Posted on 05/18/2005 6:55:49 PM PDT by ambrose
UPDATED: 05/16/2005
Hahn's no moderate Villaraigosa deserves election
Los Angeles Daily News Editorial
In an audacious attempt to rewrite his record, Mayor James Hahn has turned into a political chameleon.
He has spent the last few weeks of the runoff election trying to convince moderate and conservative Los Angeles voters - especially those in the San Fernando Valley - that, at least in spirit, he's a Republican, while challenger Antonio Villaraigosa is some wide-eyed, left-wing radical.
The truth - on both counts - is very different from what Hahn would have us believe.
Hahn a Republican? There's a laugh.
He's the "Republican" who's raised city fees - i.e. taxes - in every possible way over the past four years, hiking the price of garbage service, and sharply increasing sewer and water rates.
He's the "Republican" who's tried to raise sales taxes twice in the past year alone, ostensibly to hire more cops, even though city coffers were already swelling with soaring property tax revenues.
And who is it who stopped Hahn's latest attempt to jack up the city sales tax?
City Councilman Villaraigosa, the candidate this newspaper endorsed for mayor, surprising some longtime readers.
Villaraigosa was once a labor organizer, Hahn cries. True enough, but it is Hahn who, over the past four years, has been the Big Labor stooge. He's given public-employee unions every pay raise, pension perk and fringe benefit they've demanded, eviscerating city services in the process.
It is Hahn who has refused to shrink the City Hall bureaucracy, and who skirted his own supposed "hiring freeze." And it is Hahn who has championed a needless, $11 billion expansion of Los Angeles International Airport - a thank-you present for the construction unions and contractors that have bankrolled his campaigns.
Villaraigosa, by the way, agrees with the Daily News and opposes Hahn's LAX plan as too costly and ineffective in terms of security needs and passenger service.
So which candidate can lay the greater claim to economic moderation? Advantage Antonio.
And while Hahn makes sport with Villaraigosa's one-time association with the ACLU, as mayor Hahn has been every bit the slavish devotee of goofy, politically correct causes.
In Hahn's administration, there is now the feel-good but impotent Office of Immigrant Affairs. And though Hahn once proposed scrapping the similarly nonsensical Commission on the Status of Women, he quickly caved.
How about crime? Here, Hahn says, he's Mr. Law and Order. Never mind that as city attorney he negotiated and pushed for the federal consent decree that hamstrings the Los Angeles Police Department - an ACLU dream come true. Hahn personally negotiated the decree with one of the most ultraliberal lawyers Los Angeles has ever produced.
For all his posturing, Hahn's record as mayor is that of a knee-jerk liberal.
But how about Villaraigosa, and how did he get our endorsement?
Well, just look at some of the key Republicans and moderate Democrats backing his campaign: former Mayor Richard Riordan, Assemblyman Keith Richman, Sheriff Lee Baca, Councilman Bernard Parks, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, Councilman Dennis Zine, and Valley independence leaders Richard Katz, David Fleming and Richard Close.
For all the ideological labeling, Villaraigosa has been far more the moderate. As state Assembly speaker, he was well regarded by his Republican counterparts who knew that he took their concerns seriously and operated in good faith - something no one but the special interests will say about Hahn.
To be sure, Villaraigosa is a liberal, but unlike Hahn, he doesn't pretend to be a conservative. And unlike Hahn, he has demonstrated that he understands the need to govern from the center while confronting L.A.'s problems and seeking solutions by involving a broad range of interests.
That's the mark of a moderate in practice - and the antithesis of Hahn, who's only an election-campaign moderate.
Hahn has had four years to bring excitement, energy, new ideas and innovation to City Hall, and to give the Valley the respect it deserves. He's done none of that.
While this newspaper may disagree with many of Villaraigosa's positions, particularly those long past, we have come to respect his ability to listen and his willingness to compromise. He has the energy and leadership skills needed to revive City Hall and to get L.A. moving again, which is why we urge his election as mayor Tuesday.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20951%7E2870172,00.html
Somebody ping John McCain.
I thought I'd post this since some Freepers are acting like this election is the end of the world. Hahn was no walk in the park... Antonio can't be any worse.
I say give the knucklehead a chance to screw things up even worse, before passing judgment on him.
He could turn out to be a pleasant surprise, who marks his term by a "Nixon Goes to China" - taking on the unions, and entrenched interests at City Hall.
Then again, he'll likely just be more of the same.. we shall see soon enough.
Huh?
To the average American, and they are a distinctly small minority in the basin, this was a contest between a consummate liberal and a immigrant/labor ideologue.
This election was a poster child for the rot that is at the core of the new face of California. One camp wanting to return the wealth of the city to it's poor and the other wanting to return the area to the control of a cultural icon that is larger in the mind of its practioners than history supports.
And the winner? Not really important considering he has no mandate. The new mayor was elected by 16% of the registered voters in the city.
Ah, yes. Distinguished (R)s Dick Riordan and Keith Richman. Richman, another "New Majority" wonder-boy.
Well, chew on this:
Can you tell me where Antonio's views on immigration differ from George W. Bush's?
John McCain Republicans may think DemocRATS will be placated if they oppose President Bush or praise Hillary Rodham or espouse National Health Care.
The bottom line is: Liberals hate Republicans simply because they are Republicans so it serves no purpose to try to win their hearts. So why try?
Assuming the guy does no become a patronage boss, and sink into corruption, I agree with you. Mayors don't make much difference in LA really.
I agree. This wasn't so much a choice between two evils as a choice between two lessers.
But there were no Republicans in this runoff or even among the frontrunners in the primary.
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