Mayor Rebuilds His Black Support

As he lines up allies for his drive to gain a measure of control over Los Angeles public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has struggled to maintain the loyalty of some African Americans whose support is vital to his political future.

Villaraigosa recently irritated influential black leaders, who complained that he had failed to adequately consult them about legislation he is seeking in Sacramento.

As a result, the mayor has scrambled to explain his rationale and repair relations, meeting privately with prominent African Americans and appearing publicly with some of the area’s most powerful figures, most notably Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

Those actions have yielded results: Power-brokers including Waters -- who calls the mayor a “friend” and vented her frustrations in a recent meeting with him -- say they again stand with Villaraigosa on the eve of his anticipated victory in Sacramento.

The Legislature this week is expected to approve a bill that would hand the mayor partial control of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to sign the measure.

“I’m prepared to work with the mayor ... to see if we can put the meat on the bones, to have some real programming that will benefit our children,” Waters said.

Still, some remain skeptical, seeing Villaraigosa’s plan as a power grab rather than an attempt to help the school system. Others accuse the mayor of handpicking supporters while neglecting others with contrary views.

“He hasn’t reached out to the broad segment of leadership in the African American community,” said political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who founded the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.

Villaraigosa acknowledged his failure to communicate sufficiently with Waters and others recently, saying he was so focused on moving his bill through the Legislature that he neglected other important audiences.

But the mayor insisted that African Americans remain a top priority, noting that he has spoken more frequently with groups in South Los Angeles about his school district plan than with any other constituency in the city, other than educators.

In those visits, he has repeated his argument that he will bring long-overdue accountability to the school district while giving teachers a greater role in their schools.

On a recent Sunday, Villaraigosa delivered his message to six African American churches, earning standing ovations at most of the stops.

The groundwork has paid off. Ministers from a dozen African American churches stood with Villaraigosa last week outside a Crenshaw-area charter school and declared their enthusiastic support for his L.A. Unified reforms.

“From the beginning, this has been a very important community to me,” Villaraigosa said in an interview.

“I feel this kinship with this community and that’s why I fight for them. I’m not African American. But I feel I’m here in large part because of African Americans,” he said.

Villaraigosa has reason to court African Americans: They represent a small but potent electoral bloc in city politics, one that helped catapult him to victory last year.

African Americans roundly supported his predecessor, James K. Hahn, for mayor in 2001 but fled in droves to Villaraigosa in a 2005 rematch amid anger over Hahn’s firing of former Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, an African American who now sits on the City Council.

“Without the African American community, Antonio Villaraigosa would not be mayor today,” said the Rev. Frederick O. Murph, senior minister of the Brookins Community African Methodist Episcopal Church and a supporter of the mayor’s school district plan.

“He understands the faith-based community,” Murph added. “That’s a mistake Jim Hahn took for granted. In turn, it cost him the mayor’s seat.”

Villaraigosa’s relationship with the black community operates on a more complex level, with the potential to affect the city’s direction.

Success of the progressive agenda Villaraigosa has articulated -- including better schools, more affordable housing, improved working conditions for the poor and a cleaner environment -- depends in large measure on his ability to assemble a diverse governing coalition and to keep a lid on ethnic tensions that simmer just beneath the surface.

That is no small task in a city where African Americans see their own influence waning as a growing Latino population exerts its political might at City Hall.

Some skeptics fear that Villaraigosa will favor Latino children over black students if he wins control of he school system, an accusation the mayor dismisses.

A onetime union organizer and the city’s first Latino mayor in more than a century, Villaraigosa has pledged to be a leader for all Angelenos. His schools legislation has provided a test of both that promise and his evolving relationship with African Americans.

“He has a lot of complicated politics. At the end of the day, he won’t be able to keep everybody happy,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a Cal State Fullerton political science professor who has written extensively about ethnic politics in Los Angeles.

“What remains to be seen is whether [his bond with African Americans] will deepen into a long-term relationship of trust. It’s a work in progress,” he said.

Villaraigosa took an important step toward solidifying that relationship earlier this month when he hired as a senior advisor the Rev. Leonard B. Jackson, a longtime minister from one of the city’s most prominent black congregations, the First AME Church.

Well known in ecumenical circles, Jackson said his top priority is to bring African Americans together around Villaraigosa’s school district reforms.

“You always have the naysayers who say they were not informed,” Jackson said.

“The mayor has done a very effective job in communicating within the African American community,” he said.

That remains a matter of debate among African Americans.

But even some who noticed what they considered the mayor’s recent inattention say they are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, particularly when it comes to fixing the schools.

“This mayor built his campaign on collaboration,” said the Rev. Eric P. Lee, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

“To the mayor’s credit, I think he’s remembering his allies,” he said. “I feel comfortable with his intent.”