Sheriff Block, Assessor Hahn Say Staffs Share Their Victories : County: Both tell employees that reelection is a vote of confidence in their departments’ performance.

Sheriff Sherman Block and Los Angeles County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn savored reelection victories Wednesday by advising the personnel in their departments that the votes for them amounted to a vote of confidence in the work the employees are doing.

In a message to all 12,000 sheriff’s deputies and non-sworn members of his agency, Block declared, “My reelection is not so much a personal victory as it is a reflection of how the people we serve view (your) performance.”

Hahn too declared, “This is not only a vote of confidence for me but also for the employees in my department.”

Block ended up getting 53.5% of the votes in the sheriff’s race, which had six candidates, and Hahn got 56.5% of the vote in a 16-candidate race. Both officeholders thus escaped November runoffs.

Block’s margin was the lowest of any of the four sheriff’s races he has won. This time he had an opponent, sheriff’s reserve captain and businessman Robert Irmas, who outspent him and had a TV ad campaign while Block had none. Hahn, by contrast, faced little advertising and few mailings against him.

Campaign consultant Joseph Cerrell, not affiliated with any of the candidates in either race, said Wednesday, “The constituency of Los Angeles County offices is greater than 44 states of the Union. How do you unseat an incumbent when you have to reach 10 million people just to find those who vote?”

Another reflection of how difficult it is to overcome the high name identification of the officeholders was runner-up Irmas’ suggestion that next time he might try to run for an office in a district with a smaller area and population, where his campaign funds would stretch further.

Block said in an interview that he was well satisfied with his margin of victory. “I feel I won by a landslide when you consider my nearest runner-up got only 17% of the vote,” he said.

Hahn, meanwhile, took issue with those who suggest that the only reason he keeps winning is that the voters confuse him with retired Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a much-loved Los Angeles political figure over many decades.

“I’m sure (my victories are) not a confusion with the former supervisor,” the assessor said in an interview. “The name has been good, the name is recognizable, but it is also recognizable for the achievements I have made.”

Nonetheless, Hahn noted that the other Kenneth Hahn was his honorary campaign chairman. “I called Supervisor Hahn today,” he said. “He told me, ‘I’ve sure been pulling for you.’ ” Cerrell, however, commented simply, “The Hahn name is still a good name,” and Joe Scott, a consultant to the fourth-ranking candidate in the voting, former Assessor John J. Lynch, declared, “Although every paper said this was not the same Kenny Hahn, the name was still there in the voters’ minds.”

Both winners Wednesday were already looking forward to their next four years, with Hahn vowing to continue to fairly re-evaluate properties that have lost taxable value due to the real estate downturn, and Block saying he would remain dedicated to the Sheriff’s Department doing the best it can with limited fiscal resources.

Block, who has tried to develop a more ethnically diverse department, marked his victory by appointing three new sheriff’s captains, one white, one black and one Latino.