Hahn, Villaraigosa Take Campaigns to the Valley

Taking their campaigns for Los Angeles mayor to the key battleground of the San Fernando Valley on Saturday, incumbent James K. Hahn opened a new police station in Mission Hills while challenger Antonio Villaraigosa held a rally in Van Nuys with former Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry.

With 2 1/2 weeks before the May 17 election, both candidates expressed a sense of urgency.

Councilman Villaraigosa exhorted his supporters to get out the vote so he can avoid a repeat of four years ago, when he lost to Hahn in a runoff.

“This is a great rally with great leaders and we’re so excited, but I’ve been here before,” he told the crowd. “This campaign is not over. Every one of you who has come here today needs to walk your neighborhood.”

Sen. Kerry was one of more than a dozen elected Democrats on a balloon-festooned outdoor stage to urge support for Villaraigosa in front of a boisterous crowd of more than 450 at Valley College.

The Massachusetts lawmaker thanked Villaraigosa for his service as national co-chairman of the Kerry presidential campaign and said the councilman is just what Los Angeles needs to solve its problems with schools, crime and traffic.

“He wants to put additional police officers in the streets of Los Angeles to help make those streets safer for people. That’s why you want to elect him mayor,” Kerry said. “As a mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa will open up the doors of healthcare opportunity to all of the citizens of Los Angeles.”

Kerry’s visit came a day after the district attorney’s office opened a preliminary inquiry into thousands of dollars in contributions to Villaraigosa from the employees of two companies in Miami. The probe is to see if the donations were laundered.

Villaraigosa decided earlier in the week to return $47,000 in questionable contributions, even though he said there is no evidence that they were improper.

Some 50 Hahn supporters showed up at the rally, where many chanted “Miami Vice” and held signs that read “Villaraigosa for Mayor of Miami.”

Kerry said voters can trust Villaraigosa. “I’ve known Antonio Villaraigosa now, and I’ve watched him, and I’ll tell you something -- this is a man of integrity and a man with a vision for the future,” he said.

In an interview with The Times, Kerry went even further in Villaraigosa’s defense.

“There is no one in American politics, myself included, who hasn’t had a contribution made inadvertently to our campaigns that when we learn about it, we return it. We do what’s right,” Kerry said.

And at a news conference earlier in the day in South L.A., Hahn told reporters that returning the contributions does not end the matter.

“It strains credulity to say he doesn’t know what business they’re in,” Hahn said, referring to remarks Villaraigosa made about the donors who work for companies that run gift-shop concessions.

Asked for his assessment of Hahn, Kerry said, “I don’t come here to say anything negative about any person.”

At the rally, Kerry and Villaraigosa took to the stage in blue dress shirts with the sleeves rolled up.

Villaraigosa talked about expanding the police force by 1,000 officers and extending the city’s subway and light-rail systems.

Mimicking Hahn’s voice, Villaraigosa mocked the mayor as someone who thinks his challenger’s ideas are “pie in the sky” and impractical.

Villaraigosa, who has criticized Hahn in the past for investigations into city contracting, made only one allusion to ethics issues facing the incumbent.

“Over the last few years, there’s been a thick brown haze hanging over City Hall, and I’m not just talking about the scandals or the air quality,” Villaraigosa said. “I’m talking about limited horizons. I believe that Los Angeles needs a mayor who is willing to see farther and to reach farther, a mayor who is going to expect and demand big things of Los Angeles.”

In Mission Hills, where Hahn was one of several officeholders on stage at the dedication of a new police station, the crowd was twice as large.

The mayor has been working hard to shore up his standing in the Valley, where he alienated some voters by opposing secession, a topic that went unmentioned in his formal remarks.

He did, however, tout changes in the Los Angeles Police Department. “We see a new spirit [in the LAPD] under the leadership of Chief Bill Bratton. He’s done a great job,” Hahn said. “We know we didn’t accept the status quo at the LAPD. We can move forward like that on every issue we face.”

Hahn once again trumpeted the 27% reduction in violent crime in the most recent statistics. He praised the entire Police Department and singled out Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann, saying he has had a big role in reducing crime rates in the Valley.

And he once again emphasized the importance of community policing. “We brought community policing back, and it’s never going away,” Hahn said to enthusiastic applause.

Afterward, Hahn said the decision will be up to the voters but that judging by Saturday’s enthusiastic crowd, he expects to be reelected. “The response I’m getting in the Valley shows I’m going to continue to be mayor,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Villaraigosa addressed a conference in his district on public safety and Hahn made a brief address at the start of a street festival put on by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in South Los Angeles.

Hahn ran strongly in the area four years ago, but alienated many residents there when he sacked former Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Jim Franklin, the group’s local president, acknowledged that the nonprofit, tax-exempt organization could not endorse a candidate. He made it very clear, however, how he felt when he introduced Hahn: “I think he’s the best person for our community.”

In a veiled reference to Parks, Franklin said a number of people seem to have made a decision on the mayor’s race based on “a single issue. I say it’s time to get over it. It’s time to move on.”

Hahn didn’t mention Parks either. But Hahn touted his record as a mayor who has presided over the city during a period when violent crime rates have dropped sharply. “We need to make our community safe,” he said. “I’m glad we have community policing again.”

Hahn’s record as mayor was lauded at the event by state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), who once was a close friend of Villaraigosa’s.

Cedillo praised the mayor for having the courage to force Parks out and to fight the San Fernando Valley’s move to split from the city.

“He did the things that are right for the city, not for his political career,” Cedillo said.