Up-for-Grabs Voters Targeted in Mayor’s Race

Now the tug-of-war begins, each man pulling at uncommitted voters, reaching to extend his ground in a fragmented city.

The fact that James K. Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa are both Democrats and both liberals creates a mayoral showdown of unusual subtlety and drama. It pits the generations-old political establishment of Los Angeles against the growing might of the Latino electorate.

The outcome will ride heavily on how well Hahn, the stolid insider, and Villaraigosa, the charismatic newcomer, can wrest support from the vast pool of voters who backed losing candidates--most notably, Republican Steve Soboroff--in Tuesday’s election.

About 45% of the city’s voting public falls into that precious category--the up-for-grabs. Hahn is all but assured of carrying the largely black sections of South and Central Los Angeles; Villaraigosa claims a lock on the Latino Eastside. But in hundreds of precincts, especially on the Westside and across the San Fernando Valley, the race could veer either way.

All the usual factors will play into that equation--personalities, issues, political track records and the gut-level impressions that voters get of a candidate’s moral fiber and honesty. Underlying that, inevitably, are seldom-voiced but emotional questions of race and ethnicity--touchy subjects that, in Los Angeles, forever grind just beneath the surface.

“After all these years of Anglos, we need more Latino politicians,” said Salvador Gomez, 70, of Boyle Heights, who strongly supports Villaraigosa. “We need to elect one of the Mexicans.”

With a far different view is R.W. Bolton, 81, of San Pedro, who supports L.A. City Atty. Hahn in part because of his political pedigree--he is the son of longtime county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn--and in part, frankly, because Hahn is white.

“Our Spanish population is so strong now that I feel I should be on the other side,” Bolton said during a break from pruning trees at an apartment house he manages in a neighborhood that is changing, just as the region itself is changing. Here Latinos still represent a minority, though a growing one, while overall they now constitute the city’s largest single racial or ethnic group, easily outnumbering whites, blacks and Asians. “We are no longer the predominant part of our community.”

Villaraigosa took 30% of the vote and beat Hahn by five percentage points in last week’s election. However, the two-way race that ends with the June 5 runoff brings into play a new calculus. To examine how uncommitted voters may make their choices, The Times spoke to residents of four communities where neither Hahn nor Villaraigosa was clearly dominant.

In these places--Northridge, Beverlywood, San Pedro and Boyle Heights--issues of neighborhood identity, trust, education and budgetary concerns may help lift one or the other into office.

The Valley is perhaps the most open battlefield, a huge and far-more-diverse-than-advertised expanse where each candidate announced he would plant his flag.

Villaraigosa claims a bastion of Latino support on the east, in Van Nuys, Pacoima and Sylmar. To the west, however, in the sprawl of Chatsworth, Northridge, Reseda and Tarzana, Villaraigosa and Hahn drew roughly the same number of votes. These were areas where Soboroff had strong support.

Northridge was one of Soboroff’s strongholds. Voters interviewed there last week voiced a clear preference for Hahn.

For retired naval officer William Victor, 75, the question was settled, as elsewhere, by ethnic biases.

“I’m frankly concerned about somebody who is a very young Latino, who has had little experience,” Victor said of Villaraigosa, criticizing the role he played while an assemblyman in reaching out to then-Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo.

“[Villaraigosa] may have a tendency to favor Latinos,” Victor said, whereas Hahn may be “more inclined to be responsive to white values. He’s someone who appreciates the English language.”

Another white voter, who also supported Soboroff, was even more blunt about her choice: “It won’t be Villaraigosa, that’s for sure. I think he’s more in tune with Mexico than the United States.”

The largely Republican electorate in this area is closely connected to city politics, in which Hahn--and his family--share a prominent legacy.

“He knows Los Angeles,” said Jacqueline Cleary, a 74-year-old retired actress in line at the post office. “I want somebody who knows this area and knows it well and has known it for a long time.”

As for Villaraigosa? “I’ve followed politics for a long time,” she said, “and his name is not familiar to me.”

Dennis Farley, a minister at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, calls himself a libertarian who will research both candidates before making a decision. But, speaking through his wiry, foot-long beard, he conceded, “the thing that comes across to me about Hahn in the ads I’ve seen is his experience.”

Some voters seemed flummoxed by Villaraigosa’s name. “De La Rosa,” one elderly woman kept saying. But stockbroker Marty Laff, who serves as head of the local Chamber of Commerce, said she likes him. Having watched him work the crowd at a candidates’ forum not long ago, Laff was impressed by Villaraigosa’s seemingly natural feel for people.

“Every time it was his turn to speak, he would stand up and go to the very edge of the stage,” Laff said. “He stepped out, almost wanting to touch the people. It was very connection-oriented. Those subtle things really make a difference to me.”

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Residents of Beverlywood, a more liberal community on the leafy southern fringe of Beverly Hills, voiced far more willingness to embrace Villaraigosa--although many had favored Soboroff in the heavily Jewish district.

Soboroff’s loss here was especially hard for some voters. The businessman was--and is--a strong presence. Signed pictures of him, grinning as he leans against a school bus, remain on display in many of the Jewish restaurants, bookstores and shops lining Pico Boulevard.

“Soboroff came to our house and called me personally,” recalled Rabbi Shimon Kraft, 42, owner of the Mitzvah book store, where books in Yiddish and English were on display last week for a Passover sale. “He came for Shabbat and to a bar mitzvah reception.”

Now, facing a second option is painful. Kraft threw up his hands. When pressed he, like others here, threw his support behind . . . ah . . . Villaraigosa. Searching for reasons, he noted Villaraigosa’s stance in the Legislature, “very supportive of the [Simon] Wiesenthal Center. Also, the president of my synagogue gave his support.”

Much like William Victor’s neighborhood in Northridge, Beverlywood is a well-groomed, family-oriented community--about 1,000 homes, mostly built in the 1950s, where some residents are still the original owners. Here, though, voters give Villaraigosa high marks for making education a top priority, and they see him as a man who could inspire young Latino students.

“He’s the kind of person that can make this multicultural city work,” said Bonnie Blish, a former accountant and volunteer at Castle Heights Elementary School. “It’s important for the kids to see someone of the same background in a position like that so they can say, ‘I can do that too.’ ”

Blish--and her neighbor--had trouble with Villaraigosa’s name, but she liked that it was created from the fusion of two surnames, his own and his wife’s.

“He has respect for women,” Blish said. “His wife doesn’t walk 10 paces behind him.”

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Fence-sitters abound in San Pedro, another place where the two finalists were strong but Soboroff also claimed a sizable vote.

Jackie Radford is an unhappy example of those undecided ones. The grandmother, 61, lamented the elimination of Joel Wachs, who racked up only 11% of Tuesday’s votes. He was the only one she felt confident about because “he’s a real watchdog with money,” Radford said, railing at how politicians blow the budget on senseless projects like buying a historic theater that bleeds red ink while letting all the trees get overgrown.

To her way of thinking, Hahn and Villaraigosa are just two versions of the same animal--lifelong politicians for whom being mayor would amount to one more line on a resume.

Tile contractor Mark Trudnich, 39, had his mind made up by one of the most publicized missteps of Villaraigosa’s career--the letter he addressed to the White House in 1996 on behalf of a drug dealer whose father was a campaign contributor. That was a black mark cited by voters in various precincts.

“Villaraigosa got that drug dealer free,” Trudnich said, “and I’ve got kids.”

Northridge resident Norma Cooper had the same reaction. “That really bothers me,” she said. “That shows a lack of morals.”

Yet, some voters seized upon other intangibles, saying Villaraigosa conveys a “certain, indescribable something,” as one backer put it, and that he “comes across as . . . more honest . . . young . . . energetic,” in the words of Ella Mandel, a former Beverlywood schoolteacher.

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Whether Villaraigosa can create enough of those good vibes in Boyle Heights, the Latino enclave that went so solidly for his bitter rival, Xavier Becerra, is not yet certain. The fractious campaign threatened to alienate many Becerra supporters from cooperation with the Villaraigosa camp.

However, most political observers expect those wounds to heal. Many voters express the sentiments of unemployed security guard Gillermo Melgoza, who ekes out a living coaxing romantic ballads from an old guitar: He will gladly line up in the name of unity.

“I just like Latino people to be elected,” Melgoza, who emigrated 20 years ago from the Mexican state of Michoacan, said with a shrug. “Look, we’ve got few resources, poor public health-care, not enough jobs. I just feel like I should vote for a Latino. He’ll do something for the community.”

Norma Godinas is not so sure. Cradling her 2-month-old son on the stoop of her duplex, she said she may be willing to cross ethnic lines. Or she will consider it.

“I have to read about the two of them, but I may go for the other guy,” she said. “You don’t have to be Latino to be a good leader.

“But to tell you the truth,” she added, “I don’t have lots of confidence. [These candidates] always make a million promises, say, ‘We’re gonna help,’ and then there’s no big changes.”

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Times staff writers David Ferrell, Evelyn Larrubia and Megan Stack contributed to this story.