’s 84 cities for use in running minibus programs and other local transit projects.

The RTD has proposed raising its fares because on July 1, much of the special sales tax fund it receives must by law be diverted to rail transit projects.

Hahn’s aides, suggesting that Ferraro call his own press conference, quietly ushered the mayoral candidate out of the office.

About that time, a call came into Hahn’s office from City Hall.

“Someone from the City Council said they’d heard Ferraro was here and they needed him for a quorum,” Wolf said.