Tribe Plans 2 Postcard Mailers Backing Hahn

Launching a new round of outside attacks in the remaining days of the Los Angeles mayor’s race, the Soboba Band of Mission Indians has announced plans to spend $100,000 on nearly a quarter-million postcards supporting James K. Hahn.

The Soboba Indians of San Jacinto, who presented their “independent expenditure campaign” to the city Ethics Commission late Thursday, indicated that they will send two mailings of 120,000 postcards each, titled “Sex Crimes” and “Child Pornography.”

The Ethics Commission had not yet received copies of the postcards.

But the postcards drew a swift response from politicians, consultants and others, none of whom had seen them but all of whom suggested that they will attack Antonio Villaraigosa and his record in Sacramento on those two issues.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who endorsed Villaraigosa last week, said that even though he had not seen the mailers, he was concerned about the topics, given the titles.

“The subject matter is totally out of bounds,” Riordan said. “People ought to be talking about the real issues: safety, jobs and education. I condemn all those who engage in any kind of divisive or sleazy tactics or politics. We have to support those who rise above it.”

Hahn, who had not seen the postcards either, declined to comment on them Friday. The city attorney said he is more familiar with Villaraigosa’s record on other crime issues, not his positions on penalties for child pornography and sex crimes.

“Specifically, I have attacked him over his votes on this tough crime legislation that I sponsored that he voted against extending,” Hahn said. “I’ve criticized him for being against gang injunctions that I believe have cleaned up communities. . . . His tendency is to not be in favor of stronger penalties for serious crimes.”

Villaraigosa, meantime, said he believes that mudslinging campaigns are wasted on voters. “I think people see them for what they’re worth,” he said.

Calls seeking comment from the Soboba tribe were not returned Friday.

Negative, outside influences are not new in this year’s mayoral race. Villaraigosa was the target of anonymous hit phone calls in last month’s election in which a woman impersonating Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina said that the former Assembly speaker’s record on crime made him a bad choice for women. Those phone calls have been linked to the campaign of Rep. Xavier Becerra, who ran for mayor in the first round of the race.

Before the April 10 election, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians launched $200,000 worth of radio ads attacking Villaraigosa for voting to deregulate the state’s power industry and for a letter he wrote to the White House in support of a commutation for a convicted cocaine trafficker. The ads clearly were meant to influence Jewish voters, who had been shown in polls to support Villaraigosa, because they used stereotypically Jewish idioms.

Hahn denounced those ads, sending a letter to the Morongos urging them “to immediately cease running your radio ads and let the voters decide this election based on the campaigns run by the candidates themselves.”

Some political observers believe the tribe was angry over Villaraigosa’s opposition to expanded Indian gambling and was retaliating.

The Soboba Band of Mission Indians operates a casino with about 1,500 slot machines in the Riverside County town of San Jacinto.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who endorsed Villaraigosa and held a joint news conference with the candidate Friday, said he believes that tribes are eager to bring gambling to Los Angeles and that they probably want to win support from the next mayor.

“I believe it’s because they want a foothold . . . that they want to expand gambling to this city and they want a mayor they can control,” Wachs said. “People only do things when they have a motive, when they have a reason.”

Hahn Gets 2 New Endorsements

Aside from the Sobobas, a Beverly Hills contributor to Hahn’s campaign, Charles E. Fitzgerald, filed a report with the Ethics Commission this week announcing that he will spend $50,000 on a mailer to support the city attorney.

Hahn also won the endorsement Friday of the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs and the Southern California Alliance of Law Enforcement. He previously picked up support from the Los Angeles police union. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, however, has endorsed Villaraigosa.

Earlier Friday, Hahn and Villaraigosa addressed an audience of about 500 at a “Women of Los Angeles Mayoral Town Hall.” Hahn stressed his record in the city attorney’s office: Half of the lawyers hired during his tenure have been women, and the heads of several divisions--criminal, land use and airports--are now women, he said.

He promised, as mayor, to put more emphasis on expanding child care programs and helping promote businesses owned by women. He said he would improve the chances of those businesses getting city contracts by breaking the agreements into smaller units and by paying bills more promptly.

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Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin and James Rainey contributed to this story.