Villaraigosa Wins 3 Key Endorsements

Touting the endorsements as evidence he can win support beyond his Eastside district, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa announced that Rep. Howard Berman of the San Fernando Valley and Rep. Henry Waxman and Councilman Jack Weiss of the Westside are backing his bid for mayor of Los Angeles.

The support of three of the city’s most prominent Jewish elected officials is a boost for Villaraigosa’s campaign as he competes with Mayor James K. Hahn, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and others in the March 2005 election, observers said. Hertzberg is the only major candidate for mayor who is Jewish.

The endorsements will help Villaraigosa appeal to Jewish voters who are expected to split among several strong candidates, said Raphael Sonenshein, a Cal State Fullerton political scientist who is an expert on Los Angeles politics.

“This allows Villaraigosa to contend with Hertzberg and Hahn for some portion of the Jewish community,” he said.

Jews, who make up about 6% of the city’s population, comprised about 18% of the voters in the 2001 mayoral election, Sonenshein said.

Hahn did well in the Valley in 2001, and Hertzberg, a lawyer from Sherman Oaks, is expected to be strong there this time. Berman’s backing should be helpful to Villaraigosa in that part of the city, observers said.

Berman and Waxman said their support shows they value Villaraigosa’s ability to reach beyond ethnic and religious differences.

“I think strongly that he has a proven record of knowing how to bring people together, how to inspire people to work harder and to unite our diverse community in the city of Los Angeles,” Waxman said during a news conference in front of Canter’s Deli in the Fairfax district.

Waxman endorsed Villaraigosa in his 2001 run for mayor against Hahn, but Berman and Weiss were neutral.

Berman, a Democrat from North Hollywood, also spoke of Villaraigosa’s coalition-building skills, saying they led to results when the councilman was speaker of the state Assembly.

“He knows how to work across boundaries,” Berman said. “This is not a politician who looks first at ethnicity or religion -- or even party.” Villaraigosa said the endorsements are symbolic of a long relationship with the three politicians. He noted that he grew up in Boyle Heights, which was once home to many Jews.

Julie Wong, who stepped down Friday as deputy mayor to work full time on Hahn’s campaign, said the mayor has his own list of prominent endorsements, including that of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is Jewish.

Hertzberg said in a statement: “The only impact is that I lost three votes I never expected to get in the first place. As the only private citizen running for mayor, I never expected to get the support of career politicians.”

Some backers of other candidates questioned the sincerity of Berman’s endorsement. They note that Villaraigosa helped out the congressman in 2001, when the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit claiming a state redistricting plan diluted Latino voter strength in Berman’s district to protect the incumbent.

Villaraigosa said in a declaration filed by the state that he did not think voting was polarized along ethnic lines in the 2001 mayoral election, which was seen as supportive of the state’s argument that the redistricting plan did not hurt Latino voters. In a later declaration, Villaraigosa said he was neutral on the issue.

Berman denied that his endorsement of Villaraigosa was tied to the councilman’s declaration in the case.

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Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.