Continuing the Family Legacy

Odd, perhaps, for a city famed as the world’s glitter capitol, but mayor-elect James Kenneth Hahn is nothing fancy. And proud of it.

With a public persona that might be described as “dare to be dull,” the tall, 50-year-old city attorney who first leveraged his father’s unmatched political legacy into high elective office two decades ago sums up his strength with a plain utterance.

“I’m real,” he said during a cheerful election day lunch with aides and supporters. “People like that.”

When Hahn, a Democrat, took the stage to declare victory early Wednesday morning after a grueling two-year campaign, he sang and shouted and pumped his fists in a show of emotion that surprised many, so notorious is his lawyerly reserve.

That the song blaring over the loudspeakers, “I Love L.A.,” is an ironic tribute to the city’s empty soul only emphasized the seemingly contradictory nature of this longtime political fixture whose personality nonetheless remains hard to pin down.

He is a Scripture-studying Christian who would rather not talk about his faith; a father of two and husband devoted to “family values” who did not wield that loaded phrase on the campaign trail; an adept fund-raiser who hates glad-handing; a man in the public eye since childhood who often looks uncomfortable in public.

In what may be the sweetest contradiction for him, the man whom some pundits dismissed as a relic of the city’s old guard will be the first new mayor of the millennium come July 1, two days before he turns 51.

The standard-bearer of the West’s most enduring political dynasty, he owes his career ultimately to his gregarious father, the late Kenneth Hahn, councilman for five years beginning in 1947 and then county supervisor for a record 40 years, retiring in 1992.

The supervisor pleased his constituents by keeping the roads paved and trees trimmed as well as by pioneering racial tolerance. As often told, Kenneth Hahn was the only local official to greet the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his first visit to Los Angeles in 1961.

Kenneth Hahn--so beloved that the downtown county administration building was named after him--imbued his son with a zeal for public service and created two generations of Hahn-loyal voters in the central and southern parts of the city he represented for half a century.

Those largely African American neighborhoods came through on Tuesday for James Hahn, who now lives in a predominantly white neighborhood in San Pedro.

The family vocation also touched James’ uncle, the late Gordon Hahn, a city councilman for 10 years beginning in 1953, and now his sister, Janice Hahn, of San Pedro. She was elected Tuesday to a first term on the council--and thus will count her brother as a constituent.

Their easy rapport was evident election day morning at a gathering in the driveway of a San Pedro neighbor. They were asked whether there would be any issue that could divide them if they were both elected.

“She wants me to devote the entire city budget to her district!” he said.

“I want to get the mayor to focus on the waterfront!” she said.

Growing up in the central city, Hahn attended public grade schools and a private Lutheran high school. He got his undergraduate and law degrees from Pepperdine, his parents’ alma mater. He was married two years before divorcing. After spending four years as a deputy city attorney and two in private legal practice, he plunged into politics.

He has never lost an election. In 1981, at age 30, he was elected city controller. Four consecutive terms as city attorney followed. Despite that sterling record, many political insiders have sold him short, if only because he is retiring and often delivers speeches in a monotone. But fans and friends laugh that off, suggesting he is dumb like a fox.

“He’s been underestimated,” George Kieffer, an attorney and longtime Hahn advisor, once told The Times. “That’s a mistake.”

City Hall associates say he is a low-key manager and a cautious implementer rather than a bold innovator. Under Hahn, the city attorney’s office hired record numbers of women, African Americans and Latinos. And though he wasn’t first to sue tobacco companies and a gun maker for concessions on behalf of the city, he did follow other officials with lawsuits that some experts say were more effective.

He has been most criticized for not seriously addressing corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department until recently, when he became the first city executive to call for federal monitoring of reform initiatives.

Everyone agrees that he has unusual integrity. “He’s the most decent person in City Hall,” says one legal expert.

It will be debated for some time how decent it was of him to attack aggressively the integrity of his mayoral opponent, former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. He denies any low blows, adding that politics is a rough business.

Robert Horner, who has known James Hahn since they were deputy city attorneys, gave Hahn about the highest praise he could get, in an interview before the election. “I think Jim is as astute a politician as his father was,” Horner said.

Another quality rare in politics (not to mention the L.A. elite) defines Hahn--a kind of proud modesty. He lives with his family in the small ranch house that his wife, Monica, was raised in. She drives an old SUV; he’s got a hand-me-down sedan from his father. One of his favorite restaurants serves pastrami sandwiches; another, tacos.

A lifelong member of the Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination that espouses simplicity and a conservative reading of the Old Testament, Hahn said in a recent interview that “public service is a chance to live your faith, to demonstrate you care about those less fortunate.”

But then he said he was uncomfortable with such a private subject, adding that he resented people who “show off their religiosity in public.”