Villaraigosa, Parks Gain Key Backing

Threatening Mayor James K. Hahn’s hopes of recapturing support in South Los Angeles, more than two dozen African American religious and political leaders Wednesday endorsed challengers Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa in the March 8 election.

“We cannot afford leadership that allows our city to drift into the future without a sense of destiny and purpose,” said Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, one of the city’s largest and most influential black churches. “It is time for a change.”

Blake, who backed Hahn four years ago, stood with other community leaders at his Crenshaw Avenue church in the heart of an African American community that has helped nurture Hahn’s political career and could hold the key to its future.

“It’s a big blow to Mayor Hahn,” said Kerman Maddox, a veteran political consultant and South Los Angeles community activist. “It indicates a further erosion of his support in a community that historically has been his strongest base.”

Maddox and others said the endorsements from a who’s who of African American leaders could provide a critical boost for Parks, who is trying to climb into contention for one of two spots in the expected May runoff.

They could also help Villaraigosa pick up African American support that largely eluded him during his unsuccessful 2001 mayoral campaign.

Both city councilmen said Wednesday that they planned to aggressively publicize the endorsements, and several of the endorsers said they would work hard to rally support for Parks and Villaraigosa in the African American community.

Hahn, who said Wednesday afternoon that he had not heard about the endorsements, discounted their importance.

“Their support ... is not as important as the support of the voters,” the mayor said at a Long Beach news conference where he was pushing for increased funding for port security.

But in recent months the mayor has been laboring to win back support among African Americans that he lost when he blocked Parks’ reappointment as police chief three years ago.

The 2002 showdown between the two men shattered Hahn’s decades-old relationship with many black leaders who had supported Hahn out of loyalty to Hahn’s father, the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

Many said they felt betrayed by the mayor, who had not said during his 2001 campaign that he wanted to replace Parks.

A recent Times poll showed the mayor has support from only a quarter of black voters. Four years ago, Hahn secured a spot in the June runoff with 71% of the black vote.

In recent weeks Hahn has been a regular visitor to South Los Angeles, helping lead celebrations of Black History Month and visiting black churches on Sundays.

Last Sunday, Hahn sat in the front row of Blake’s church before heading to First AME Church, another one of the city’s most prominent black churches, which was headed until recently by one of the city’s most prominent pastors, the Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray.

On Wednesday, Murray, who also backed Hahn four years ago, was among those who stood up to support Parks and Villaraigosa.

Also at the event were former Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack, Councilman Martin Ludlow, state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) and about 20 clergymen.

“I think we’re a little beyond the point where a few visits are going to swing us. We are more concerned about tangible things,” Mack said Wednesday, dismissing Hahn’s frequent trips to African American institutions.

Among the city’s leading African American figures who have yet to offer endorsements are former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). Both backed Hahn four years ago.

Waters, in recent years, has clashed with Hahn over expansion of Los Angeles International Airport and on other issues. Johnson and Waters did not return calls to their offices Wednesday.

Mack said many African American leaders were still upset by the way Hahn treated Parks.

But he and others stressed that the rejection of Hahn signaled broader disappointment. “This is not just payback,” Mack said. “This is about leadership and what kind of leadership we need for this city.”

A failure by Parks, who won election to the City Council after being forced out as police chief, to win endorsements from these African American leaders would have dealt his campaign a serious blow.

But several political observers said the endorsements could be most critical for Villaraigosa, who has been working to overcome historic distrust in Los Angeles between the Latino and African American communities.

“There has been a certain fear that African Americans were losing political influence to Latinos,” said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.

Regalado said he saw the endorsements as a potentially watershed event in the relationship between the two communities.

Villaraigosa also picked up more support Wednesday from his allies in organized labor. United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, is spending $13,717 on a mailer to promote Villaraigosa’s efforts.

The councilman is a former organizer for the union.

Hahn and former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg also continued their sparring over who would run a more negative campaign in the 13 days before the election.

Hertzberg wrote a letter to Hahn on Wednesday cautioning the mayor for the second time this week against attack ads and renewing his challenge to meet him in a one-on-one radio debate.

“Before you begin an advertising campaign against me, I’m offering you the opportunity to join me in studio to make your case against me to my face,” the Sherman Oaks Democrat said.

Hahn campaign spokesman Kam Kuwata said the mayor would not accept the debate offer from Hertzberg because it would “exclude every person of color from the debates.” The three other major candidates are black or Latino.

Earlier Wednesday, Hahn and Villaraigosa stood shoulder to shoulder on a street full of red-tagged homes in the Glassell Park neighborhood, consoling shocked residents and expressing sadness about the storm-related disaster.

Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Patrick McGreevy and Greg Krikorian contributed to this report.