James Hahn Defeats Antonio Villaraigosa

Re “Hahn Coasts to Victory,” June 6:

My faith in the people of Los Angeles has been restored! We have a new mayor in the second-largest city in this country, and he was the better choice. James Hahn will be the new mayor of Los Angeles and Antonio Villaraigosa should be subpoenaed for his actions.

I am so glad that a corrupt and immoral person did not win this race. The last thing we need is a person to stain the image of this proud city. Los Angeles has its problems, and we need a mayor with integrity and morals to help move the city in a direction that will make it the envy of this nation.

William Morino

Redondo Beach

For many years now, most residents of Los Angeles have been comforted by the idea that the kind of tactics employed against Tom Bradley in 1969 were a thing of the past--that never again could citywide office be gained by appealing to prejudice and fears, by resorting to racial stereotyping and guilt by association.

That Hahn appears to have been motivated not by personal bigotry, but merely by political ambition, does little to lessen the damage he has done. In gaining the office of mayor, he has sacrificed his own personal integrity and has betrayed the legacy of his father, who devoted his entire political career to bringing people of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds together.

How many years will we now have to wait before the ugliness and vitriol seen in this campaign once more seem to be an aberration and to be relics and things of the past?

David Lewison

Los Angeles

There were too many cooks in Villaraigosa’s kitchen.

Head sauce chef Richard Riordan made the broth too rich for many voters’ palates. We did not want to be told by both Democrats and even some Republicans that it was time to elect a Latino to be mayor of Los Angeles. Rocky Delgadillo won the city attorney post on his own merits in spite of Riordan’s endorsement.

P. Fridling Katz

Westwood

Moderates and conservatives voted overwhelmingly for Hahn. I wonder why?

Could it be that Hahn’s last-minute Willie Horton-type of TV commercial, which viciously implied that Villaraigosa is soft on crime, moved moderate and conservative voters to vote their fears, not their hopes? George Bush senior used this tactic to win the presidency. I can only hope that Hahn follows true to form and is a one-term loser as well.

Steve Topoozian

Los Angeles

Kenneth Hahn won our race for mayor, not Jim. I made some phone calls for Villaraigosa from his headquarters, and the following is a typical experience for one of those calls: After I identified myself as calling from the Villaraigosa campaign, a constituent from Hahn’s core base would inform me that he was voting for Hahn because he admired his father Kenneth, even though he supported a Latino mayor for Los Angeles. When I pointed out that Jim Hahn is not Kenneth Hahn, it didn’t matter.

Because enough people think they can return to the past, we are forced to lose a chance to change the future through diversity. The Kenneth Hahns don’t come along very often. Villaraigosa has that same passion that Jim Hahn never will.

Daryl Barnett

Venice

If all the winners in Tuesday’s races, some of whom won by only a few votes, had gotten 100% of all the votes cast, but all the registered voters who didn’t bother to vote had come out and voted the other way, every winner would have lost by 20%. I realize “woulda, coulda, shoulda” is a waste of time, but if you’re going to go to the trouble of registering, you might as well go the distance, don’t you think?

Bart Braverman

Los Angeles