Hahn alleges special favors

Length: 30 seconds

Images: Several newspaper headlines and stories are shown, followed by images of Antonio Villaraigosa speaking and the newspaper stories flashing a second time.

Announcer: L.A. newspapers report that Florida contributors gave Antonio Villaraigosa $179,000, many of them corporate interests seeking L.A. city contracts.

After collecting their money in Florida, Villaraigosa did special favors for many of these Florida businesses in the L.A. City Council.

Now, the district attorney has opened an investigation of Villaraigosa’s fundraising.

Villaraigosa: “I’ll lead by example.”

Announcer: The Villaraigosa example of special favors for special contributors. Los Angeles just can’t trust Antonio Villaraigosa.

Analysis: Villaraigosa collected $179,000 from Florida donors through April 5, the end of a recent reporting period. By the end of April, individuals, unions, organizations and companies that listed Florida addresses had donated $204,550 to his campaign.

Through April, donors from Florida had given $35,750 to Hahn.

Villaraigosa returned $47,000 from the employees and family members of two related Florida companies, Travel Traders and S.E. Florida Investments. Those companies reportedly are interested in concessions contracts at Los Angeles International Airport, according to records from a Florida court case, and Clark Davis, a former lobbyist who also is a Hahn fundraiser. Neither company has officially sought city contracts.

Villaraigosa has said he is unaware of any wrongdoing involving the donations.

There is no evidence that Villaraigosa “did special favors for many of these Florida businesses.”

On April 15, two weeks after Sean Anderson, president of Travel Traders, made his second $1,000 donation to Villaraigosa, the councilman did lead an effort to have the City Council intervene in the Airport Commission’s decision to extend two LAX contracts, one for duty-free shops and another for gift shops and newsstands. The contracts were set to expire after Tuesday’s election.

Villaraigosa said he pursued the issue after The Times reported that the Airport Commission had extended the contracts without discussion.

The Airport Commission, whose members were appointed by Hahn, voted with no debate to extend those multimillion-dollar contracts without competitive bidding. One of the concessionaires donated to Hahn, and both hired lobbyists with connections to the Hahn administration.

Hahn also has ties to Anderson, who held a fundraiser for him in 2000. Hahn received at least $25,000 in donations from employees of W.H. Smith, an LAX concessionaire, when Anderson headed its North American operations.

Villaraigosa’s bid to have the City Council review the extensions failed, and the contracts were extended. Had he succeeded, the contracts would have been available for companies to bid on sooner.

It is true that Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has opened a “preliminary” investigation into whether the $47,000 may have been illegally contributed to Villaraigosa’s campaign.