Riordan Finds Bumpy Reelection Road

It’s been a politically uncheery holiday season for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. December has opened some potholes in his once-seemingly smooth road to reelection.

Consider some of the lumps of coal that Riordan found in his stocking this month:

* His fledgling city charter reform campaign was nearly derailed in a fight over signature sufficiency--even though Riordan had spent $400,000 of his money to qualify it. It remains unclear whether his call for an elected panel to rewrite the charter will get on the strategically important April 8 municipal primary ballot, when Riordan will be running for a second and final four-year term.

* The myriad problems at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where the mayor controls four of the 13 board appointments, prompted a public admonishment by federal Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to the board to put its house in order or risk losing funds. The infighting, budget and personnel problems are bringing closer scrutiny of the leadership of the mayor, whose choice for agency chief quit after less than a year.

* Police Chief Willie L. Williams, who many Riordan confidants were hoping would take a job in the U.S. Justice Department, announced to a roomful of supporters that he will apply for a second five-year term, setting up a potentially nasty and divisive fight over his job with the mayor’s Police Commission.

* City budget problems deepened on two fronts. The federal government stepped up its threats to withhold funding for area transportation projects unless the city returns $31 million in funds it transferred from Los Angeles International Airport--money Riordan has been counting on to help balance the budget and expand the Police Department. And City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie estimated there is a gap of $53 million in this fiscal year’s budget, which will make it all that harder for the mayor to persuade the council not to slow down his top-priority police expansion plan.

* Then there is Democratic state Sen. Tom Hayden, edging ever closer to making a mayoral challenge and stepping up his contrarian positions on just about everything the mayor does. For example, Hayden opposes the new sports arena the Riordan administration wants badly at the Convention Center, and argues passionately for a “living wage” ordinance that the mayor and business leaders are battling.

Hayden, recently reelected to his Santa Monica Mountains-straddling Senate seat, had remained noncommittal about the mayor’s race for months. There was speculation he would run for the City Council after Councilman Marvin Braude decided to retire from his Westside seat.

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But on Dec. 3, Hayden told the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action that he intended to run for mayor and got the group’s endorsement.

Although Hayden said last week that he will not announce his decision until after the holidays, his recent statements and activities have dashed the Riordan campaign’s hopes for a comfortable lope to reelection.

Few, if any, political analysts give Hayden much of a chance to defeat Riordan, who remains popular among voters and who has been busily raising money and working to expand on his base of white voters in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside. In addition, the mayor last month lined up endorsements from more than 30 prominent African Americans, a group he has traditionally fared poorly with.

Riordan’s main political advisor, longtime friend Bill Wardlaw, said the campaign has raised around $2.5 million, with Riordan willing to once again dip into his considerable personal wealth if need be.

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“I can’t imagine a scenario in which Tom Hayden could beat Dick Riordan,” said veteran Democratic political consultant Joseph Cerrell.

Even with the issues that have plagued Riordan, he is “not perceived by voters to have stubbed his toe,” Cerrell said. The mayor’s early and aggressive moves to line up money and endorsements show “he is not taking anything for granted.”

“But Hayden could do some real damage,” Cerrell added, especially if other seasoned politicians, such as Central City Councilman Nate Holden, also join the race. Filing opens Jan. 8.

The articulate, liberal Hayden--who, like Riordan, could draw on his personal bank account to help finance a mayoral campaign--has already provided some previews of the kind of aggressive campaign he would mount.

Last week, for example, he showed up at City Hall with a coalition of labor unions, community activists and clergy who are lobbying hard for a “living wage” ordinance. The measure, expected to go to the council next month, would require most companies receiving city financial assistance or holding city contracts to pay their service workers far more than the minimum wage: at least $7.50 an hour with such benefits as family health insurance, or $9.50 without benefits.

Riordan has denounced the proposal, saying it would drive up taxpayer costs, eliminate jobs and exacerbate the city’s reputation for hostility toward business. He vows to veto the living-wage ordinance if it wins City Council approval.

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The Living Wage Coalition fighting for the measure has countered that its costs would be minimal when weighed against the benefits of having more residents who can provide for their families without public assistance. During the holiday season, the coalition has made emotional appeals, sending empty paper plates to council members at Thanksgiving and ushering in the Christmas season by rewriting lyrics to traditional carols and singing them at City Hall.

On Wednesday, the coalition lined up actor David Clennon to dress up as the ghost of Jacob Marley, the like-minded business partner of Charles Dickens’ notorious tightwad, Ebenezer Scrooge. Dragging his chains and followed solemnly by coalition members, including a highly conspicuous Hayden, the actor-apparition from “A Christmas Carol” slowly picked his way around the massive Christmas tree in the Rotunda and came to Riordan’s office suite.

“Richard,” he intoned, “you must cease your opposition to the living-wage ordinance. It is simple justice, and no good can come of your opposing it. Continue to oppose it, and you cannot hope to shun the path I tread.”

Later, while Riordan took the podium in the City Council chambers to salute efforts to improve city contracting opportunities for women and minority companies, “Marley” and his entourage showed up, sitting conspicuously if silently in the audience while Hayden somehow wound up in the staff area beside the council seats.

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Later that day, Hayden showed up, minus the entourage, at a particularly rancorous meeting at the troubled MTA. He goaded Riordan into responding to remarks about the influence of campaign contributors on board decisions.

While a Hayden candidacy could make life unpleasant for the mayor, it could be a good thing for the city’s sluggish political process, several experts said. A contested mayoral election could break down the walls of Riordan’s orchestrated governing style, in which he rarely engages in spontaneous political debate.

“There is a sense of stasis in the city now, and nobody is focusing,” said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. “If Hayden becomes the public address system” and puts forth an agenda, “Riordan will have to articulate his own agenda and defend his record,” Jeffe said. An active contest would generate more press attention and, most likely, a higher voter turnout.

“Unless it’s a completely negative, mudslinging campaign, it will be a whole lot better for the city to have a [contest] that brings the issues front and center,” Jeffe said.