Kane to Quit City Attorney Contest; Will Support Hahn

Attorney Murray Kane, who spent thousands of dollars telling voters that front-runner James Hahn is “a fraud . . . with a shameful prosecution record,” will drop out of the Los Angeles city attorney race today and endorse Hahn, a Kane campaign aide said Thursday night.

Kane will outline his reasons for withdrawing at a news conference with Hahn outside City Hall this morning, according to his campaign spokeswoman, Linda Sutton.

Kane could not be reached for comment, but Sutton said: “There’s always a choice in politics, and Murray doesn’t want to be a spoiler in the race. He’d rather have the two go head-to-head now.”

Sutton was referring to Hahn and Westside attorney Lisa Specht, who is trying to force Hahn into a June 4 runoff.

In another campaign development Thursday, the Los Angeles NAACP blasted Specht for a mailer sent to 300,000 households in the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods. The civil rights group--which has endorsed no one--said the mailer wrongly implied that it had endorsed Specht.

The tabloid newspaper-style mailer featured an article on its front page headlined, “NAACP Endorses Specht Position.” The article said Specht appeared at a press conference with officials of several local NAACP branches, who supported her call for suspension of police use of the controversial “battering ram” used to break into cocaine “rock houses.”

Los Angeles chapter President Raymond L. Johnson Jr. did not challenge the article but called the headline a “blatant misrepresentation” and “a last-minute attempt” to pick up black support for Specht. The chapter vice president, Melanie Lomax, said the mailer was clearly aimed at drawing black support from Hahn.

Hahn is the son of veteran Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, whose base of support is in Los Angeles’ black communities.

Kane’s expected withdrawal is the latest twist in a race that only two days ago had five candidates. The number has dwindled to two, with Wednesday’s withdrawal from the race by Deputy City Attys. Betsy Mogul and Charles Zinger.

Mogul and Zinger also endorsed Hahn over Specht, saying the younger Hahn, who is the city controller and a former deputy city attorney, is the superior candidate.

Exactly what Kane’s expected move will mean is uncertain. Despite any endorsement, his name, along with those of Zinger and Mogul, will remain on Tuesday’s primary election ballots, which have already been printed.

To win outright in the primary, one candidate must gain 50% plus one of the vote. Current polls show Hahn receiving support from between 36% and 44% of voters polled, with Specht receiving as much as 22% and the other three candidates far behind. About 25% of the voters polled say they are undecided.

Hahn also was not immediately available for comment, but Specht said she is “puzzled” by Kane’s expected endorsement of Hahn because of his harsh attacks against him in recent weeks.

“I think there’s something fishy here,” Specht said, after learning of the news. “I think this is a last-ditch effort by the professional politicians” to stop her.

Asked which politicians she was referring to, Specht said: “I don’t want to name names.”

Kane was the most aggressive and visible of the five original candidates and had spent more than $250,000 since last October in his drive to succeed Ira Reiner as city attorney.

Kane was the only major candidate to adopt an attack strategy, going after both Specht and Hahn as lacking the legal expertise to handle the city attorney’s job.

In recent weeks, however, Hahn became Kane’s principal target. Kane, in campaign appearances and radio commercials, tried to portray Hahn as a poor prosecutor who “made a mockery of the justice system.”

In one particularly harsh comment, Kane said: “There’s only one conclusion to draw--the guy’s a fraud and has an appalling prosecution record.”

In rebuking Specht on Thursday, NAACP officials went out of their way to speak kindly of Hahn, while not actually endorsing him.

The NAACP is forbidden by its charter from endorsing candidates for public office, Johnson said. However, to dispel any impression that the group is supporting Specht, the younger Hahn appeared with Johnson and Lomax at a press conference Thursday, where he was lauded for his “longtime support” of NAACP projects.

Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) also denounced the Specht mailer for featuring Waters in a photograph with two other state legislators headlined, “Lisa Specht Supporters.” Waters has endorsed Hahn.

The mailer, published as “The Community Democrat” by South-Central Los Angeles political consultant Willard H. Murray, endorses several Democratic candidates, most of whom paid for their spots on the slate.

Specht’s campaign consultant, Michael Berman, said Thursday that Specht had nothing to do with the content of the mailer but acknowledged that her campaign paid between $10,000 and $20,000 of the mailer’s $50,000 cost.

Publisher Murray defended the mailer as fair and accurate and said the articles beneath the offending captions make it clear that neither the NAACP nor Waters have officially endorsed Specht.

Murray said Specht “had no input as to the content (of the mailer).”