Group’s Voter Registration Is Questioned

Mayor James K. Hahn’s campaign on Friday charged that a nonprofit organization that ran a recent voter-registration drive aimed at Latinos refused to sign up some who said they planned to support the incumbent.

The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which says it registered 12,235 Latinos, also received a boost from challenger Antonio Villaraigosa when he appeared at a fundraising golf tournament. And one of Villaraigosa’s top fundraisers helped raise money for the voter-registration drive.

“I’ve heard a number of cases where it appears Southwest is crossing the line and advocating for our opponent,” Hahn strategist Kam Kuwata said. “There needs to be a thorough investigation to see if they are abiding by the rules governing nonprofits.”

Antonio Gonzalez, the group’s president, disputed Kuwata’s charges. “It’s utter, complete baloney,” he said.

He said volunteers on the registration drive went through extensive training that included instructions not to ask voters whom they planned to support in the mayoral election.

The dispute arose less than two weeks before the May 17 election as both Hahn and Villaraigosa traveled the city to shore up support among key segments of the population.

The Southwest voter drive, Gonzalez said, could increase the Latino slice of the electorate to 27% or more. “These are strong numbers that bode well for the Latino community and the role it will play in Los Angeles area politics.”

The group’s registration drive cost $125,000, much of which was raised through an April 1 golf tournament at which Villaraigosa appeared. State Sen. Richard Alarcon, who is backing Villaraigosa, bought $800 worth of tickets. And Villaraigosa fundraiser Ari Swiller confirmed that he raised “tens of thousands of dollars for the drive.”

Swiller said he has been raising money for similar projects for years, even before Villaraigosa became a candidate. And he said he consulted with an attorney who advised it was OK for him to raise money for the project and Villaraigosa’s campaign.

Villaraigosa, who had raised $1.7 million more than Hahn through the end of April, canceled two fundraisers in the Sacramento area this weekend. “We need the councilman to spend 100% of his time in L.A.,” said Ace Smith, Villaraigosa’s campaign manager. “It’s that simple.”

Among the high-profile guests who had been expected at the Villaraigosa fundraiser outside Sacramento on Saturday were Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco and longtime Democratic Assembly speaker; Republican consultant Bob White, a former top advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; and Jim Brulte, the former GOP leader of the state Senate.

Villaraigosa’s fundraising has come under scrutiny after the district attorney launched an investigation into whether $47,000 from Florida contributors was laundered.

Kuwata said Friday that he had heard that volunteers on the Southwest registration drive, which ended Monday, did not help register people who said they planned to vote for Hahn. He said the district attorney should look into the allegations.

Rolando Cuevas, a Hahn campaign volunteer, said he received a call at home from someone identifying himself as being with the Southwest project. Cuevas said the man asked him whom he planned to vote for, and when he said he supported Hahn, the caller said goodbye.

Villaraigosa said he had not heard such allegations. “Of course I don’t condone such practices,” he said. “But I don’t have any knowledge that that is in fact what they are doing.”

Both candidates campaigned across Los Angeles on Friday.

Under intense grilling from middle school students at the New West charter school in West Los Angeles, Villaraigosa gave a hint Friday of how he would approach governing.

If elected, Villaraigosa predicted, his hair would be much grayer four years from now. “That’s what happens when you have a big job,” he said.

He also promised that he would hire “big thinkers, academics, people involved in government, people in the business world and people in labor.”

Things got off to a bumpy start during the candidate’s afternoon visit, his second stop at a charter school this week.

First, 5-year-old Kaitlin Zuban, the sister of a student, scampered away in fear when Villaraigosa knelt to talk to her. Then, as Villaraigosa urged a group of teens to “talk to your parents” about voting for him, one boy turned to another and said, “Hey, what governor is this?”

Later, Villaraigosa received the endorsement of several Korean American leaders at an afternoon event in Koreatown.

Hahn spent Friday with supporters, including more than 30 leaders of the Jewish community, among them former Rep. Bobbi Fiedler and former state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal, who praised the mayor for addressing crime.

“He has done not only an outstanding job, but he has saved a lot of lives as a result of his implementation of gang injunctions,” Fiedler said of Hahn.

The mayor touted his use of gang injunctions as a crime-fighting tool. “We have made this a safer city,” Hahn said. “I want to continue that job. I’m not going to be satisfied until we are able to claim the title of America’s safest big city.”

Hahn continued his emphasis on law enforcement later at a West L.A. news conference with Sen. Dianne Feinstein to announce his support for her bill to put some cold medicines behind the pharmacy counter to prevent them from being used in the production of methamphetamine.

Feinstein, who has provided one of Hahn’s most powerful endorsements, downplayed the mayor’s second-place status in the polls and in fundraising. “You always have a chance until all the votes are in,” she said.