Trying to Exit With Dignity Intact

Some smart-aleck reader with a long memory and nothing to do has reminded me of a prediction I made four years ago.

In 2001, when Jim Hahn knocked out a listless lad by the name of Antonio Villaraigosa in the battle for mayor of Los Angeles, I borrowed a line from a former Louisiana governor.

“Unless Jim Hahn is found with a dead woman or a live boy,” I wrote, “he’s good for eight.”

So sue me.

Like a lot of Angelenos, I didn’t fully get four years ago that Hahn might be in the wrong line of work. This later became painfully apparent, however, and when Hahn and Villaraigosa made the runoff two months ago, I bet L.A. City Councilman Tony Cardenas a steak dinner that Villaraigosa had it locked up.

Cardenas, by the way, insisted Los Angeles wasn’t ready to elect a Latino mayor. I hope he’s a better driver than prognosticator, because he’s taking me to Taylor’s Steakhouse.

As for Hahn, I stopped by his news conference Wednesday to hear what he had to say about the end of his political career, and it was typical Jimmy.

He was direct, he was articulate, he was a little removed.

One reporter tried to draw Hahn out, asking what his father would make of this disastrous turn in the Hahn legacy. The late L.A. County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, of course, was a political natural.

Jim Hahn said his father had lost an election or two himself. A few minutes later, the mayor was gone, disappearing into a back room. I don’t know if he was relieved to finally slip away, but I was relieved for him.

In his brief remarks, Hahn talked about his accomplishments as mayor, from housing to crime to beating back secession and hiring Bill Bratton as top cop. Yeah, he did get a few things done, and he likes to blame the press for underplaying his accomplishments. But on that count he’s as guilty as anyone.

Hahn could have built his whole campaign around touting his victories instead of trashing his opponent. His low-ball, mudslinging campaign was one more reason for voters to skip the election, and roughly two-thirds did precisely that. And don’t get me started on the sleazoid pay-to-play action that shadowed Hahn’s administration, crippling an already weak mayor.

Yet part of me felt for Hahn as he tried to hold on to a little dignity in the face of a crushing loss, the first one-term mayor since the Depression. He was blown out by a guy whose campaign was bereft of specifics, and here he was, once again answering a question about dad’s big shoes.

Politics was all wrong for Jim Hahn. Even dear old dad suspected as much, pointing to Jim’s sister Janice as the natural.

And yet the loyal and dutiful Jim ended up in City Hall, trying to manage an impossible city of nearly 4 million people while his marriage came apart and he took custody of an adolescent and a teenager.

Hahn argued the city doesn’t need a celebrity mayor with a flashy smile, but a mayor who gets things done. What else could a born introvert say?

In fact, a celebrity mayor with a flashy smile -- and at least a little competence -- can get more things done. Especially in an amorphous city desperate for a unifying force. You can’t lead if you can’t boost anyone’s spirit, least of all your own.

Being mayor, City Councilman Jack Weiss said during the campaign, is like having a public love affair with the city.

For four years, Jim Hahn was the quiet kid in the corner, too shy to ask anyone to dance.

Reach the columnist at steve.lopez@latimes.com.