The Anti-Antonio Battle Lines Are Being Drawn

So who will be the next anti-Antonio?

I refer to Antonio Villaraigosa, of course, the former state Assembly speaker who was elected Tuesday to the Los Angeles City Council’s 14th District seat, on the Eastside. He beat the incumbent, Nick Pacheco, with notable (but not surprising) ease. In the process, Villaraigosa again became the odds-on favorite to be Los Angeles’ first Latino mayor since 1872.

Which is where the “anti-Antonio” factor comes in. Although there are a lot of people in this town who have no problem with a Latino being mayor, more than a few would just as soon it not be Villaraigosa.

The reasons vary. Villaraigosa’s unapologetic liberalism puts off conservatives. His close ties to organized labor worry business people. Feminists don’t like his past womanizing. Policy wonks find him shallow. And, like any politico who rises to the top quickly, Villaraigosa made enemies on his way up.

Elements of this loose “anti-Antonio” coalition came into play two years ago when Villaraigosa emerged as a surprise contender for mayor, only to narrowly lose to James K. Hahn. It included U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), who is still convinced he would have been a better mayoral candidate against Hahn; former Assemblyman Tony Cardenas -- also elected to the City Council on Tuesday, from a San Fernando Valley district -- who raised money for Hahn from Indian gaming interests; and City Council President Alex Padilla, a Valley councilman who sees himself as a mayoral contender someday.

As if that were not enough, Villaraigosa no doubt made some enemies when he decided to take on an incumbent councilman, violating a whole set of unwritten political rules.

Of course, anyone who knows the 14th District also heard the rumblings of discontent that made Pacheco vulnerable -- unfavorable comparisons to his predecessor, Richard Alatorre, and complaints about crime in the area.

Or consider this: When Pacheco won his council seat in 1999, he got only 9,800 votes and barely beat another political neophyte. When Villaraigosa ran against Hahn in 2001, he got more than 23,000 votes in the 14th District.

The numbers help explain why one of Pacheco’s more intemperate supporters hit the panic button early in the 14th District campaign and sent out sleazy and racist campaign mailers attacking Villaraigosa. It was a tactical mistake from which Pacheco was never able to recover, and in the end the final vote wasn’t even close: 56% for Villaraigosa, 40% for Pacheco.

So assuming that Villaraigosa helps bring gang crime on the Eastside under control, fixes the potholes and minds all the other duties of a councilman, he has a safe base from which to launch a second mayoral campaign in two or six years. Which again raises the question, what Latino could stop him?

The city’s business establishment would be most comfortable with City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo because of his Ivy League education and ties to a big downtown law firm. One indicator of his interest in the mayor’s job is how often Delgadillo staffers point out that in the 2001 election, Delgadillo -- and not Villaraigosa -- became the first Latino elected to a citywide office in the modern era.

But I still think the most viable anti-Antonio is likely to come from the Valley, especially now that Padilla will have Cardenas, his former mentor, to help watch his back in City Hall. The two Valley councilmen are well positioned to use a fast-growing Latino population there as a power base that rivals the one Eastside Latinos have had since the 1970s. And now that Villaraigosa controls the Eastside, rather than their former ally Pacheco, it is a challenge one suspects Padilla and Cardenas relish.

*

Frank del Olmo is associate editor of The Times.