Democrats Pitted Against Democrats

I was among the thousands of L.A. Democratic voters who received the large, expensive brochure from the California Democratic Party. It touted endorse-ments of Antonio Villaraigosa and several other Democrats running for office in the city election--against other Democrats.

I am an avid supporter of Villaraigosa, but as a grass-roots Democratic activist, I am appalled to see the state party injecting itself into a local election that pits one good Democrat (Villaraigosa) against another good Democrat (Jim Hahn).

Had it judiciously avoided taking sides, our party would have been guaranteed a victory in those runoffs, regardless of the outcomes--and without alienating Democratic voters who feel disenfranchised for having supported the “wrong” Democrat.

Joan H. Leonard

Sherman Oaks

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Re “Polanco Endorses Hahn as ‘Best Prepared’ to Serve City,” May 22: Mayoral candidate James Hahn boasted of his recent endorsement by former state Sen. Richard Polanco. Polanco’s rationalization for this endorsement was that “Jimmy Hahn has 20 years of experience representing all the people of our city” and that his opponent (Villaraigosa) “served just 800 days as speaker [of the state Assembly]. There is no comparison.”

A check of their records will reveal that Villaraigosa has accomplished more in his 800 short days as leader of the Assembly than Hahn did in his 20 long years of city service.

Louis Robins

Van Nuys

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Thank you, Mr. Villaraigosa, for helping me finally make my decision on which candidate to vote for as mayor of Los Angeles. Let’s see: Your wife is a teacher in the Montebello schools, you want to help us improve education and schools for our children. Then why, Mr. Villaraigosa, do you send your own children to private school?

Sheri Share

Chatsworth

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Re “LAX Expansion an Election Issue in Airport Area,” May 23: It is truly unfortunate that The Times would characterize our community the way it did at the end of the article. Was this really supposed to send a message to our mayoral candidates that Westchester doesn’t matter, so they should allow for the expansion of LAX?

For every one person with Marisa Cardenas’ attitude, I’m sure I could point out 10,000 who do not share her feelings, including our neighbors who are black and Hispanic. I found it very interesting that the article failed to point out the more profound change in our community, that being the new, younger families, 30-and 40-year-olds moving in over the last seven years and replacing the previous generations of families. None of these people, young or old, are represented by the sentiment of the people you interviewed.

David Coffin

Los Angeles