L.A. Mayor Candidates Hayden and Riordan

It seems to me to be extraordinarily hypocritical of The Times to endorse Richard Riordan in the mayoral election (editorial, March 30), while choosing not to investigate allegations about the mayor that have been printed in The Times, such as candidate Tom Hayden’s statement that Riordan accepted $20,000 as a donation from Tutor-Saliba.

We readers depend on The Times to inform us, and find answers that we can’t find ourselves. Instead, you have obfuscated matters with a hollow endorsement that omits mention of real issues such as the subway construction that has destroyed countless neighborhoods throughout our city. I know that some real facts about the mayor would help all of us make a sound decision on voting day.

PAUL ZOLLO

Los Angeles

* In his interview (Opinion, March 30), William McCarley reproves the mayor for confusing “leadership with goal fixation, and stubbornness with strength.” Luckily, his brilliant nonsense was no match to your common sense in endorsing the candidate: “Riordan is an oddity in big city politics, more doer than talker.” Let’s hope that such oddity becomes the rule, not the exception, at all levels of politics.

CARMELO GARIANO

Northridge

* The Times’ March 28 story regarding my demand for an apology from Hayden misses the point, and in doing so, gives undue credibility to Hayden’s far-flung accusations against me and my wife, Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

First, I never have had, nor will have, any investments in any part of the MTA project, and obviously have made no profit from it. Second, my company, Richard C. Blum & Associates, made an investment in Perini Corp. less than six weeks ago. When we did, in an effort to avoid any potential conflict of interest with my wife’s efforts to secure federal funding for the MTA project, it was a condition of my company’s purchase of Perini stock that they would have no further involvement with the MTA once we became shareholders. Hayden’s attempt to hold me accountable for work Perini may have done on the MTA before I invested is ludicrous.

Finally, the tragic death of MTA worker Jaime Pasillas happened in February. To accuse me of any responsibility for this man’s death in order to get publicity for his losing campaign for mayor is the sleaziest form of exploitation. Hayden should be ashamed for stooping so low.

RICHARD C. BLUM

San Francisco

* If Hayden’s March 28 commentary, “We Need to Restore ‘60s Idealism, Not Enshrine ‘80s Greed,” implies that his visits during that period to North Vietnam (and those of his wife, Jane Fonda), which caused an increase in the level of abuse and torture suffered by American POWs, were a result of “idealism,” he is the same fool I have always felt he was.

BILL BERNSTROM

Marina del Rey