Hahn TV Ad Calls Rival Untrustworthy

James K. Hahn plowed into the final week of the campaign for mayor of Los Angeles Sunday by launching a television advertisement that says opponent Antonio Villaraigosa can’t be trusted--citing as proof the letter the former legislator once wrote to the White House on behalf of a convicted cocaine trafficker.

The most aggressive attack yet by the Hahn campaign reinforces a continuing theme--that Villaraigosa is a little-known and unreliable candidate who is not fit to be mayor. Hahn said in an interview Sunday that he believes the 1996 letter on behalf of drug trafficker Carlos Vignali is part of a Villaraigosa pattern. According to Hahn, it is “not just of bad judgment, but it’s also an example of untrustworthiness.”

Villaraigosa called the television ad--which includes grainy photos of the candidate and a crack cocaine pipe being held to a flame--”reprehensible.” In a letter to Hahn late Sunday afternoon he demanded that the spot be pulled, saying “your campaign of fear has sunk to a new low.”

“Your ad drags Los Angeles into the gutter by depicting drug addicts smoking crack cocaine and cynically implying that I support them,” Villaraigosa wrote. The candidate had said earlier in an interview that Hahn was attempting to create a “climate of fear” around his candidacy.

“I think that people are looking for someone to appeal to their hopes and not their fears,” Villaraigosa concluded.

Hahn campaign consultant Kam Kuwata said the ad would remain on the air. “We stick with the facts,” Kuwata said.

Hahn’s attack on the airwaves was in stark contrast to the uplifting messages the two candidates delivered as they toured churches around the city Sunday. Villaraigosa used his appearances to call fellow Angelenos to service, while Hahn also urged congregants to “integrate your faith with your work.”

The television attack on Villaraigosa has been long anticipated--stemming from the letter Villaraigosa wrote in 1996 on behalf of Vignali, who had been convicted for helping finance a ring that transported a large quantify of cocaine.

Villaraigosa’s letter to the pardon secretary at the White House was one of several written by Latino elected officials and by Cardinal Roger Mahony. Many of the politicians received campaign contributions from Vignali’s father, Horacio. In 1994, Villaraigosa got a total of $4,895 from Horacio Vignali, his wife Luz, and a family business, including the value of catering provided by the family. Villaraigosa received a total of $1,400 from the Vignalis in campaign contributions in 1996 and 1997.

Carlos Vignali had his sentence commuted by former President Clinton in the final days of his administration, one of the many last-minute pardons and commutations that created a furor around the outgoing president.

When confronted with his actions, Villaraigosa apologized and said he had made a mistake by responding to the pleas of a desperate father. He said the letter was an anomaly that should not overshadow his years of service in the state Assembly.

But the Hahn campaign insisted Sunday that the ad is legitimate and that Villaraigosa’s misstatements about the Vignali letter are just the latest of many less-than-truthful comments he has made.

The Hahn ad shows a razor blade cutting cocaine, a copy of Villaraigosa’s letter to the White House, a smoking cocaine pipe and a grainy picture of Villaraigosa. A narrator describes the letter and campaign contributions, saying that Villaraigosa “falsely claimed the crack cocaine dealer had no prior criminal record.”

In fact, Vignali had several previous arrests and at least one conviction, a review by the Times found when news of the commutation surfaced earlier this year.

The ad also hits Villaraigosa for initially denying that he wrote the White House, “until the L.A. Times confronted him with the letter.” The Times reported in February that Villaraigosa had said that he recalled writing the judge overseeing Vignali’s appeal in the case, but denied he wrote the White House.

The ad concludes with: “Los Angeles can’t trust Antonio Villaraigosa.”

Villaraigosa complained in his letter that the television ad is part of a pattern of attacks by the Hahn campaign. He noted that Hahn has already accused him of being more sympathetic to criminals than crime victims and said he had worked “to protect violent sex offenders and child pornographers.”

The candidate said the “fear and innuendo” attacks should end, and he called on Hahn to “join me in an honest debate about the issues that bring hope and inspiration to the great residents of our city.”

Hahn spokesman Kuwata retorted that it is Villaraigosa who has introduced negative television ads into the campaign, in part by accusing Hahn of attempting to remove police from the streets with a “compressed” work schedule for officers.

The few hundred congregants who saw the two candidates visit churches during the day got much more uplifting messages.

Villaraigosa visited African American congregations in South Los Angeles, challenging the community’s historic allegiance to the Hahn name and preaching about the need for individuals to better their communities.

“This conversation that I call an election has given us an opportunity to talk with one another about what we expect from our leaders,” he told parishioners at First AME Zion Church on West Adams Boulevard. “But it should also be an opportunity to ask ourselves the question, ‘What do we expect from ourselves?’ ”

Hahn’s six church stops also asked citizens to do more and to expect more from government. “If we have young people who have made bad choices and we haven’t given them anything else to do, then it’s our fault,” Hahn said. “We can’t say it’s entirely theirs.”