Mayoral Race Darkened by Negative Ads in Final Days

An 11th-hour burst of negative advertising and one message with anti-Semitic overtones overshadowed the race for mayor of Los Angeles, drawing strong criticism Sunday from religious leaders and incumbent Mayor Richard Riordan.

Outraged by the degenerating rhetoric of the race and its implications for harmony in the city on the religious holidays of Palm Sunday and Passover, Riordan demanded that the campaigns return to the high ground in the final hours before Tuesday’s election.

“Los Angeles is the most diverse city in the United States,” Riordan said in an interview Sunday morning. “Angelenos have come a long, long way toward getting along with each other. We cannot tolerate vicious cowards who want to spread religious and racial prejudice in our city.”

The ugly tone of the sub rosa attacks was in marked contrast to the public campaigns of the top candidates--who buoyantly pitched their hopes for Los Angeles in a long day of appearances at South-Central churches, in some of the city’s landmark eateries, from the steps of a closed library, and from atop a vintage fire engine.

All spoke of making the city whole and overcoming divisions of race, ethnicity and religion.

The positive personal messages had the potential of reaching far fewer voters, however, than the biting radio advertisements and automated phone calling that have blanketed the city for several days.

The regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, the bishop of the Episcopal Church and a leader of one of the city’s largest African American churches joined in Riordan’s condemnation of the divisive appeals. The attacks in recent days have suggested, among other things, that candidate Antonio Villaraigosa favors leniency for criminals and that candidate Steve Soboroff has “become entirely dependent on Jewish money.”

“Clearly, someone or some campaign has injected religion into the mayoral campaign to seek partisan advantage,” David A. Lehrer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said of the latter message. “This kind of appeal--designed to divide rather than unite Angelenos--ought to be condemned by all of the candidates for mayor.”

Reached at his home, Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of the Episcopal Church’s Los Angeles Diocese condemned the negative campaigning.

“It’s exactly the kind of stereotyping of groups and prejudice that we would like to keep out of political campaigns,” Borsch said. “The equation of Jewish with wealthy plays into all sorts of old prejudices that must stop.”

The Rev. Leonard Jackson, associate pastor at First African Methodist Episcopal Church, added: “If an individual would stoop to such trickery in an election, imagine what they would stoop to while in office.”

The automated call suggesting that Soboroff’s campaign was funded solely by Jews is the second in recent weeks that falsely implies that it is an ad directly from one of the candidates. But the source of the recording--which went to an unknown number of homes beginning Saturday--remains unknown.

In the phone message, a man says he is calling on behalf of Soboroff’s campaign. The voice then asks for a contribution for Soboroff and his “conservative coalition.” The brief message concludes: “Soboroff’s polling numbers have been falling and we have become entirely dependent upon Jewish money. Thank you and thank you from Steve Soboroff.”

A number of Jewish residents of Los Angeles were among those who received the call and said they were offended, particularly on the day before they were to celebrate Passover.

“It’s upsetting, of course, to think they would try to garner votes by this anti-Semitic attack,” said Robert Swartz, a Hollywood Hills resident. “But I guess it just proves there is still a lot of hatred out there, and it’s something we have to deal with day after day.”

Just a week earlier, an automated phone call with a voice impersonating Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina swept across the city implying that former legislator Villaraigosa has been soft on crime. But Molina actually has endorsed Villaraigosa. His campaign countered by putting out an authentic telephone message from the supervisor, touting her endorsement of Villaraigosa.

The bogus phone calls are in some ways the most nefarious form of negative advertising, because thousands can be made in just a few hours. They also are extremely cheap to send, costing about 3 cents each, said one expert.

No laws require that those producing the phone messages identify themselves. After the fake Molina call, however, the county supervisor persuaded her colleagues on the county board to endorse state legislation to require that those making the recordings identify themselves.

With just two days until the election, all six of the top contenders continued to campaign fervently in nearly every quarter of Los Angeles. Councilman Joel Wachs stood outside a Panorama City library, calling for all of the city’s 59 neighborhood libraries to be opened on Sundays.

State Controller Kathleen Connell told patrons of Farmers Market in the Fairfax District that she will fight to protect the city’s Department of Water and Power from the state’s energy crisis. And Rep. Xavier Becerra pumped up supporters by riding throughout the city in a firetruck and salsa dancing with his wife.

Villaraigosa and City Atty. James K. Hahn--two candidates who have been in or near the lead in recent public opinion surveys--both spent a frenetic morning hopscotching between African American churches in South-Central Los Angeles. Businessman Soboroff, meanwhile, trekked to some of the city’s minor culinary landmarks.

Hahn visited eight black churches in all, accompanied by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). The candidate, whose base of support is in the black community, said he needs a significant turnout Tuesday to push him into a June runoff.

Before congregations ranging from a few dozen to several hundred, Hahn talked about his work on the consent decree to ensure federal oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department. He said the decree would help end racial profiling by police.

Waters told the church audiences that Hahn and his father, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, were elected officials whom the black community had been able to count on for many years.

The city attorney returned the compliment at Faithful Service Baptist Church. “I want to be someone just like Maxine Waters, who you know is fighting for you every day,” Hahn said.

Driving home the importance of Tuesday’s vote, Hahn quipped about November’s disputed presidential vote in Florida. “I want you to vote for me and make sure you punch that stylus all the way through,” he said to laughter and applause at Lewis Metropolitan CME Church. “Punch that chad all the way out.”

Despite Hahn’s strong history of support in the black community, Villaraigosa also toured eight African American congregations Sunday and said he would concede nothing to the city attorney.

The former Assembly speaker even challenged Hahn’s frequent invocation of his father’s legacy. “I’m not asking you to support me because of my father,” Villaraigosa said, his voice hoarse as he spoke at his sixth church of the day. “I’m asking you to judge me on what I bring to the table.”

Villaraigosa drew a chorus of approving “Amens!” and several standing ovations as he told parishioners that he was offering them a vision of “a new Los Angeles.”

“I’m here today, the former speaker of the California state Assembly and on the threshold of being the next mayor of this city,” Villaraigosa said at one stop, “because there was a Civil Rights Act, because there was a Voting Rights Act, because people died for my right to be here. It’s not enough to climb a mountain if you’re not bringing up your community with you.”

Soboroff and Wachs spent most of their Sunday campaigning in the San Fernando Valley, both stopping by the Studio City farmers market to greet morning shoppers.

Soboroff, who handed out fliers with his 18-year-old son, Jacob, was buoyed by several shoppers who said they had already cast their absentee ballots for him.

“Let me give a message to the other candidates: Hands off the Valley. It’s all for me,” Soboroff told a newspaper photographer.

If there was another theme to Soboroff’s Sunday, it was food: The candidate was scheduled to visit the market, three delicatessens and the famous Pink’s Hot Dogs by day’s end. Despite being tempted by bacon-wrapped hot dogs and corn tamales at the market, he said, “I’m not eating.” (Both dishes are not to be consumed during Passover.)

Soboroff decried the phone calls about his fund-raising, saying: “To have the telephone ring in the middle of a Jewish Seder, it’s sick and hurtful to every single Jewish person in Los Angeles and every non-Jewish person in Los Angeles.”

Wachs’ most formal appearance of the day was at the public library in Panorama City. He announced that, at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, he will move to open all of the city’s 59 neighborhood libraries on Sundays. Currently, only the Central Library downtown and eight regional libraries have Sunday hours, he said.

In front of the pastel-colored library, with a “Closed” placard at its door, Wachs proposed spending $3 million in surplus utility taxes to open the libraries for at least four hours every Sunday.

“It’s such a small amount of money for what you can get out of it,” said Wachs, who called public libraries “the focal point, a hub of community activities.”

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Times staff writers Matea Gold and Ana Beatriz Cholo contributed to this story.