Rivals Zero In on Key Voters

James K. Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa raced the breadth of Los Angeles on the final Saturday before election day, striving to pull together the patchwork coalition each needs to prevail in their bitterly fought mayoral rematch.

Hahn, fighting to keep his job in Tuesday’s election, made more than half a dozen stops on the summer-like day, including appearances courting moderate and conservative voters in his home base of San Pedro and in the San Fernando Valley.

City Councilman Villaraigosa targeted moderates and more liberal voters during stops in the city’s Westside and at several synagogues, before winding up at a Lebanese American Foundation dinner in Beverly Hills.

Hahn continued to criticize Villaraigosa as soft on crime. “We can’t trust him with an issue as important as public safety,” Hahn said at a morning rally at his Miracle Mile headquarters.

Villaraigosa brushed aside the mayor’s attacks as typical mudslinging. “I think there’s no room for that in American politics, but unfortunately it’s what desperate politicians do,” Villaraigosa told reporters outside the Adat Ari El Temple in Valley Village, where he broke ceremonial bread with congregants.

Today, both candidates will focus on the vital African American vote, with appearances planned at more than half a dozen black churches across South Los Angeles.

Hahn, who has never lost a citywide election, is fighting to avoid becoming the first Los Angeles mayor ousted in 32 years -- and the first to be denied a second term since the days of Prohibition.

Villaraigosa stands to make history of his own: If elected, he would be the first Latino mayor since Los Angeles was a remote 19th century outpost on the Western frontier.

Saturday’s frantic morning-to-night campaigning came near the close of a rancorous 10-week runoff contest dominated by clashes over personal integrity and the candidates’ records -- Hahn’s as mayor and Villaraigosa’s as a state lawmaker and member of the City Council.

At stake Tuesday is the top job in a government serving nearly 4 million residents spread across 470 square miles, from the booming harbor to the rows of tract houses sprouting in the San Fernando Valley. Beyond oversight of police, firefighting and paramedic services, the mayor wields power over the city’s water, power and sewer systems, garbage collection, libraries, parks and four airports.

With a budget nearing $6 billion a year, the mayor oversees more than 45,000 employees, the bulk represented by unions with close political ties to both Hahn -- whom most have endorsed -- and Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer.

City officials foresee deficits through the entire four-year term of the next mayor, which could leave him wrangling with the council over tax increases or spending cuts.

Villaraigosa and Hahn won spots in the runoff -- a rematch of their 2001 clash -- with their one-two finishes in the March 8 first round. The three other major candidates in the race -- former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, Councilman Bernard C. Parks and state Sen. Richard Alarcon -- endorsed Villaraigosa after they failed to make the cut.

For all the spleen of their rematch, Hahn and Villaraigosa, both Democrats, have few policy differences. Hahn stresses public safety, Villaraigosa education. Their main distinctions are matters of biography and style.

Hahn, the 54-year-old son of political giant Kenneth Hahn, grew up in South Los Angeles amid a rapid transformation of white neighborhoods to black. Following the career path prescribed by his heritage, Hahn ran for city controller, city attorney and mayor -- never losing an election in 24 years.

In hardscrabble City Terrace, Villaraigosa, 55, was raised in what he calls “a home of domestic violence.” His mother, a secretary, supported the family after his father abandoned the household. He went on to become state Assembly speaker and capture a spot in the 2001 runoff, only to lose to Hahn. As consolation, Villaraigosa won his City Council seat two years later.

The mayoral rematch has featured a more subdued version of the Villaraigosa who campaigned in 2001. Still, he has tried to contrast his outgoing nature with Hahn’s shyness, describing himself as having the energy needed to run America’s second-most-populous city.

“Villaraigosa obviously is a much more powerful personality -- more personable, more effusive,” said John M. Allswang, emeritus professor of history at Cal State Los Angeles. “Hahn is just very low-key.”

By Hahn’s account, Villaraigosa’s charm belies a lack of accomplishments; the mayor belittles what he calls his rival’s “pretty smile.”

Hahn’s personal disdain for his opponent is part of what has been a caustic overall approach to the campaign. None of Hahn’s four TV ads in the runoff promote the mayor’s record; all four simply criticize Villaraigosa.

In his latest spots, Hahn denounces Villaraigosa for opposing tougher penalties against child abusers and new legal steps against gang members and -- reprising a criticism from their first matchup -- for seeking early prison release for a cocaine trafficker. Villaraigosa, who returns his opponent’s personal animus, in turn says in his ads that Hahn has smeared him.

Hahn has appealed most aggressively to white Republicans and conservatives -- his strongest base of support -- by trumpeting the hiring of Police Chief William J. Bratton and the city’s subsequent drop in crime. He also accused Villaraigosa of “taking the side of gangs” when he was a leader of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Southern California chapter, which fought injunctions that bar gang members from such activities as congregating in parks.

“Hahn comes from one of the great Democratic families. His father was an icon,” said Arnold Steinberg, a GOP strategist who is neutral in the mayor’s race. “The paradox would be if he wins, it will be Republicans that make the difference.”

For Hahn, the harsh tenor results in part from the sequence of events that has imperiled his reelection effort. His push to oust Parks, an African American, as police chief undermined Hahn’s base of support among black voters and led many South Los Angeles political and church leaders to embrace Villaraigosa.

“From a public policy standpoint, it was probably one of the best things he did over the last four years, although that’s open to debate,” Allswang said. “But from the standpoint of ethnic politics, it was a costly move.”

Also troublesome for Hahn was his campaign against 2002 ballot proposals to break the Valley and Hollywood away from Los Angeles. While the mayor helped beat back the secession attempts, his efforts led to a backlash in the Valley, weakening his standing with another major voting bloc that supported him the first time around.

“We’ve had to really work hard to regain the trust of” African Americans and Valley residents, said Bill Carrick, a Hahn strategist.

Further aggravating Hahn’s troubles have been unresolved corruption investigations by local and federal prosecutors, a grand jury subpoena of the mayor’s official e-mails, the indictment of a former public-relations advisor and the resignations of top aides -- all featured in Villaraigosa’s attack ads.

Polls showing Hahn’s reelection bid in danger have made matters still worse, drying up campaign-money sources that normally gush to an incumbent. As a result, the $1.2 million that Hahn has spent in the runoff on TV ads -- a crucial method of communicating with voters -- is less than half the $3 million spent by Villaraigosa. Overall, as of Wednesday, Villaraigosa had raised almost $3.8 million -- far more than double the $1.4 million that flowed to the incumbent.

Nonetheless, Villaraigosa is trying to assemble a coalition unprecedented in Los Angeles politics and rare anywhere in the country: Latinos, African Americans, Jewish voters and other liberal and moderate whites.

“This is really about [a prospective] passing of the torch, in terms of power, to Latinos, to Mexican Americans,” said Steven P. Erie, an urban studies professor at UC San Diego and expert on Los Angeles politics. “That’s the true significance of this election.”

The last time voters broke such a barrier in a Los Angeles election was 1973, when Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor in the city’s history in a rematch against white incumbent Sam Yorty, who had openly stoked racial divisions.

Today’s political climate is markedly different. Latinos have replaced whites as the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles -- in population, though not among registered voters -- and hold scores of powerful political positions, including the top jobs in the City Council and state Assembly.

“Latino elected officials have become integrated into the political fabric of Southern California,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a think tank focused on Latino issues.

Still, Villaraigosa has played down the historic significance of his candidacy and has muted ethnic appeals to the Latino community. Mindful of the potential for backlash among non-Latinos, he promises to be a bridge builder, and signs touting his candidacy proclaim: “Antonio for all of Los Angeles.”

Despite the political drama and personal stakes, the race has drawn a decidedly unenthusiastic response from most voters. City officials forecast that fewer than a third will cast a ballot.

Amber Overman, who was at Art’s Deli in Studio City when Villaraigosa stopped by Saturday, could have spoken for many when she described the campaign as very boring. “I don’t trust either candidate,” she said. “I’m going to bail.”

Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Jeffrey L. Rabin and Larry Stammer contributed to this report.