In Testy Debate, Hahn and Villaraigosa Appeal for the Support of Black Voters

Mayor James K. Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa clashed over race and integrity Saturday in a tart debate that highlighted their fierce competition for the support of black voters.

Each candidate pledged safer streets, better schools and more jobs and housing for South Los Angeles. But much of their hourlong confrontation was about who could undercut voter confidence in the other.

“There’s only one person up here who’s demonstrated that they violated the public trust, and that’s you,” Hahn told Villaraigosa after scolding him for seeking the early prison release of a campaign donor’s son who was serving time for cocaine trafficking.

The city councilman responded by invoking the racially charged campaigns that Mayor Sam Yorty ran in 1969 and 1973 against challenger Tom Bradley, who ousted Yorty in their rematch to become the city’s first black mayor.

“Much as a mayor did to Tom Bradley some 30 years ago, I know exactly what you’re doing, Jim,” said Villaraigosa, who would be the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872. “You’re trying to demonize my candidacy for the purpose of creating a climate of fear, and I won’t tolerate it.”

The 8 a.m. debate, sponsored by the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper, took place in the glass atrium of the California African American Museum in Exposition Park. Aired live on KJLH-FM (102.3), it offered the candidates a forum for blunt appeals to African Americans, a major voting bloc that campaign strategists see as up for grabs in the May 17 runoff.

“You know me,” said Hahn, a former city attorney and city controller who grew up in South L.A. and lives in San Pedro. “I have been here in this community all my life.”

But Hahn is struggling to rebuild his black political base in the 37 days left before the election. Hahn’s popularity among blacks, whose support he largely inherited from his late father, longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, plummeted in 2002 when he pushed for the ouster of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, an African American. Parks, now a city councilman, ran for mayor but was eliminated in the March 8 election.

In the debate, Hahn faulted Parks for resisting pressure from federal authorities for a pact to prevent civil rights violations by police officers and for his reluctance to expand community policing.

“Maybe I could have done it a little slicker,” Hahn said of his opposition to renewing Parks’ job contract. “But I know I made the right decision.”

With Parks seated in the front row among a crowd of 200 spectators, Hahn said he could have averted some of the backlash if he had made his case against Parks more explicitly.

“I wanted him to leave with dignity,” Hahn said. “I didn’t want to have to lay out the case of all the shortcomings, all the failings, all the disagreements.”

Hahn went on to fault Villaraigosa for sending mixed signals during the 2001 campaign on whether Parks should remain police chief. Hahn also accused his rival of reversing his opposition to charter schools and breaking his promise to finish his four-year council term and not run for mayor.

“You can’t fight against gang injunctions when you’re president of the American Civil Liberties Union and then come, when you’re running for mayor, and say, ‘Yes, I think they’re a good idea,’ ” Hahn said. “Consistency is important.”

Villaraigosa fought injunctions barring certain activities by gang members when he was a board member and president of the ACLU’s Southern California chapter but now supports them.

In response to Hahn’s attacks, Villaraigosa said: “Jim, you have a lot -- you have unmitigated gall. You fired Bernard Parks and then want to blame me.”

Painting Hahn as inconsistent, Villaraigosa said that when his rival was courting black voters in 2001, Hahn portrayed Parks as “the best thing since sliced butter.”

As for charter schools, Villaraigosa recalled supporting them when he was state Assembly speaker. “If Jim Hahn did his homework, he would know that I negotiated lifting the cap on the number of charter schools in California,” he said.

Hahn snapped: “That was after you’d voted against it about four or five times before that.”

Villaraigosa, in turn, tried to raise doubts about the mayor’s trustworthiness. He asked Hahn to explain what was in the mayor’s e-mails that were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury that is investigating alleged contracting abuses at City Hall.

“Rumor and innuendo aren’t the way to conduct campaigns,” Hahn shot back. He rebuffed any suggestion “that there’s something corrupt about my administration” and cited Villaraigosa’s letter to the White House seeking the early release of convicted cocaine trafficker Carlos Vignali, a move for which the councilman has expressed regret.

“Ouch,” a debate sound technician muttered to himself. “It’s getting thick.”

In the first round of the mayoral election March 8, Villaraigosa won just 15% of the black vote, well behind Parks, who captured 54%, and Hahn, who got 23%, according to a Times exit poll. (Hahn won four out of five black votes in his June 2001 victory over Villaraigosa.)

But most of the city’s black political and church leaders have ditched Hahn, whom they backed in 2001, and united behind Villaraigosa. Among the Villaraigosa supporters at the debate was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

In a written question by an audience member, Villaraigosa was asked if he would “put black people secondary to the needs of Latinos.”

“You think Maxine Waters would allow me to do that?” Villaraigosa answered.

“I have a long record of being open and inclusive,” he added, vowing “more job opportunities, more appointments that look like Los Angeles, that are African American.”

Hahn stressed the drop in violent crime during his first term, touted his efforts against police brutality and took credit for the Marlton Square housing complex in the Crenshaw district. He also described himself as a leader of the fight for improvements at the troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, which he called “a hospital that my dad got built.”

“I don’t remember your voice being that loud on that issue, Mr. Villaraigosa,” Hahn said.

Villaraigosa said the hospital “must be saved” and vowed to work with county officials to reopen its trauma center.

The councilman also hammered Hahn for refusing to release his official calendars, saying the mayor was breaking the law by withholding them. Hahn denied breaking the law, saying he was “a dad with two kids who live with me” and did not want to “give a road map to somebody who would wish to harm me or my family.”

Villaraigosa, who has released his own calendars, said: “I have two children and a wife as well. I love my family too.”

The animosity between the candidates was apparent. When Villaraigosa was asked what quality Hahn has that the councilman lacks, he paused, glanced at the mayor and said: “A little more gray hair.”

Hahn said Villaraigosa “has a lot of charm about him” but told reporters after the debate that it shouldn’t matter if a candidate has “a pretty smile.”

After the debate, Villaraigosa dropped by a campaign rally in Mar Vista, while Hahn met with Indian American business leaders at the Village Tandoor restaurant in Northridge.

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Times staff writers Martha Groves and Ann M. Simmons contributed to this report.