Hertzberg Throws His Support to Villaraigosa

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who placed third in last month’s mayoral election, endorsed City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday in the runoff, declaring that it’s time for a change in leadership at City Hall.

Hertzberg, a Sherman Oaks attorney, was joined by two dozen former supporters, including several civic leaders from the San Fernando Valley, who also made the leap to the Villaraigosa camp.

“All of us are standing here today with Antonio Villaraigosa for the very same reason: to change Los Angeles,” Hertzberg said at a news conference in Sylmar. “You know that he has the energy. You know he puts together good people. You know he has what it takes to make it happen.”

Hertzberg, who represented the Valley in the state Assembly for six years, ran a strong mayoral campaign and won the most votes of any candidate in the Valley.

His endorsement is a blow to Mayor James K. Hahn’s efforts to hold on to support from moderate and Valley voters, who played a key role in his 2001 election.

With Hertzberg’s announcement, Villaraigosa now has the endorsement of the three major candidates who were eliminated in the March 8 election.

“It’s just one in a series of events suggesting all the momentum is with Villaraigosa,” said Tom Hogen-Esch, a political scientist at Cal State Northridge.

Hahn, who is fighting for a second term in the May 17 runoff, made his own pitch to Valley voters Thursday, presiding over the grand opening of a new West Valley police station in Reseda with his popular police chief, William J. Bratton.

It was the second time in two days the mayor appeared with Bratton to stress his record on crime to Valley voters, who typically make up about two-fifths of the city electorate and tend to be more conservative.

“This state-of-the-art facility will help enhance police operations in the West Valley and be a welcoming environment to the community,” Hahn said of the $26-million building.

The mayor said the station was part of a broader effort by his administration and the LAPD to make Los Angeles safer.

“Since we broke ground on this station in 2002, Los Angeles has turned a corner,” Hahn said. “Violent crime is down 37% citywide, and right here in the West Valley, violent crime has been decreased by nearly 45% over the past two years.”

Hahn, who arrived as the event was starting and left without taking questions, made no mention of the election.

Villaraigosa held his event with Hertzberg at a Sylmar bio-medical firm called Second Sight Medical Products, where he blasted Hahn’s administration for failing to properly fill out an application to land California’s stem cell institute.

Los Angeles was eliminated from contention this week when its application was deemed incomplete.

“Los Angeles missed out on a historic opportunity,” Villaraigosa said. “As mayor, I will make it a priority to grow the biomedical and biotech industry here in Los Angeles.”

He outlined a plan that includes development of a biomedical research park near Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

The councilman said Hertzberg’s support reunites two former allies who worked together in the state Legislature and were even roommates for a time.

The two, however, had a bitter dispute over campaign funds and other issues before they left Sacramento.

“Bob and I got into this race for the same reason,” said Villaraigosa, who is also a former Assembly speaker. “We were tired of seeing the city that we love ... adrift and mired in scandal and headed by a mayor who doesn’t have the vision or the energy to lead Los Angeles.”

The Hertzberg endorsement compounds Hahn’s troubles, which include Villaraigosa’s string of high-profile endorsements from such influential figures as Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

A recent Times Poll showed Villaraigosa leading Hahn by 18 points and leading in all areas of the city.

Larry Berg, the retired director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, said, “I don’t see how the mayor can pull this out.”

Hahn campaign spokesman Kam Kuwata downplayed the Hertzberg endorsement, noting that Villaraigosa lost the June 2001 election to Hahn even after garnering the backing of former Councilman Joel Wachs, who was based in the Valley, and former Mayor Richard Riordan, who was popular there.

“They are the Sacramento twins,” Kuwata said, describing Hertzberg and Villaraigosa. “They both raised money from Enron. They both did favors for Enron. And both wrote letters for a convicted drug dealer.”

The two former legislators wrote letters in 1996 asking the White House to review the case of convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali, an action that Hahn has repeatedly said calls into question Villaraigosa’s judgment.

“I took responsibility for my actions. Jim Hahn has refused to take responsibility for his,” Villaraigosa said Thursday, citing the investigations into city contracting.

Hahn on Tuesday questioned whether Villaraigosa had asked other public officials to write letters to the White House and made calls to the federal prosecutor in the Vignali case.

“Absolutely not,” Villaraigosa said Thursday, when repeatedly asked by reporters whether he had made a telephone call on Vignali’s behalf.

In addition, Hertzberg and county Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was also at the endorsement event, said Villaraigosa did not ask them to write letters for Vignali.

Hertzberg promised that he would be an active player in the Villaraigosa campaign. “I’m going to give Antonio every amount of energy, ideas, passion -- everything I’ve got,” he said.

Those who joined Hertzberg on Thursday to back Villaraigosa included Hertzberg campaign co-chairwoman Lisa Specht, a former Hahn parks commissioner, and former Assemblyman Richard Katz, former chairman of the Valley Independence Committee, which campaigned for Valley cityhood in 2002.

“Clearly the polls show -- and the sense you get from everything that is going on now is -- that there is a lot of momentum for change,” Katz said.