Villaraigosa Wins Key Labor Endorsement in Mayor’s Race

Providing a powerful boost to Antonio Villaraigosa’s mayoral bid at a key juncture, Los Angeles’ largest labor organization threw its support behind the former Assembly speaker Monday and promised to demonstrate the movement’s power by backing him with money and volunteers.

Villaraigosa pulled off the victory in a squeaker: He won the two-thirds backing of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, by a single vote, thwarting City Atty. James K. Hahn’s attempt to keep the group neutral.

The lobby of the Regal Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where the federation’s political committee voted, erupted into cheers of “Si se puede!” as the word spread that the former teachers union organizer won the support of a federation that represents 800,000 workers countywide, including 175,000 registered voters in Los Angeles.

About 100 union members--including janitors, teachers, maids and construction workers--gathered around a teary-eyed Villaraigosa as he thanked the organization.

“I will never, ever forget where I came from,” said Villaraigosa, speaking in Spanish and English. “I will never, ever forget that the responsibility of government and leadership is to make sure that all of the people have a voice.”

The endorsement represents the single biggest political development of the mayor’s race, which is gaining momentum by the week. Newly energized by several big electoral wins and successful strikes last year, organized labor is gearing up to play a formidable role in the campaign. By coalescing behind one of the six major candidates, the unions have a good chance to turn out a large bloc of votes April 10.

Labor’s support is particularly important for two reasons: The city’s unions represent one of very few sources of reliable voters and campaign workers in a city noted for its low turnouts in municipal elections. And labor can also muster money when it is committed to a cause or candidate.

On Monday, labor’s leading Los Angeles figure vowed to do just that.

Miguel Contreras, the federation’s secretary-treasurer, said the group will make Villaraigosa’s campaign the organization’s top priority in the spring election. The unions plan to spend at least $1 million in a membership outreach campaign and will rally hundreds of volunteers to work phone banks and walk door-to-door, he said.

“We’re prepared to give everything necessary to make sure that Antonio is the next mayor of Los Angeles,” Contreras said. “As they say, we’re betting the farm on this one.”

Supporters of Hahn had worked up to the last minute trying to block the endorsement, which required support from two-thirds of the political committee. Hahn’s supporters hoped to force the federation to vote for an “open” endorsement, which would allow each local to decide individually which candidate to back.

The other major candidates in the race--state Controller Kathleen Connell, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), City Councilman Joel Wachs and businessman Steve Soboroff--never were serious contenders for the labor endorsement.

In the end, 58 of the 80-some members of the political committee voted for Villaraigosa, apparently swayed by Contreras’ argument that the unions could “make a winner” in this race.

Hahn’s campaign downplayed the endorsement, saying that Villaraigosa was always the favorite to get the federation’s support because of his history in labor.

“I’m not disappointed,” said Kam Kuwata, a consultant to the Hahn campaign. “We said from the beginning that this was his to lose. We based our campaign on what we need to do, not on what others need to do.”

Kuwata added that by strongly lobbying union locals, Hahn was successful in preventing the federation from endorsing right before last summer’s Democratic National Convention, which would have given Villaraigosa a national platform to promote his candidacy.

“We delayed the process by eight months, and that’s time Antonio can never recover,” he said, adding that he expects some of the local unions that supported Hahn to continue to do so in the campaign.

During the weeks leading up to the vote, divided union leaders struggled over whether to support Hahn, a longtime labor ally who some consider a front-runner in the mayoral race, or Villaraigosa, who came out of the labor movement and went on to advocate for unions in the state Assembly.

Many labor leaders who represent increasingly Latino unions pushed the federation to back the former Assembly speaker, saying that his candidacy would excite the growing number of newly unionized immigrants. Meanwhile, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke made last-minute calls on behalf of Hahn, whose supporters argued that the federation should stick with a candidate more likely to make the runoff.

But Contreras made known his desire for the endorsement to go to Villaraigosa, casting the choice as an opportunity for the labor movement to shape the race.

His voice hoarse, with dark circles under his eyes, Villaraigosa seemed exhausted Monday afternoon by the tense last-minute negotiations that led to his endorsement, even as he spoke emotionally about its significance.

“What it says is that this candidacy is a first-tiered candidacy,” he said. “What it says is that we have a tremendous momentum in our campaign. Last year, there were some who thought that this race was some candidate’s to lose. I think what we’ve made absolutely clear with this endorsement is that Antonio Villaraigosa is going to fight to be the next mayor of this city.”

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Times staff writer Nancy Cleeland contributed to this story.