Candidates Compete With the Rain

Mayor James K. Hahn gazed soberly at the turnout for his Tuesday morning news conference: not a single television camera. Two weeks before election day and the mayor had drawn just one reporter to his announcement about environmental initiatives.

“All rain all the time,” Hahn said wistfully. “That’s the only thing anyone wants to cover.”

By Tuesday afternoon, however, he had figured out how to attract television coverage: Stand in front of a landslide, preferably in a yellow slicker.

In the space of 2 1/2 hours, Hahn -- who is in a fight for his political life as he faces a March 8 election against four formidable candidates -- held four media events at three mud- and water-ravaged locations.

That is on top of countless appearances in front of sinkholes and a background of lashing rain in recent days.

In Highland Park, Hahn toured a red-tagged home and observed a swimming pool teetering at the edge of a crumbling hillside. He tried to comfort despondent residents. He murmured kind words about Federal Emergency Management Agency programs.

And he was not even the first mayoral candidate there. Antonio Villaraigosa, whose City Council district includes Highland Park, had already spent much of the morning at the site, helping residents rescue their pets and valuable papers from their homes.

It is hardly a new political technique. During the 1994 race for governor, when the O.J. Simpson trial had become a national obsession, Kathleen Brown’s campaign carefully scheduled her events to make sure they did not conflict with the Simpson case. Both Brown and then-Gov. Pete Wilson also took to holding news conferences near the courthouse, to make it easy for television camera operators to trot over during breaks.

The current mayoral candidates have said they are not trying to exploit tragedy, but help constituents.

“In a time of emergency and natural disasters, people count on their executives, be they mayors or governors, to step up. It’s the job,” said Robin Kramer, who was former Mayor Richard Riordan’s chief of staff and worked with him during the 1994 Northridge earthquake’s aftermath.

Riordan’s popularity soared after the quake.

Although no one has suggested that a few days of rain in stereotypically sunny Southern California compare to the devastation of an earthquake or terrorist attack, political observers said the deluge could provide a small boost to Hahn -- despite the loneliness of some of his non-rain-related media events. At the very least, he can use the power of incumbency to get on television.

And this campaign season, with the high cost of TV advertising limiting exposure to the candidates, every bit of attention helps. The latest series of storms hasn’t helped and washed out several events Monday and Tuesday.

The rain had a direct impact on one event Monday. Four of the mayoral candidates were scheduled to attend a forum at the Korean Education Center, where more than 25 people showed up to watch. But the storm knocked out the power, forcing organizers to move the candidates more than a mile away into a cramped studio at Radio Seoul. Much of the audience did not follow the candidates to the new location, and the move meant that the forum could not be broadcast live over Radio Korea.

Bob Hertzberg called a news conference at his campaign office over the weekend in Eagle Rock, but no television cameras showed. The candidate ended up sitting down at a table with two newspaper reporters to make his comments.

And attendance for Villaraigosa’s visit to Valley VOTE’s meeting in Van Nuys was light -- a fraction of what it was when Hahn and Hertzberg made pilgrimages to the secessionist group.

“The difficulty is, there are so many other things competing for people’s attention,” Hahn said Monday. “So I think all the candidates are trying as hard as we can to get people to focus on this.”

Still, some candidates tried to turn the weather to their advantage. Hertzberg strategist John Shallman said the rain damage has reinforced Hertzberg’s campaign message that the infrastructure is suffering under the Hahn administration.

“The roads are crumbling,” Shallman said. “Traffic is an absolute nightmare.”

He also said the bad weather had helped the campaign’s door-to-door efforts because voters were more likely to be sympathetic to precinct walkers who turn up soaked and dripping.

The campaign representatives of Hahn’s leading challengers said they were unconcerned about the mayor’s increased visibility during the storms. And despite the rain, the candidates gamely continued Tuesday to woo voters.

Hahn outlined a plan to overhaul the city environmental affairs department and rename it the Department of Environmental Affairs and Sustainability. He then attended a rally where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to fight to save the Los Angeles Air Force Base from closure. The mayor also took a letter to the governor requesting that he ask President Bush to declare a new disaster in Los Angeles, clearing the way for federal assistance.

Hertzberg, who began running television ads two weeks before his opponents, cut back to only cable spots for the last five days to save money. Steve Murphy, his media strategist, said the spots would be back on broadcast stations today and would remain up until the election.

“We wanted to make certain that we have enough money to deal with any contingencies at the end,” Murphy said.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley) launched what he is calling his “Pledge Tour” on Tuesday, touring shops in Koreatown, where he promised programs to help small businesses.

Alarcon said he would initiate a “Buy L.A.” program, encouraging patronage of such businesses. He plans tax breaks for businesses that adopt environmentally friendly policies such as flexible work schedules and wants to open City Hall seven days a week for businesses to get permits.

The “Pledge Tour” will have Alarcon traveling in a bus to all 15 council districts to highlight his proposals on specific issues. Today he is headed for South Los Angeles to talk about his education reform plans.

Meanwhile, additional independent expenditure campaigns were started Tuesday by supporters of the various mayoral candidates.

Service Employees International Union Local 434B, which represents home-care workers, spent $10,000 on radio ads praising the mayor “for his dedication to protecting the most frail in our community.”

Laborer’s Local 300 plans to run a radio ad that credits Hahn with bringing 40,000 jobs to Los Angeles.

Also Tuesday, Councilman and former Police Chief Bernard C. Parks staged a fundraiser and gave a radio interview in his quest for the mayor’s job.

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Times staff writers Richard Fausset, Matea Gold and Noam N. Levey contributed to this report.