Hahn’s Unfair Ads

Factual and fair. That’s how mayoral candidate James K. Hahn defends his television advertisement blasting opponent Antonio Villaraigosa for writing a letter in 1996 urging clemency for a drug dealer. The letter is fair game. But the images used in the televised ads--a razor blade cutting cocaine, a smoking cocaine pipe and a grainy photo of Villaraigosa--play to the public’s basest fears. Let’s be blunt: The ad associates Villaraigosa, not coincidentally a Latino, with drugs.

Fact: Villaraigosa wrote a letter to the pardon secretary at the White House on behalf of Carlos Vignali, a convicted cocaine trafficker and the son of a Villaraigosa campaign contributor. Vignali’s sentence was later commuted by former President Bill Clinton in the final days of his administration. The last-minute commutation, one of many, created a furor around the outgoing president. It created a furor locally when news broke that several prominent Californians had petitioned the White House on Vignali’s behalf.

Questioning whether Villaraigosa was swayed by the pleas of a desperate father, as he said, or the contributions of a rich benefactor is completely within the bounds of this campaign. But Hahn’s ads go beyond attacking Villaraigosa’s judgment and veracity. Fair? Imagine, if you can, an ad with a crack pipe and the photo of another prominent Angeleno who wrote a letter on Vignali’s behalf, Cardinal Roger Mahony. Then ask yourself if Hahn’s ad is about Villaraigosa’s judgment.

This week postcards arrived in voters’ mailboxes claiming that Villaraigosa voted to go easy on child pornographers and rapists. A Riverside County Indian tribe spent $100,000 on the mailers at the urging of a Hahn supporter and contributor. This twisted examination of Villaraigosa’s voting record failed to mention the former Assembly speaker’s votes to regulate the use of Las Vegas-style slot machines on reservations and to allow collective bargaining at casinos. Perhaps this explains why the Soboba Band of Mission Indians cares about this mayoral election.

Hahn, as city attorney, knows that a contribution of that size unless independent of the campaign would violate city campaign finance rules. He denies that he or his campaign had anything to do with it. But this son of the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who respected and well served his African American constituents at a time when respect came hard, did not disavow the mailer’s message.

If Hahn wins Tuesday, the votes gained by these fear-mongering ads will taint the victory. The damage is done, and we don’t mean to Villaraigosa. By stooping to such tactics, Hahn does a disservice to the city he wants to lead, a city he promised to bring together, a city his own father worked to unite.