As Mayor Touts His Successes, Political Friction Increases

Mayor Richard Riordan gave himself high marks Tuesday for ushering in reform during 1999, and used his year-end news conference to deride the mayoral candidacy of City Atty. James K. Hahn, who is seeking to succeed Riordan with the help of the incumbent’s closest advisor and best friend.

Riordan was angered to learn Sunday that his friend and confidant, investment banker Bill Wardlaw, will support Hahn, and on Tuesday the mayor was visibly agitated when asked for his assessment of the decision’s importance.

“I respect Bill Wardlaw’s right to be wrong and to pick the weakest candidate,” Riordan said. Asked whether he believed Wardlaw’s move to the Hahn campaign as its new chairman would help the city attorney’s chances, Riordan crisply retorted: “I don’t think anything can increase Jimmy’s chances.”

Riordan is supporting commercial real estate broker Steve Soboroff in the mayor’s race, which is off to an early start as candidates attempt to raise money and build support for the April 2001 election. But the split between Riordan and Wardlaw already is having a ripple effect through the mayor’s race and other campaigns for city office.

Take the predicament of Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez. She works for Riordan and is contemplating a run for city controller, a campaign she would undertake with Riordan’s enthusiastic support. The catch is that she’s also hoping to have Wardlaw and his longtime friend and associate, Bill Carrick, run her campaign. So when Riordan’s angry at Wardlaw, it’s Rodriguez, among others, who’s caught in the middle.

There’s another complicating aspect of Rodriguez’s probable candidacy. Soboroff is counting on Riordan friends and allies to help bankroll his effort. For donors who would like to make Riordan happy by giving money but are reluctant to sign on with Soboroff, Rodriguez offers a way. They can give her a contribution instead--an idea that Wardlaw now is sure to encourage.

The cross-cutting allegiances were illustrated by Tuesday’s comments and the fallout from them: When Riordan dismissed Hahn’s relevance, aides to the city attorney referred questions to Carrick, who was the top consultant in Riordan’s 1997 reelection.

“With the apparent exclusion of the mayor . . . almost every observer of Los Angeles politics considers Jim Hahn a strong candidate,” Carrick said. “Most people see him as the front-runner. . . . To put it bluntly, I think the mayor has the right to be wrong.”

Soboroff was out of town and not reachable. But Soboroff’s campaign consultant, Ace Smith, cheerfully welcomed Riordan’s remarks. “They’re wonderful,” Smith said. “They show that he’s completely supportive of Steve, as he’s always been. The truth is there’s only one endorsement in the Riordan administration, and that’s Dick Riordan.”

In the camps of other mayoral candidates and possible candidates, aides snickered over Riordan’s comments, pleased to have the mayor turn on Hahn but unsure whether it reflected genuine unhappiness with the city attorney or just anger at his old friend Wardlaw breaking from the fold.

“If that’s what he’s saying publicly, imagine what he’s saying privately,” Councilman Joel Wachs chuckled. Despite his amusement at the fracas, Wachs added that he believes the shuffle of advisors will interest insiders but ultimately have little effect on the outcome in the mayor’s race. “In the last analysis, candidates have to stand on their own two feet,” he said.

California Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, another announced candidate for mayor, declined comment.

Most observers see Wardlaw’s move to the Hahn camp as potentially of great significance to the mayoral campaign--helping solidify the city attorney’s standing at the expense of Soboroff and other contenders. In the short run, however, some observers believe it is possible that Soboroff actually could benefit.

Proponents of that theory note that Wardlaw is a longtime friend of County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, himself a possible candidate for mayor. Assuming that Wardlaw’s decision to become chairman of the Hahn campaign either reflects Yaroslavsky’s decision not to run or makes it less likely that he will, that could help Soboroff get his campaign off to a good start. That’s true because Yaroslavsky, with his strong base in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside, would probably compete for the same voters Soboroff and City Councilman Joel Wachs are trying to woo.

Still, no one is going to be elected mayor without defeating Hahn at some point, and many observers believe Wardlaw will strengthen the city attorney’s candidacy for the long haul.

Indeed, despite Riordan’s pronouncement Tuesday that Hahn was the weakest candidate in the field, most observers believe Hahn today is the front-runner, an analysis reflected in a Times poll last year that showed him with far more name recognition than some of his probable rivals. During the charter campaign in 1999, Riordan and Hahn appeared together as leading supporters of the new city constitution.

Although Riordan’s comments regarding Hahn were the emotional flash point of his news conference, the mayor spent most of his time talking about the developments of the past year, principally the adoption of a new city charter and the replacement of three members of the school board--two efforts that Riordan spearheaded (ironically, with Wardlaw’s help).

“It was a great year,” he said. “We’ve come a long way.”

Riordan, who had dubbed 1999 the year of reform, named 2000 “the year of the child” and pledged to devote himself to issues that affect the lives of children.

“That is the most important thing in my life,” he said.

Riordan enters the final full year of his administration riding high: Residents approve of the job he’s done, crime is at a 30-year low and the local economy seems sound.

Still, there are trouble spots.

In the San Fernando Valley, there continue to be grumblings about secession. Without mentioning the city breakup specifically, Riordan took pains to reassure residents in that part of the city, trumpeting economic developments in Van Nuys and elsewhere.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, officials are grappling with a major scandal in and around the Rampart Division. Riordan said he believes the department leadership is well equipped to handle those problems.

And at Los Angeles International Airport, one of Riordan’s highest priorities--a multibillion-dollar expansion--is dogged by practical and political problems.

As is often the case with Riordan, the mayor’s most passionate commitments for the coming year involve children.

“We have failed children for too long,” he said in his prepared remarks. The inability of so many schoolchildren to read at their grade level, Riordan said, is “evil.”

Next week, Riordan intends to submit to the City Council a proposal to direct federal grant money to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods to help children in those communities. Riordan also said he expects to consult with school officials and others in the coming year in their efforts to improve the area’s educational system.