James Hahn—
The Campaign of His Life
His Accomplishments are Clear, but Ethics Questions Leave a Cloud
By Rod Sanborn, Community Reporter

     Mayor James Hahn, like incumbents everywhere else running for re-election, is warning voters not “to change horses in mid-stream.” And to the question most voters are asking, “What have you done for me lately,” Hahn has a laundry list of accomplishments he can point to for his first term. Whether they can all be ascribed to Hahn is debatable. For San Pedro, it would be more valuable to know what a Hahn loss would mean for the Harbor Area.
     First of all, San Pedro would no longer have a local resident in the Mayor’s office, who takes to heart the needs and concerns of San Pedro. The other candidates’ personal interests would be centered away from the Harbor area, and their attention would easily be monopolized by other pressing concerns, such as the LAX expansion, downtown LA traffic light synchronization, and City contract regulation.
     If Hahn fails in his re-election bid, the Harbor area neighborhood councils would lose a strong advocate for local control over decisions that impact the Harbor area, and the area would lose a determined promoter of clean air and public safety in the region. According to Kam Kuwata, a spokesperson for Mayor Hahn’s re-election campaign, as a San Pedro resident, Mayor Hahn has a personal stake in the Harbor area, which includes public input on decisions made at the Port that affect the air we all breathe. Kuwata says, “[Mayor Hahn] knows we need to increase trade, but not at the expense of the people who live here.”
     A Hahn loss would cut off the direct line of communication that exists between the Mayor’s office and Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the Mayor’s sister, who works tirelessly to speak for the needs of San Pedro and Harbor area residents.
     Running unopposed, Councilwoman Hahn is assured of re-election.
     A Hahn loss could threaten to break up the LAUSD and undermine support for after-school programs. Candidate Bob Hertzberg’s plan to limit LAUSD to the city limits—supported by Governor Schwarzenegger and former Mayor Richard Riordan (now California’s Education Secretary)—would dump school issues on the abandoned districts in areas like Carson that lack the infrastructure to take up the slack.
     True, the mayor doesn’t control the school board, but his influence can be decisive.
     Moreover, Kuwata argues, “The other candidates who are running are not as committed to public safety and security at the Port as Mayor Hahn has been consistently over the years.” Kuwata cites Hahn’s appointment of Chief William Bratton, and his success in getting more cops into the field, although Hahn has not added the 1,000 officers he had hoped for. Hahn “has moved police officers away from administrative tasks so they can combat crime, not push paper,” Kuwata adds. The claim is buttressed by a recent report by City Administrative Officer William Fujioka, which shows response time to top-priority calls down from 10.2 minutes to 6.7 minutes after the three day work schedule was implemented in 2002.
     But serious obstacles remain for Hahn, whose four leading opponents—all Democrats—continue to pillory him for ethics questions, reflected in county and federal investigations into City Hall’s dealings with companies seeking City contracts. While Hahn has not been implicated and says he has no knowledge of possible wrongdoing, his challengers hold him responsible as the man in charge.
     A recent LATimes poll found that 48 percent of voters believed “Hahn has the honesty and integrity to serve as mayor,” while 34 percent don’t. That poll—conducted before the recent rash of TV ads—found Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa virtually tied at 21 and 20 percent respectively, followed by Bernard Parks and Hertzberg at 13 and 12 percent respectively, but with a whopping 31 percent undecided. An even more recent poll found a virtual three-way tie between Hahn, Villaraigosa and Hertzberg.
     Hertzberg claims that Hahn “has failed to make good on his promise of ethics reform by refusing to return hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions he has received from lobbyists, city contractors and commissioners.”
     As early as December 2004, Candidate Richard Alarcon “stop[ped] short of comparing Hahn to the only Los Angeles Mayor ever to be recalled, Frank Shaw…[who] had reputed mob ties. “I think we can safely say that Hahn’s administration is better than that. But the same slogan used then is appropriate now. Throw the rascals out!”
     In January 2005, Villaraigosa, announced his “Cleaning House at City Hall” plan, and asked Hahn and other candidates to sign an ethics pledge. Villaraigosa said, “It is time to stop making excuses – the people of Los Angeles deserve an honest and ethical government, not one that rewards campaign contributors with lucrative contracts.”
     Parks sees the alleged billings by Fleishman-Hillard—especially those in June 2003 that seemed to “…discuss numerous questionable activities including strategy for dealing with City Controller Laura Chick, who was scrutinizing the firm’s contract as yet another apparent act of inappropriate and unacceptable corruption practices within our City… We cannot afford to sit back and allow outside city contracts to work against the City and city staff.”
     It will be up to voters to balance the importance of such allegations with the more urgent issues of schools, crime and Port security. But this remains the election of Jim Hahn’s life, the one only he can win or lose. The question is whether the harbor voters will come out March 8 to support their favorite-son candidate—the only LA Mayor to ever be elected from San Pedro.

Mayor Hahn during the final debate of the mayoral race is trailing third behind City Councilman Bob Hertzberg and City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa. Photo: Bernard Kane.