Mayoral Candidates Make Cases at Forum in South-Central

After a series of debates sponsored by some of the most conservative elements of Los Angeles--a business group, a homeowners association and a police union--candidates vying to succeed Mayor Richard Riordan debated for the first time Monday before an overwhelmingly liberal group in South-Central, and got an early look at the crevasses that crisscross this campaign.

The debate, sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and held in a jampacked church basement a few blocks from USC, offered a bookend to a similar panel discussion just 10 days ago. Both sessions featured the same candidates: Rep. Xavier Becerra, state Controller Kathleen Connell, City Atty. James K. Hahn, businessman Steve Soboroff, Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa and City Councilman Joel Wachs.

But the strikingly different audiences and issues highlighted the complexity of the city those six people are vying to lead.

The debate on Nov. 3 took place in the San Fernando Valley, where residents overwhelmingly like Riordan and generally express satisfaction that he and his administration have worked on their behalf. Nevertheless, the Valley is the center of a persistent campaign to break away from the rest of the city.

Monday’s event took place in a part of the city where many feel abandoned by Riordan and neglected by the government. And yet, those residents feel bound to the city as a whole even as they fiercely criticize its leadership.

Prodded by questioners, some of the candidates criticized the mayor--who twice won the office without the support of most African Americans and is barred by term limits from seeking reelection--in their harshest terms ever.

“This mayor has failed this community,” Hahn said to ringing applause. “The next mayor cannot afford to fail this community.”

Villaraigosa, a liberal Democrat who nonetheless has praised many aspects of Republican Riordan’s administration, also took off the gloves.

“Mayor Riordan has talked a lot about a business-friendly city,” he said. “Take a good look around here in South-Central and ask: What have you done for me lately?”

Hahn and Villaraigosa were by far the most well-received of the candidates in Monday’s debate, though they appealed to the crowd in very different ways.

Villaraigosa delivered rousing answers to question after question, leaning heavily on his long ties with labor and often being interrupted by cheers. After other candidates initially stood behind a podium to speak, he strode in front of the table, where he shouted out his support for the issues of working families and low-wage workers.

Hahn, by contrast, is a subdued speaker with a tendency to drone. But he is a familiar face to residents of South-Central, having grown up there as the son of City Councilman and then County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, an iconic and beloved figure. Like his father, Hahn has won election after election with the support of South-Central, and he was warmly welcomed Monday.

“When a Hahn says it, a Hahn means it,” he promised in response to one question, an answer that drew laughter and sustained applause.

The rest of the candidates on Monday met with mixed results.

Soboroff, who 10 days ago vied with Wachs to see who could praise Riordan most highly, barely mentioned the mayor’s name. He also opposed the consent decree to reform the Los Angeles Police Department that the audience had cheered early in the event, suggesting that he was out of sync with some of the audience’s feelings on some issues.

Nevertheless, Soboroff in recent weeks has relaxed as a campaigner, and he seemed at ease. When one panelist delivered a dizzyingly complicated question that included diversity, commission appointments, the future of city department heads and the city resources that candidates would give to South-Central, Soboroff grinned and answered: “Would you repeat the question?” The audience laughed.

Wachs was greeted tepidly at first, but he used the event to hammer at the central theme of his campaign: the need to build Los Angeles government around the city’s neighborhoods. That is a popular notion in many parts of the city, including the Valley and South-Central.

On Monday, he also coupled it with his populist attack on city government subsidies for developers, sports teams and others while places such as South-Central continue to feel alienated from the government.

That theme seemed to strike a chord with the audience, which responded enthusiastically each time he returned to it.

Connell stayed rigorously on her central message: the argument that what City Hall needs in its next mayor is a strong financial manager. As state controller and in her work prior to holding public office, Connell has amassed strong financial credentials, and she tried Monday to steer the debate toward those areas.

Attempting to bond with the largely African American audience, however, Connell brought up her work as a deputy mayor to Tom Bradley in nearly every answer, an approach that won applause at first but gradually wore on many people as the evening continued.

Becerra, who last week overwhelmingly won reelection to his congressional seat, also was repetitious. Time and again, he repeated his determination to “bring it back home” and said the neighborhoods of Los Angeles were “ground zero,” meaning that he, as mayor, would hold meetings throughout the city and would make government more accessible to the people.

His answers were greeted politely, but without the enthusiasm displayed for some of the other candidates.