TV Ad for Hahn Exaggerates, Voter Group Says

Mayoral candidate James K. Hahn exaggerated his accomplishments as city attorney in a television advertisement that his campaign launched last month, according to a critique by the Los Angeles chapter of the League of Women Voters.

The nonpartisan voting organization’s Campaign Watch Commission sent a letter to Hahn campaign manager Matt Middlebrook on Friday, saying the group was “concerned about the degree of exaggeration contained in the Hahn for Mayor ads.”

The Times reported earlier that Hahn’s ads may have overstated his role in the effort to limit the marketing of tobacco to children and other issues, including the push to force stricter controls on gun sales and an attempt to prevent a property tax increase for city residents.

The questions about Hahn’s accomplishments come as the Los Angeles mayoral race heads into the final three-week stretch, a period in which voters will be bombarded with television commercials and mailers from the top six candidates.

The commission’s letter was a response to a complaint filed in late February by mayoral rival Steve Soboroff, accusing Hahn of “numerous inaccuracies, distortions and omissions.”

“Although they agreed that the statements contained in the ad do not meet the definition of ‘false,’ commissioners felt that some claims come close to crossing that line,” said the letter, signed by Robert H. Philibosian, a former Los Angeles County district attorney who serves as vice chairman of the campaign accuracy panel.

The group asked the Hahn campaign “to evaluate future campaign statements with greater sensitivity to voters’ need for true and accurate statements in order to cast informed votes.”

Philibosian could not be reached for comment. Xandra Kayden, president of the organization, said the group would not comment on which statements by the Hahn campaign were found troubling.

Hahn campaign spokesman Kam Kuwata said the city attorney stands by his leadership claims. “We don’t exaggerate,” Kuwata said, calling the league’s letter ambiguous.

“They don’t specify where the exaggeration supposedly is,” Kuwata said.

The television spot in question began running last month and was replaced by two other commercials that focus on the city attorney’s plans for the future, rather than his past record.

The earlier ad suggested that Hahn was in the vanguard on several issues and programs, despite records that show he sometimes played more of a supporting role--working with other people or after other groups took the lead.

For example, the ad said Hahn deserves credit because he “stopped the city from raising property taxes.” In fact, the City Council killed a 1983 tax increase on the advice of several authorities, including Hahn, then city controller. Citizens ended up paying more anyway when a series of other tax increases were approved by the city government.

The Hahn camp had earlier complained to the league about Soboroff’s advertising, saying the businessman made an erroneous claim that he “battled the city’s bureaucracy to build the Alameda Corridor.”

The League of Women Voters commission said it found “no basis” to refute the Soboroff claim about the Alameda Corridor, a railroad project to speed commerce between the Port of Los Angeles and downtown.

Meanwhile, Hahn rolled out his plan Monday to recruit more Los Angeles police officers and retain them, saying the force’s standing has been shaken by the Rampart controversy.

“We’re seriously down in numbers of police officers,” said Hahn, speaking before a group of students at Reseda High School’s police academy magnet program. “What we need to do is make sure that we’re continuing to have an aggressive law enforcement policy so we’re not going to allow crime to get back up to the levels it was in the 1980s. And to do that I think we need a police force of close to 11,000 police officers.”

The police department has funding to pay for 9,800 officers, but its ranks have dropped to about 9,000.

Hahn, who wants to increase the department’s budget to hire an additional 1,000 officers, said he would reform the LAPD’s hiring process, now done through both the city’s personnel department and the LAPD. Applicants commonly have to wait nine months to find out if they will be accepted, he said.

“We lose a lot of qualified candidates to other cities,” he said.

Hahn also proposed a scholarship program that would give 100 college students a $10,000 interest-free loan if they agreed to serve in the LAPD after graduation. He said he would encourage officers to speak at high schools promoting a career in law enforcement and would launch public service announcements for law enforcement recruitment.

Hahn also called for changes to retain officers, including reforming the Police Department’s disciplinary system, implementing a compressed work schedule, offering competitive pension benefits and increasing longevity pay.

The normally reserved city attorney seemed unusually loose Monday. During a tour of the police academy, he tried part of an outdoor obstacle course, carefully walking along a balance beam and loping over some hurdles. In the weight room, he clambered onto a machine and pumped some iron.

Hahn’s police proposals came a day after rival Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) unveiled his public safety platform. During an appearance in Pacoima, Becerra called for a program that would give housing and utility assistance to officers who live in the city. He also proposed a scholarship program for high school students who want to return to their neighborhoods after college and serve as police officers.