Riordan Campaign Says Hayden Missed Nearly 5,000 Senate Votes

Launching its first official attack in the 1997 campaign season, Mayor Richard Riordan’s reelection team on Monday called on challenger Tom Hayden to apologize 4,988 times to his constituents--once for every vote he has missed in the state Senate over the past four years.

“The real irony of this campaign is this man who claims to be the guru of participatory democracy is not even taking part in the democratic process,” said Riordan campaign spokesman Todd Harris, citing statistics from a Sacramento data service that show Hayden had missed 19% of the more than 25,000 committee and floor votes since 1989 and had the third-worst attendance record in the Senate last year.

Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said he skips legislative sessions when they are less important, choosing instead to spend time in his district “working on issues I care about.”

He noted that hundreds of votes each year are procedural items moving bills from one committee to another or ceremonial resolutions honoring foreign dignitaries and groups like the Girl Scouts.

“We shouldn’t be fooled by numerical arguments. The question is: What were the votes on, and what were you doing otherwise,” Hayden said, adding that because he spends fewer days in Sacramento than many of his colleagues, he collects less per diem pay from taxpayers.

“This is lies, lies and bigger lies in order to distract attention from the issues in the mayor’s race,” he added. “These guys would like me to go back to Sacramento instead of campaigning for mayor.”

Hayden also said that during his 15-year tenure in Sacramento he has an average voting record of 90%, higher than the 80% average over the past four sessions.

Riordan could not be reached for comment late Monday.

As his campaign fired off its inaugural press release, the chief executive was on national television, introducing “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” for its visit to Los Angeles (the show was taped Sunday; the only event listed on the mayor’s schedule Monday was an evening visit to the Police Academy for graduation).

The attendance accusations--which include taunts of Riordan’s opponent as “Truant Tom”--are ironic coming from a mayor often criticized in City Hall for his low public profile.

During eight years as a member of the Recreation and Parks Commission before he was elected to the city’s top job in 1993, Riordan attended only 65% of the biweekly meetings and arrived late so often that his colleagues gave him a clock as a parting gift.

There is no clear way to gauge attendance for a mayor of Los Angeles; the mayor doesn’t vote on the hundreds of pieces of legislation passed weekly by the City Council. Riordan, though, has repeatedly opted against even signing or vetoing legislation--the traditional role for an executive--instead letting bills become law without his signature rather than engaging in political battles.

He rarely testifies at public hearings, often refuses to comment on pending legislation, and holds few news conferences.

Before the start of this year’s campaign, there frequently were days when the mayor had no public events scheduled; other times, there were two or three appearances for the entire day.

“The mayor is an effective leader for the city of Los Angeles,” Harris said.

“Whether he exercises that leadership by being a public gadfly or by working behind the scenes is up to discretion of the mayor.”

Asked about Riordan’s attendance while a parks commissioner, Harris added: “Tom Hayden takes a public salary, is elected by the people to represent them . . . that’s night and day from an appointed commission.”

The Riordan press release cited three examples of topics of votes Hayden missed in recent sessions: lengthy prison terms for gang members, a grant for crime prevention on school campuses and a bill strengthening law enforcement’s response to domestic violence calls.

But Hayden’s office said he voted for the grant to fight school crime and for the domestic violence bill when they came to the floor for final votes, and that he skipped the gang vote because he doesn’t think people deserve severe punishment simply for belonging to a gang.