Hayden to Challenge Riordan in Mayoral Race, Sources Say

In a move likely to change next spring’s election for mayor of Los Angeles from a coronation to a cat fight, state Sen. Tom Hayden has decided to challenge incumbent Richard Riordan, several sources said Thursday.

Though Hayden and his aides stopped short Thursday of officially entering the race, the senator this week picked up the endorsement of the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, and has privately told several politicos here and in Sacramento that he will be a candidate.

“He definitely intends to run; he simply has not announced it officially yet,” said ADA President Ann Marie Staas, whose board of directors met Wednesday evening with Hayden and voted to endorse him. “He said, quote, I intend to run, close quote.”

Hayden, who recently moved from Santa Monica to Mandeville Canyon in Los Angeles, acknowledged that he is “definitely moving in that direction” and is “close” to a decision, but declined to specify when he would file papers to get his name on the April 1997 ballot. The deadline to enter the race is mid-January.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas--another oft-mentioned potential candidate--said Hayden left a message on his answering machine recently that said, “I’m in, are you in?” Asked Thursday whether he would run himself, Ridley-Thomas replied coyly: “Watch my feet.”

Councilman Nate Holden, who has run twice for mayor and is rumored to be considering another stab at it, said Thursday that he has yet to make up his mind whether to become a candidate or support Hayden.

“It’s clear that the people in my district are not happy with the mayor, don’t feel he is representing them,” Holden said. “I have not ruled [running for mayor] out.”

Asked about Hayden’s candidacy, Riordan said simply, “It’ll be fun.” His campaign managers, Bill Wardlaw and Bill Carrick, said the mayor will still win handily.

“I don’t think that anybody who takes a hard look at it is going to say we’re looking at a situation where anybody’s going to beat Dick Riordan,” Carrick said. “Tom has a fondness for using campaigns as a platform or a megaphone to expound on his pet issues. He’s just looking for another megaphone.”

Most political observers agree that Riordan--a multimillionaire businessman who has already amassed a $1.7-million campaign war chest and collected a string of endorsements from prominent women and African Americans--will probably be reelected regardless of who runs against him. Still, experts said Thursday, a Hayden candidacy will add an intriguing twist. With wide name recognition, a significant personal fortune of his own and great access to the media, Hayden will at least cramp Riordan’s style if not steal his votes, they predicted.

“That’ll make it a little bit more entertaining,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant in Los Angeles. “Remember, this is a Democratic city. Riordan is the first Republican ever to be elected mayor in modern times. So he’d be very foolish to take any race against any opponent for granted.”

A Times poll in June found that Riordan would beat Hayden in a head-to-head race 59% to 30%.

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at Claremont Graduate School, said, “You can never underestimate Hayden.” Rick Taylor, a consultant who has supported Riordan on several issues, said the move would make the mayor “launch a more serious campaign.”

“The last thing in the world the Riordan people should do is underestimate him,” said Michael Dieden, a public affairs and real estate consultant who is a longtime friend of Hayden and used to work for him. “He’ll be at Riordan day in and day out, week in and week out. He’ll never give up. He’s a tough Irish street kid from Detroit. No one who runs against Tom Hayden, their life is ever the same afterward.”

Hayden, who turns 57 next week, launched his political career while at the University of Michigan, leading the civil rights and antiwar group Students for a Democratic Society and playing a key role in organizing the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

His next claim to fame was marrying actress-activist Jane Fonda, though the pair split several years ago; his current wife is actress Barbara Williams. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1976 and for California governor two years ago. He has written eight books.

Elected to the state Assembly in 1982 and the Senate a decade later, Hayden has spent the past 14 years in Sacramento railing against political corruption and trying to save the environment. An unabashed liberal with a maverick’s style, he has gained notoriety in recent years for holding investigative hearings on the hottest news topics of the day, including the Orange County bankruptcy, the Irvine fertility scandal, accusations of favoritism in UCLA admissions and the controversy over St. Vibiana’s Cathedral.

His mayoral bid will probably focus on the problems plaguing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and on neighborhood empowerment, though he has also opposed Riordan recently on reforming the city’s charter and on plans to build a hockey and basketball arena downtown.

“There are two choices. The MTA will die a slow death, or it will be renewed,” Hayden said at a news conference Thursday outside the transit building he derides as the “Taj Majal.”

“The best way to renew it, it seems to me, is through the office of the mayor,” Hayden said. “I haven’t made a final decision yet, but my frustration is to such a point that I’m drawing closer.

“There are plenty of other issues out there,” he added. “Don’t they all come down to putting people first, and doing something that is more grounded in a dedication to the public interest rather than special interests?”

Wardlaw, Riordan’s leading political advisor, predicted that Hayden’s would be “a futile effort.”

“For me, it’s going to be fun,” he said. “I’ve never had the opportunity to work in a campaign against someone who has such a rich political history. I look forward to mining that very, very wealthy vein.”