Generation Gap Seen in Black Support for Hahn

They faced off, young and old African Americans, yelling and pointing fingers.

The younger ones were staging a rally in Leimert Park to protest laws that restrict gang members’ activities. They complained that these and other crime-control measures encourage police to unfairly target black and Latino youths.

The older folks had noticed the rally and came over to argue that the rules were needed to keep troublemakers in check.

It was no coincidence that the people in their 50s wore “Jim Hahn for Mayor” T-shirts, and the 20-somethings carried signs that read “Hahn, stop targeting youth of color.” City Atty. James K. Hahn, who faces Antonio Villaraigosa in the June 5 mayoral runoff, is a passionate supporter of court orders that prohibit gang members from gathering in public. His opponent is not.

That disagreement reflects a dynamic quietly playing out in the Los Angeles mayor’s race: Many observers believe there is a generation gap among black voters, who are widely regarded as being a predictable Hahn bloc.

Although exit polls show that more than 70% of African Americans supported Hahn in the mayoral primary, a relatively young group of black Villaraigosa backers is breaking ranks to publicly push for the former state Assembly speaker.

These supporters, led by African Americans who have worked with the former labor leader for decades, scoff at the notion that Hahn is assured of black voters because his father, the late Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, was a revered figure in black communities.

Some political observers say it is only natural that younger black voters--less wedded to the traditions of the civil rights movement and less threatened by the burgeoning Latino population--would be less bound by the symbolic pull of the Hahn legacy.

“There is no empirical evidence on this, but we suspect that more and more younger black voters will be attracted to the Villaraigosa campaign,” said Michael Preston, a USC political scientist who analyzes black politics. “Villaraigosa is a young progressive in the mold of Tom Bradley, and they don’t know [about Kenneth] Hahn.”

In the quiet, traditionally black residential blocks surrounding the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Coliseum Street, where both candidates’ Crenshaw area offices sit kittycorner from each other, it is clear that James Hahn is the favorite. There are Hahn signs posted on lawns on nearly every block. There are virtually none for his opponent.

Yet on recent evenings in Villaraigosa’s Crenshaw office, the rooms were filled with dozens of volunteers, about two-thirds African American.

Anthony Thigpenn, a lead organizer in the Crenshaw office, had hoped to get as many as 150 volunteers to scour local neighborhoods for their candidate, but last week the campaign canceled a recruiting session because that number had already topped 250--more than the staff could handle.

‘More of a People’s Standpoint’

Some volunteers are union members, and others belong to South Los Angeles community organizations, churches or mosques that are working with the campaign. Many said they have never volunteered in a political campaign before.

“I like Mr. Villaraigosa’s background,” said Stanley Powers, 41, a black law office clerk who volunteered to go door to door for the candidate. “I didn’t come from an easy background either. . . . He brings more of a people’s standpoint to the mayor’s office.”

Powers is regarded as a relatively young voter because black senior citizens vote more heavily than do younger generations. A Los Angeles Times exit poll conducted after the April primary election showed that 66% of black voters were 45 or older (compared with 48% of Latino voters in that age group).

Villaraigosa’s campaign believes he can win if he maintains his backers from the primary, gets at least 30% of the black vote and attracts supporters of defeated Latino mayoral candidate Rep. Xavier Becerra.

Thigpenn said data from the city clerk’s office compiled by the campaign show that, in largely black districts, 26% supported Villaraigosa in the primary. In the last two weeks, local support has grown to more than 37% based on door-to-door surveys of more than 5,000 homes, he said.

Hahn, city attorney for 16 years, has won the endorsements of the city’s most influential blacks including prominent clergy, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and basketball star-turned-businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Hahn acknowledged that Villaraigosa appeals to young voters, but said his opponent’s support among African Americans comes largely from left-leaning blacks.

“They call themselves ‘progressives’ but I call them the new liberals,” Hahn said. They, like Villaraigosa, don’t “reflect where most people are coming from,” he said.

Many black Hahn supporters resent the suggestion that they are reflexively supporting him.

Glenn Brown, 50, who owns a private investigation firm, said he was won over by Hahn’s experience and handling of such issues as the city’s recent agreement with federal officials to oversee the Los Angeles Police Department and the racial diversity in the city attorney’s office.

“He’s not someone who’s making promises to get endorsements. This guy knows how to run the city,” said Brown.

The depth of the passions on the part of black Hahn and Villaraigosa supporters was in evidence a week ago during a mayoral debate at Crenshaw High School, in which the remarks of both candidates were often drowned out by cheers and taunts.

In recent weeks, prominent African Americans have joined Gov. Gray Davis and Mayor Richard Riordan in publicly backing Villaraigosa. City Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rita Walters and several black clergy--including AME Bishop John Bryant--have endorsed him, surprising many who assumed that black leaders would uniformly support Hahn.

Influential Endorsements

Other influential African Americans who have endorsed Villaraigosa include Martin Ludlow, political director of the AFL-CIO; and Patricia A. Means, publisher of Turning Point, a quarterly magazine that covers African American business and community issues.

On voter registration deadline day, Villaraigosa organizers plan to stage an event complete with rappers and local celebrities to bring attention to their candidate among blacks.

Black Villaraigosa supporters said Hahn’s support of gang injunctions--laws that enforce curfews and other restrictions on people that police have identified as gang members--makes many African Americans uncomfortable. Many say police inaccurately label young African Americans and Latinos as criminals, and that the injunctions give police license to step up such tactics.

“People are offended by the racial coding that gang injunctions represent,” said another black Villaraigosa supporter, Karen Bass, executive director of Community Coalition, which focuses on youth and social services.

Last week, Bass’ group organized about 100 young blacks and Latinos, many of them high school and college students, to march through Leimert Park and about a mile up Crenshaw Boulevard to protest the practice. Signs read: “Hahn, stop targeting youth of color” and “Hey Hahn, your gang injunctions don’t work,” prompting honking horns and raised fists of support from passersby.

Several participants, who were barely of voting age and who said they have never been in legal trouble, reported being stopped by police as suspected gang members.

When asked how he would respond to youths who say they’re innocent victims of police profiling, Hahn said, “They’re not kids; they’re violent criminals.”

Bo Taylor, a 35-year-old African American and former gang member who formed Unity One, a gang intervention community organization, said: “Me, I’m not supporting someone who believes in gang injunctions. If you do the crime, you’ve got to do the time. But I believe young people should have the opportunity to do better, learn right from wrong, get jobs.”

Melina Reiman, a doctoral candidate at USC, said she brings young black undergraduate and graduate students with her to hear Villaraigosa speak.

“Every single person I’ve brought to hear him speak and hear what he says on the issues has become a supporter,” she said. Older black voters tell her they support Hahn, but few pointed to specifics in Hahn’s record as explanation, she said.

“The only reason I would get was, ‘Wasn’t his daddy Kenny Hahn?’ ”

For some, it is that fact that turns them off the younger Hahn. “Hahn had stuff handed to him,” said Charles Adams, 25, a musician and student who is volunteering for the Villaraigosa campaign.

Like many black Villaraigosa supporters, Adams is fond of noting that many blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles have been living and working together for decades, accommodating each other’s differences.

“If people knew their history, they would understand.” Adams said. “They would know he’s our man.”