Candidates Trade Barbs as Race Enters Final Stretch

As L.A.’s lopsided mayoral campaign entered its final weekend, incumbent Richard Riordan spent Friday collecting a string of endorsements from predictable sources, while challenger Tom Hayden employed a reliable tactic for getting on television: posing with puppies.

But while Riordan’s packed schedule ended up being largely back-to-back photo opportunities, Hayden’s morning news conference raised serious issues about the city’s troubled Animal Regulation Department.

“They’re simply destroying these animals over here. [Riordan’s] appointing people as political plums, who don’t know anything about animals,” said the Democratic state senator, holding a mixed-breed dog named Lobo that he found in an East L.A. garage while on the campaign trail and later adopted. “We should set a new standard of zero kills. The animals that we love and call pets can be saved.”

Surrounded by about 30 supporters and animal rights activists--including a former Riordan appointee who was recently removed from the animal commission--Hayden said the mayor has overseen an 8% rise in the kill rate for animals, bringing it to 59%, and that San Francisco and Santa Barbara kill only about 3% of the animals brought to their shelters.

He also criticized the department for having just one veterinarian on staff to handle more than 67,000 animals, and said technicians often handle veterinary duties, sometimes risking the creatures’ well-being.

“This animal care system is an archaic system with no heart,” said former Commissioner Russ Cook, who was ousted after one of his colleagues became so frustrated with him that she threw a water bottle at him during a public hearing. “Standing on my left here is the solution: Tom.”

Steve Afriat, president of the Animal Regulation Commission, acknowledged that the department has serious problems, but said he is hard at work trying to solve them. He noted that there are three veterinarian positions budgeted, and said it has been difficult to fill them both because the city offers low salaries and because of intimidation from the “radical humane community.”

He disputed Hayden’s figures regarding euthanasia rates here and in San Francisco, and said Los Angeles shelters had been killing more animals recently because the department had been conducting sweeps of pit bulls and other dangerous dogs, especially in South Los Angeles.

“We’d be happy to adopt any of those vicious dogs out to Tom Hayden that he would like to adopt,” Afriat said. “He’s got a large house and probably has room for some.”

Riordan’s campaign spokesman was similarly flip.

“With the polls showing Hayden is in the doghouse,” Riordan’s campaign press secretary Todd Harris said, “this is obviously a desperate ploy designed to garner cheap headlines.”

The mayor, though, spent his day courting the media as well.

He started the day at City Hall announcing 1,300 new jobs downtown, courtesy of Prudential Insurance Co., and ended it glad-handing in Farmers Market, promising a fund in his forthcoming budget to help bring fresh produce and homemade crafts to neighborhoods throughout the city. In between, he received the endorsements of the conservative Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., City Council members Hal Bernson and John Ferraro, and state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles).

“L.A. needs this man,” Ferraro said. “Let’s get him back in office on Tuesday.”

Bernson, a conservative, praised Riordan for having the “courage” to veto the living wage ordinance, even though supporters obviously had enough votes to override. Bernson left the room rather than cast a vote against the measure, which will boost pay and benefits for workers on city contracts.

When a reporter asked Rosenthal--who was beaten by Hayden in 1992, only to return to the Senate after districts were redrawn a few years later--to comment on Riordan’s opponent, the mayor rushed to interject.

“Speak no ill of the dead,” he joked.

At Farmers Market, the mayor moved easily among the crowds of senior citizens sipping coffee and tea, enjoying a pistachio ice cream cone until it melted. He told a group of World War II refugees from Germany and Austria that “we’re proud to have you as Angelenos,” and flirted with an actress from Chicago.

“Are you going to be as nice when you’re famous as you are now?” the mayor asked the young woman.

“Are you?” she turned the question back on him.

“Of course not,” he said. Earlier, when a reporter asked Riordan what the worst part of being reelected would be, the mayor quipped: “My dogs won’t see me as much.”

The confidence mirrors the approach in Riordan’s third and final campaign spot, which debuted Thursday and will run through election day. It replaces an ad criticizing Hayden’s legislative voting and attendance record with a serene, glowing portrayal in which the mayor speaks directly to voters for the first time.

“We’ve been through rough times, but we’ve fought back from economic recession and a devastating earthquake,” says Riordan, who is pictured in a sport coat and red plaid shirt, his collar open. “I love Los Angeles, and in the next four years we can do even more. That’s why on April 8, I hope you’ll give me that chance.”

Times staff writer Jim Newton also contributed to this story.