Posted on 03/28/2005 8:06:55 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The two candidates for mayor relentlessly attacked each other Monday in their first televised, one-on-one debate and wrangled over issues from trust to traffic in caustic and sometimes personal terms.
Mayor James Hahn repeatedly questioned whether Angelenos could trust city Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, depicting him as an indecisive, pandering leader with a record of damaging decisions in his days as Assembly speaker.
"This campaign is about trust," Hahn said. Referring to Villaraigosa, he said bluntly, "People don't trust you."
The councilman, in turn, said Hahn's City Hall was the most investigated administration in modern times, alluding to ongoing corruption probes. At the same time, the city has made little if any progress on long-standing problems from traffic to housing to lousy schools, he said.
Villaraigosa, noting that three of four voters in the March 8 primary cast ballots for candidates other than the mayor, said: "That is the best testament to what people think about me, and what people think about the incumbent mayor."
The testy, hour-long encounter, televised live on KNBC-TV, signaled the nonpartisan race was moving into an even more contentious period after a rough-and-tumble primary season.
Hahn, seeking his second, four-year term, has been looking to slow Villaraigosa's momentum since the councilman finished as the top vote-getter with 33 percent of the vote in the primary. Despite a well-financed campaign, Hahn was able to win only 24 percent of the vote in the primary, enough to force a runoff against Villaraigosa but a glaring sign of vulnerability.
In recent days, Villaraigosa has landed two of the race's coveted endorsements, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
The mayor has been on the defensive over ongoing corruption probes at City Hall, which have focused on allegations that city contracts were traded for campaign donations. No one in the administration has been charged, and Hahn has said he is unaware of wrongdoing.
"We can't afford four more years of corruption probes and stagnation," said Villaraigosa, a Democrat, like Hahn. "We need a mayor who will restore trust and confidence in City Hall again."
But throughout the debate, Hahn sought to turn the question of trustworthiness against Villaraigosa.
Hahn noted that Villaraigosa promised to serve a full, four-year term on the City Council, then changed his mind to run for mayor. He questioned how Villaraigosa could depict himself as a champion of public schools while sending his children to private schools. And, as he did last week, he accused Villaraigosa of tailoring his comments in 2001 about then-Police Chief Bernard Parks to different audiences during the campaign.
Villaraigosa "will say one thing to voters in the San Fernando Valley ... and another thing to voters in South Los Angeles, hoping they won't find out what the difference is," Hahn said. Addressing himself to the councilman, he said he had "demonstrated over the years that nobody really knows where your position is."
The debate provided two incompatible views of Los Angeles.
To Hahn, Los Angeles is "a city that is on a roll" where crime is down and new businesses are coming to town.
To Villaraigosa, it's a city at a standstill where families are fleeing to find jobs and affordable housing.
Hahn, 54, is hoping to rebuild a fragile coalition of blacks and moderate-to-conservative voters in the San Fernando Valley that provided his winning edge four years ago, but which largely deserted him in the primary this month. Villaraigosa needs to move beyond his Hispanic base in East Los Angeles to win over moderate-to-conservative voters who spurned him four years ago.
Polls before the election found the mayor was damaged by two decisions he defends as a sign of leadership - his support for the ouster of Parks, the city's black police chief, in 2002, and his opposition to a secession movement that would have split the valley from Los Angeles.
some video and pics and such at
http://www.nbc4.tv/index.html
Hahn: You are a dimwitted son of a flea infested taco vender!
Villaraigosa: You are cheating lying two faced gringo!
Hahn: Your mother was a cheap drink at a Tijuana motel!
Villaraigosa: Your mother was a little favor to a hack politician!
Hahn: You are an illegal alien!
Villaraigosa: You are boozing sleeze!
You know you live in a left wing hellhole when Bernard Parks is the right winger in the race.
De-pressing irony.
Do you know something we do not?
Maybe...and maybe not?
Your screen name is very apt. LOL!
He is probably a supplier to the City of LA and has the cancelled checks to back him up!
Pay to pLAy baby!
These two pathetic clowns are after "moderate-to-conservative voters"??
Where, pray tell, are such beings in a dump like LA?
And why would they vote?
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