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Hiring 1,300 additional police officers: $130 million. Planting 1 million trees: $140 million. Extending the Red Line subway to the beach: $2.7 billion. All those officers, all those trees, all that track and the more than three dozen other major promises that Antonio Villaraigosa made to the people of Los Angeles during the mayoral campaign will not come cheap. Just after midnight he became the 41st mayor of the nation's second-largest city, an ascension that will be marked today by an elaborate inauguration ceremony. Now, Villaraigosa comes face to face with one of the harsh inevitabilities of politics: It's easier...

LOS ANGELES – Antonio Villaraigosa wants to fix the schools. Uncoil gridlock. Ease racial tensions. Develop more affordable housing. Extend the subways. Hire more police. Even build more dog parks. But in aspiring to reshape the nation's second-largest city – or at least inspire it – Los Angeles' mayor-elect will need to lift the stature of the office to match his ambition, bucking a historically weak mayoralty that at times frustrated his predecessors. In Los Angeles, there is a need "to dream and think big," says Villaraigosa, who will be publicly sworn in Friday on the steps of City Hall....

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As a candidate for mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa packaged his ethnicity as carefully as he knotted one of his designer ties. Looking to appeal across the racial rainbow, he became the candidate who happened to be Hispanic, not the Hispanic candidate. But only days after his watershed election as the first Hispanic mayor of modern Los Angeles, a rash of fistfights between black and Hispanic students forced him to speak to the racial lines that crisscross - and sometimes divide - one of the nation's most diverse cities. On issues from jobs to housing to education, the...

Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa got rock-star treatment Wednesday on his first trip to the nation's capital since his stunning election victory. In between standing ovations and signing autographs at a series of speeches, the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century told a liberal organization that Democrats are not succeeding nationally because their ranks are too homogeneous. "We need to look long and hard within our movement. You look around this room, and you don't see the kind of diversity we need," Villaraigosa told a mostly white audience at a Campaign for America's Future event. In his...

Los Angeles mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa the city's first Latino mayor since 1872 said Wednesday that Mexico will play an important role in shaping his policies.

Los Angeles mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that Mexico will play an important role in shaping his policies, reports Mexico's EL UNIVERSAL Online. "We are starting a new era. Instead of closing the borders, as stated by Schwarzenegger, we should look at our border as an opportunity," Villaraigosa said. "This is a time of great importance, not just for us to rediscover our roots, but looking to create a mutually beneficial relationship," added the city's first Latino mayor since 1872. The top L.A. Democrat lamented that the recent passage by Congress of The Real ID Act would prevent illegal aliens...

HOLLYWOOD -- Continuing to celebrate his landslide win, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday toured the area that symbolizes Los Angeles to the rest of the world and fended off questions about a possible quest for higher office. Laughing as a resident sought assurances that Villaraigosa will serve a full four-year term, he turned to reporters and said, "It's already started." Then he told the questioner: "I just got elected mayor. This is the job I want." The question, however, underscores an issue Vilaraigosa will have to confront after July 1, when he becomes the first Hispanic mayor in Los Angeles...

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...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday plunged into the kind of controversy that could underlie his role as the first Latino leader of the multicultural city in over a century. Villaraigosa, 52, the high school dropout son of Mexican immigrants, scored a resounding election victory over incumbent James Hahn in Tuesday's mayoral elections, making him one of the nation's highest profile Latino leaders. Despite a campaign that underplayed race and a result that reflected cross-cultural support, Villaraigosa's historic win also underscored the growing influence of Latino voters in California and across the United...

WOODLAND HILLS - A series of fights broke out today at Taft High School ahead of a scheduled visit by Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, and school officials disputing claims by parents and students who said the brawls appeared racially motivated. As many as 17 patrol cars and an LAPD helicopter were dispatched to the Ventura Boulevard campus about 10 a.m., a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman said. Taft Principal Sharon Thomas said there were three separate fights among ninth-graders lining up to take standardized tests in a multi-purpose room. Six students were detained for questioning and the others were sent to...

LOS ANGELES (May 18) - Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa trounced Mayor James Hahn to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century as voters turned to the promise of change in a metropolis troubled by gridlock, gangs and failing schools. Tuesday's election confirms the rising political power of Latinos in the nation's second-largest city. In a victory speech before thousands of supporters in downtown Los Angeles, Villaraigosa, 52, paid tribute to his heritage while promising to bring the city's diverse racial and ethnic groups together. ''I stand here today because people believed in me. I want you to...

LOS ANGELES - Mayor James Hahn and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa were nearly deadlocked in early returns Tuesday as the incumbent struggled to hold his job despite a City Hall fundraising scandal and Villaraigosa sought to become the city's first Hispanic mayor since the 19th century. Unofficial tally of mail-in ballots showed Villaraigosa with 61,435 votes, or 51 percent, to 58,045, or 49 percent, for Hahn. Returns from polling places had yet to be counted. Hahn beat Villaraigosa in a runoff four years ago, then delivered on his promise to cut crime. But the incumbent was damaged by allegations that his...

LOS ANGELES - Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa unseated Mayor James Hahn on Tuesday to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century, confirming the rising political power of Latinos in the nation's second-largest city.After a lackluster term tainted by corruption allegations at City Hall, Hahn was turned out of office in favor of a high school dropout and son of the barrio who turned his life around to become speaker of the California Assembly and then a member of the Los Angeles City Council.With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Villaraigosa had 202,861 votes, or 59 percent, to 140,416...

The first election results are in...mail ballots only. Rounding off the numbers, it come out to 51% for Villaraigosa and 49% for Hahn. Do these numbers look better for either candidate? Opinions anyone?

Los Angeles Mayor Runoff 5/16/2005 Villaraigosa 60% Hahn 36% Undecided 4% Data Collected 5/13/05 - 5/15/05 Geography City of Los Angeles Sample Population 528 Likely Voters Margin of Error 4.3% Client KABC-TV Los Angeles

For Los Angeles, Only One Choice, One Slim Hope 05/16/05     Republican-about-town Jeffers M. Dodge was at a function a couple of weeks ago, one that was also attended by campaigning-incumbent-Mayor James Hahn.   "Hey, Mayor! I have a website up supporting your re-election," he said.   "Really?" replied Hahn. "What's it called?"   I wasn't there, but, as I imagine it, Jeffers paused, if only briefly, before he said, "The lesser of two dot com."   Sad is the day when a Democrat like Hahn becomes a Republican's only hope. Worse yet, when he becomes a city's. How bad...

In the final days before the election, the attack ads have come on strong. The mayor is dogged by a corruption scandal. His challenger is accused of coddling child abusers and hobnobbing with a crack dealer. The ads being broadcast by Mayor James Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa depict a world so corrupt it's hard to figure out where one scandal starts and another ends. "An average voter is being told that the best they can hope for is the lesser of two very great evils," said media consultant Dan Schnur, who has no ties to either campaign. The two...

Villaraigosa Renounces MEChA Past After Bruin Alumni Association Campaign May 12, 2005; Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday renounced the militant Chicano college organization MEChA he once led at UCLA, following a campaign by the Bruin Alumni Association to publicize his radical ties. As reported in today’s La Opinion by reporter Jazmin Ortega, Villaraigosa stated “I am not in agreement with most of [MEChA’s] precepts. … Of course I renounce its philosophy.” The comment was in response to a reporter’s question at a press conference and stemmed from four days of sustained demands by the...

SurveyUSA: Los Angeles Mayor Runoff Poll - Villaraigosa 62%, Hahn 33%

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mayor James Hahn began airing his first TV ad of the runoff mayoral campaign Tuesday - a blistering attack on the character and trustworthiness of front-runner Antonio Villaraigosa. The 30-second spot, running on broadcast and cable stations, faults the city councilman for raising thousands of dollars from Florida contributors. Using photographs of newspaper headlines, the ad points out that the county district attorney is reviewing some of those donations. A shot of Villaraigosa appears briefly in the ad, in which he says, "As Mayor, I will lead by example." A narrator responds sarcastically, "The Villaraigosa example...