Rivals in Mayor’s Race Battle Over Endorsements

The leading candidates for mayor of Los Angeles often struggle to distinguish their candidacies from one another, but the endorsements that each has painstakingly assembled in recent months are sending signals about how they would govern and whose support they most covet.

Many prominent leaders and major organizations have yet to announce their endorsements. So far, however, City Atty. James K. Hahn and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa have garnered the most significant endorsements from a wide range of officials and interest groups, indicating their success in building broad support for their candidacies early in the race.

Hahn has won endorsements that reflect his family’s long history in the African American community and his ties to the city’s unions. He also has the backing of some Latino officials and Korean American community leaders.

Meanwhile, Villaraigosa, who has been casting himself as a coalition candidate, won the endorsement of some African American state officials last year. On Friday he picked up the backing of a half-dozen prominent Latino leaders, including Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis and other Eastside leaders who are longtime friends from his days in the Assembly.

And in a startling move, the political action committee of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women decided last week to throw its support behind the former Assembly speaker, despite expectations that the group would back state Controller Kathleen Connell, the only woman among the top candidates.

Shelly Mandell, chairwoman of the NOW committee, said Villaraigosa has a “perfect” record on supporting women’s issues.

“It was very difficult not to endorse a woman in the race,” said Mandell, who will announce the group’s endorsements next week. “But while it’s so important for girls and women to see women in positions of power, it is also important to see men who are feminists in power, because we want people to know what a feminist male looks like, acts like and votes like.”

While Hahn and Villaraigosa are assembling long lists of big-name supporters, Connell and City Councilman Joel Wachs try to turn their dearth of endorsements into an asset, saying it is proof that they are outsiders independent of the city’s “power elite.”

Developer Steve Soboroff claims to have the only endorsement that matters, that of Mayor Richard Riordan. And U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra enjoys support drawn mostly from community leaders and officials in his congressional district.

With a total of 24 candidates vying to be mayor, getting the backing of well-known individuals and large organizations is vital in helping the candidates separate themselves from the pack and build support, some political consultants said.

However, Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, said that only a few endorsements resonate with voters.

“The harsh reality is that most constituents in Los Angeles would not be able to recall the name of their city councilman,” Cain said. “If any endorsements are going to matter, it will only be at the very highest level.”

Political heavyweights like longtime County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as respected groups like the Sierra Club, have not yet weighed in.

And Hahn and Villaraigosa are still wrestling over who will win the endorsement of one of the city’s most powerful institutions--the newly energized labor unions. While some union locals have announced who they are supporting, the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which represents 800,000 workers in the region, is expected to vote on a mayoral endorsement in February.

Hahn has the support of Local 347 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents city workers, along with several other locals. In addition, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas and City Councilman Alex Padilla have backed Hahn, as has Charles Hyuk Lee, chairman of the Korean American Federation.

Perhaps Hahn’s strongest base of support comes from the African American community. He has been endorsed by a broad sweep of African American leaders, such as U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Magic Johnson and the Rev. Cecil L. Murray, senior pastor of the First AME Church.

But Villaraigosa has been able to chip into that base and win the support of a cadre of African American state legislators, including Assemblyman Carl Washington, Assemblyman Herb Wesson and state Sen. Kevin Murray, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

In another measure of Villaraigosa’s wide appeal, the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters has decided to back him. The usually conservative Los Angeles Police Department police union, which has not decided if it will make an endorsement, has not dismissed the possibility of supporting the liberal Democrat, according to two board members.

“He has been there for us in the past in the Assembly,” said one of the board members, who asked not to be named.

The Police Protective League board members conceded that their organization is still more likely to endorse a longtime police booster like Wachs or to go with Soboroff or Connell.

During a news conference Friday in Boyle Heights, a gathering of Latino leaders trumpeted their support for Villaraigosa, and union leader Maria Elena Durazo announced that Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees voted Thursday night to back him.

A former union organizer, Villaraigosa also has the support of the Los Angeles teachers union, along with Genethia Hayes, president of the Los Angeles school board. Sheriff Lee Baca is backing him, and billionaires Eli Broad, Ron Burkle and A. Jerrold Perenchio are running Villaraigosa’s finance team.

“There is a saying in Spanish,” Villaraigosa said Friday. “Dime con quien andas, y te dire quien eres. Tell me who you stand with, and I’ll tell you what you stand for.”

In contrast, Connell and Wachs argue their dearth of endorsements is a better testament to their candidacies than the array of people who have backed their opponents.

“The endorsement thing is very much an insider baseball game,” said Julie Buckner, Connell’s campaign manager. “And we all know that endorsements don’t win elections; votes do.”

Connell, who has been painting herself as an outsider who can help whip a troubled city into shape, has been backed by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Women’s Political Committee, as well as West Los Angeles community leader Cindy Horn and developer Alan Casdan.

Wachs, a longtime city councilman, has not been endorsed by any city leaders so far. Campaign manager Daniel Sena said Wachs is proud to have “no big political names, just people in neighborhoods, regular folks.”

Meanwhile, Soboroff consultant Ace Smith summed up their endorsement strategy: “We’ve got Dick Riordan, and we’ve got a ton of community people. That’s our campaign.”

The mayor endorsed his senior advisor and parks commissioner back in September 1999, saying he admires Soboroff’s “common-sense approach” in tackling projects such as cleaning up the city’s parks system and helping win approval for the Staples Center and the Alameda Corridor. Soboroff has been endorsed by Watts activist “Sweet” Alice Harris and other community leaders.

Meanwhile, former U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal and his daughter, U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, are supporting Becerra, who holds Roybal’s old congressional seat. Becerra has also been endorsed by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, City Councilman Nick Pacheco, Bonnie Scanlan, president of the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce, and neighborhood activists.

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Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.