Polanco Endorses Hahn as ‘Best Prepared’ to Serve City

Working to explode the notion that Antonio Villaraigosa will be the de facto choice of Latinos, state Sen. Richard Polanco endorsed James K. Hahn for mayor of Los Angeles on Monday, calling the city attorney the “best prepared to serve the needs of the people of this great city.”

Hahn used the occasion of the Polanco endorsement at a downtown hotel to reemphasize his greater experience with city government and to suggest that Villaraigosa has been unfairly depicted as the candidate most capable of building coalitions across ethnic and ideological lines.

“I am concerned that the story is being missed here,” Hahn said, as a gathering of supporters from many ethnic groups stood beside him. “I think I am very competitive in the Latino community. . . . The real ethnic coalition is the Hahn campaign--Democrats, Republicans, the Valley, Westside, south side and Eastside.”

Hahn hopes that the presence of Polanco--onetime leader of the state Senate--will help mobilize Latino voters. But that may prove a difficult task because 62% of Latinos supported Villaraigosa in the April 10 first round of the mayor’s race, and the 17% who voted for U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) overwhelmingly said their second choice was Villaraigosa. The senator also has had a mixed record of success with his endorsements, including one in which he unsuccessfully backed one of his own aides against Villaraigosa.

Villaraigosa, meanwhile, has continued his efforts to cement his credentials outside his liberal base--most recently with the endorsement of Republican Mayor Richard Riordan. Over the weekend, a Villaraigosa mailer began to arrive in Republican homes, telling GOP voters about the former Assembly speaker’s other Republican supporters--including state Senate Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga and former Assembly Republican leader Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach.

Hahn and Polanco used their morning news conference to emphasize two themes--that the city attorney has 20 years of hands-on experience with city government and that he is capable of bringing people from many walks of life together.

“Jimmy Hahn has 20 years of experience representing all the people of our city. His opponent has six short years representing part of the city,” Polanco said. “For 20 years, Jimmy Hahn has been a part of very important areas of local government, first as our fiscal watchdog as controller then, for the past 16 years, as our city’s top legal advisor. His opponent served just 800 days as speaker. There is no comparison.”

Questioned afterward by reporters, Polanco also took a few shots at Villaraigosa’s tenure in Sacramento. He said Villaraigosa had “a pattern” of co-opting legislation originated by others. He contended that Villaraigosa had taken credit for an expansion of health care for poor families, the Healthy Families program, when then-Assemblywoman Martha Escutia (D-Bell) had really sponsored the act.

“I think you run on your own record. You don’t take someone’s product, sprinkle a little salt or pepper on it and then put your name on it as if . . . it were your own,” Polanco said.

Before the Healthy Families law passed, Villaraigosa had offered bills to expand health care for poor families. But he could not get them through the Legislature. At least one health-care advocacy organization has said Villaraigosa provided considerable leadership as Assembly speaker to help win adoption of the Healthy Families program.

Villaraigosa campaign spokeswoman Elena Stern said such leadership was typical of the legislator’s time as speaker. She predicted that the Hahn campaign’s wider critique of Villaraigosa as a relatively unknown and inexperienced politician will not take hold.

“In that time Antonio Villaraigosa accomplished some very big things,” Stern said. “He helped create the largest park bond in the history of the nation, the biggest investment in urban schools ever in this country, the largest expansion of Medi-Cal and the toughest assault weapons ban, which serves as a model for the rest of the nation. Mr. Hahn, despite 20 years in office, can’t claim those kinds of achievements.”

Among his top achievements as city attorney, Hahn has cited litigation fighting the marketing of cigarettes to children and combating irresponsible sales of handguns. He has also touted anti-gang injunctions and nuisance abatement actions that crack down on substandard housing and businesses, such as liquor stores, that create problems for neighborhoods.

“I don’t think that record can be matched in this race,” Hahn said. “The job of mayor is an important job. . . . I don’t think it’s the kind of job for on-the-job training.”

It remains to be seen how much influence Polanco can have on voters, particularly Latinos. The senator said he would request that the California Friends of Latinos Political Action Committee aide the Hahn campaign.

But Polanco’s endorsement has not always proved to be winning--most recently in the special election when Monterey Park Councilwoman Judy Chu beat Alhambra Mayor Daniel R. Arguello for a seat in the state Assembly. Polanco also once backed his chief of staff, Bill Mabie, in a run against Villaraigosa for the Assembly; Villaraigosa won that race.

Also Monday, Villaraigosa released part of his plan to combat Los Angeles’ gridlock and traffic jams, hitting on one of the three issues he is planning to emphasize in the final two weeks of the campaign.

Standing before the busy three-way intersection of Olympic Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard in the Mid-City area, Villaraigosa said he would convert several parallel streets around the city into opposite one-way corridors to speed up traffic.

“Congestion is more than just an inconvenience. It takes time from our families and our workplace,” said Villaraigosa, as cars zoomed by behind him.

One-way streets can carry up to 30% more traffic, he said, adding that he would instruct the city’s Department of Transportation to find parallel streets like Olympic and Pico to convert around the city.

The candidate said he would push the city and state departments of transportation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to speed up the installation of video cameras at intersections to help control the traffic flow during peak hours, and to implement the “street smart” program that improves coordination of traffic on surface streets near freeways.

Villaraigosa’s proposals are similar to those advocated by businessman Steve Soboroff in the first half of the race, before he placed third in the April 10 primary. Some are also similar to those proposed by Hahn.

After the initial days of the runoff focused primarily on Villaraigosa’s voting record on crime legislation, the former legislator’s campaign in recent days has attempted to broaden the debate and focus on his agenda--including proposals on traffic, education and public safety.