Mayoral Hopefuls Greet and Eat

From a tea party in Reseda to a Chinese New Year’s parade in Chinatown to a barbershop in South Los Angeles, the leading mayoral candidates crisscrossed the city Saturday accepting donations, touting their records and partaking of all manner of fancy food.

With an election on whether to reelect or replace Mayor James K. Hahn coming up March 8, the candidates have only four weekends left to woo voters, and their schedules are becoming increasingly hectic.

Bernard C. Parks, the city’s former police chief, delivered his standard stump speech during high tea at the Braemar Country Club in Reseda, attacking Hahn for creating an environment ripe for corruption and for failing to manage the Los Angeles Police Department properly. The fundraising event, sponsored by Women for Parks, featured a hat contest, not to mention some beautifully prepared finger sandwiches.

Listening raptly, Park’s audience of about three dozen women appeared at times like a flock of exotic birds, their hats dripping with ribbons, beads, flowers, lace and feathers.

Among those he met was 6-year-old Kaelynn Wiltz, who filled out an envelope pledging 75 cents to the Parks campaign.

“You got us over the hump,” he said.

In the morning, Parks, a city councilman, attended what was billed as a “Supersoul Breakfast” in South Los Angeles. In the afternoon, he sneaked out of the tea party early, a spot of lipstick on his chin from the many kisses from enthusiastic supporters, and headed for Chinatown.

Hahn and another candidate, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), also attended the parade there.

Hahn spent much of the morning in South Los Angeles, stopping by a barbershop and attending a news conference with Police Chief William J. Bratton and Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) to endorse the idea of a day of public meetings to talk about the fatal shooting last week of 13-year-old Devin Brown by Los Angeles police officers.

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, another mayoral candidate, talked with members of a Jewish organization in Century City, and then delivered a speech to campaign volunteers who went knocking on doors in the San Fernando Valley on his behalf.

Alarcon, meanwhile, left the parade to give interviews to local newspapers and an online radio show. His campaign also announced it would begin running four different 15-second commercials on broadcast television starting Wednesday in the senator’s first purchase of TV advertising. Hertzberg already is airing TV ads, and Parks appears in movie trailers.

Officials did not say how much Alarcon -- who has lagged behind his competitors in fundraising -- was spending on the ads, but campaign spokeswoman Marty Uribes said the spots would air for several weeks.

Unlike many campaign ads, which feature politicians interacting with constituents, Alarcon’s cast him as a solitary figure up against the establishment. He is mostly featured alone in the four spots -- boxing at a gym, riding in the back of a car, standing at a crime scene and listening to a cellphone in front of a downtown skyscraper.

In voice-overs, he lambastes the state of the city’s policing, economy, government ethics and utility costs.

“They jack up the water rates and waste the money on PR contracts -- so I sued them,” he says in one, as he is shown slamming a punching bag with his fists.

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa did not campaign Saturday because he was in Washington, D.C. His campaign said he planned to hold a rally today in South Los Angeles to open campaign headquarters.