Riordan, Woo Air Attack Ads

Stepping up their attacks on each other, rival Los Angeles mayoral candidates Richard Riordan and Michael Woo have aired new TV ads.

THE RIORDAN AD: Dubbed the “Hollywood cesspool ad” by an aide to a Riordan rival, the commercial shows gritty streets, graffiti-splattered walls and a body on a coroner’s gurney. “Councilman Mike Woo’s Hollywood district: crime, drugs, unemployment, homelessness, graffiti,” says a narrator. “Mike Woo: eight years on the L.A. City Council, eight years of decline. Four murders a day. America’s most under-policed city. A $500-million deficit. Three hundred sixty-five thousand jobs lost. Now, Councilman Woo wants to be mayor. Does he really deserve the promotion?”

THE ANALYSIS: Riordan seeks to blame Woo for matters that go beyond a city councilman’s area of sole responsibility. For example, the city’s potential “$500-million deficit” is due to a lingering recession and threatened cuts in state aid. During Woo’s council tenure, Hollywood has experienced some successes and setbacks. There have been improvements in social services, but Woo’s grand plans for revitalizing Hollywood have yet to materialize, and the area remains run-down.

THE WOO AD: “He says he’ll fight crime, but Riordan opposes our police chief’s plan to add 1,000 cops,” says a narrator. “He says he’s for a woman’s right to choose. But Riordan gave $10,000 to a right-wing anti-choice group. He brags about saving Mattel, but what he doesn’t tell you is Dick Riordan closed two L.A. factories and shipped our jobs here to Mexico.” The ad features pictures of Ken and Barbie dolls that Riordan used in his own ads as symbols of his efforts to save Mattel. But after showing the dolls, Woo’s ad flashes a picture of a Mexican factory with the distinctive Mattel logo. The ad closes: “Dick Riordan. Not even tough enough to tell the truth.”

THE ANALYSIS: Riordan opposes the proposed tax increase on Tuesday’s ballot to hire 1,000 additional police and instead favors leasing city-owned Los Angeles International Airport to a private operator--a plan that he contends would raise enough money to fund 3,000 additional police. A new city report, however, casts doubt on previous revenue projections from leasing of the airport. Riordan has said that he supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion, but among his numerous political contributions was $10,000 in 1991 to Americans United For Life, an anti-abortion group. Riordan was part of a corporate restructuring at Mattel that led to closing its last Los Angeles-based production facility, layoffs of 250 workers and transfer of its manufacturing operation to Mexico.