Parks Officially Joins Race to Oust Hahn as L.A. Mayor

Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks made it official: He is running for mayor against James K. Hahn, who pushed him out as police chief two years ago.

“I’m in, with a capital IN,” Parks said Wednesday, 10 weeks after he filed fundraising papers and began criss-crossing the city to meet voters. Parks’ entry means that Hahn, once considered unassailable, will face at least three strong challengers in the March 2005 primary.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), a former city councilman from the San Fernando Valley, jumped into the race three months ago. Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, an advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared his candidacy in April.

City Councilman and former Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, Hahn’s opponent in the last race, is considering a rematch.

Political insiders said the campaign could be unpredictable.

“Anybody who tells you the answer, they’re full of baloney,” said political consultant Joe Cerrell. “If I bet the money in my pocket, I’d bet on Jim Hahn. But would I bet more than the money in my pocket? No, because you don’t know.”

The 60-year-old Parks, who plans an “open house” this morning to kick off his campaign, said that his recent whirlwind tour of Los Angeles convinced him that voters believe that the city is “adrift” and will welcome his business-friendly ideas.

The mayor, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on Parks’ decision and referred calls to his campaign strategist, Bill Carrick. “He needs to be taken seriously,” Carrick said. But he added, “I’m not worried. Jim is going to get reelected.”

No incumbent Los Angeles mayor has lost since Sam Yorty was defeated by Tom Bradley in 1973. But as federal and county investigators probe ties between city contracts and campaign donations, potential challengers have seen the mayor as vulnerable. As Parks met with voters to discuss his candidacy in recent months, he criticized the mayor’s stewardship. “The corruption issue is always one that is ever-present,” he said again Wednesday.

Though anticipated, Parks’ decision was welcomed by the other challengers, in part because the city’s second black police chief is widely expected to undercut Hahn’s support among blacks. Some of those voters may still be angry at the mayor’s decision to oust Parks.

“He’s a good man,” Hertzberg said. “I’ve got a profound respect for him.”

“The more viable candidates who enter the race,” Alarcon said, “the more we will be able to engage Los Angeles in a discussion of how we can make this city better.”

Villaraigosa said Parks’ entry “makes a runoff almost a fait accompli.”

But first, Parks, who spent 38 years in the Los Angeles Police Department, must explain his views to voters, who may know him only as the stern face of the sometimes troubled LAPD.

And he must raise money -- lots of it.

In 2001, six candidates spent more than $18 million in the March primary. This time, political strategists estimate that candidates will have to raise and spend more than the voluntary spending limit of $2.25 million.

Hahn has an enormous head start, having raised more than $1.3 million by the end of last year, according to the latest available reports.

Parks said he had not formally begun fundraising. But his campaign manager, former Inglewood city administrator and LAPD officer Joe Rouzan, said he had received about $75,000 from residents excited about Parks’ candidacy.

Hertzberg reported earlier this month that he had raised $200,000. Alarcon said he hoped to hit that mark by the end of the month.

Of the three declared challengers, Parks is the best known.

Born in Texas but raised in Los Angeles, Parks joined the LAPD at age 20 and worked his way up the ranks at a time when the force was not always hospitable toward blacks.

He became chief in 1997, presiding over the department as it was rocked by revelations that some officers had been framing suspects and covering up unauthorized shootings. In the wake of the Rampart scandal, federal officials forced Los Angeles into a court-mandated consent decree designed to bring about reform.

A year later, in 2002, Hahn announced that he would not support Parks for a second term.

After shelving his badge, Parks ran for a City Council seat representing South Los Angeles.

He won in a landslide and quickly showed himself as a fiscal conservative who worked well with his colleagues, even those who had voted not to support him for a second term as police chief.

But as he faces off against Hahn, a famously tough opponent who has never lost in six citywide elections, Parks’ LAPD leadership will probably be an issue in a campaign that many expect to turn ugly.

Carrick, Hahn’s political strategist, said Parks’ record “has quite a bit of baggage attached to it,” including “Rampart. The consent decree. Rising crime rates. Low police morale. Those are things people think of when they think of Bernard Parks’ tenure at the LAPD.”

Parks defends his record. And he denies that his candidacy is motivated by a desire to get even with Hahn.

But many, including Carrick, continue to suggest that it is.