Tough Road for Hahn
By James Preston Allen, Publisher

     When Jim Hahn ran for Mayor of Los Angeles a few short years ago, 2001, nobody said it was going to be easy to hold this city on the desert together—and it hasn’t. He promised to fight the battle against secession—and won. He promised to lower violent crime—and he has. And he promised to bring big government closer to the people—well kind of, sort of. He never really ran on the promise of kicking the corporate lobbyists out or changing the pay-to-play rules, but he is beginning to see the light. Most importantly, he knows how the city functions, or is that dysfunctions. He also knew going into this current race that a five-way split amongst traditional voting groups and political allies was going to hurt him, but he has doggedly stuck to it. For all of its faults, the culture of the City of Los Angeles is changing, slowly, especially at the Port.
     The problem for the 15th district in this election, and especially the residents of the Harbor Area, is the unknown result of Mayor Hahn not being reelected. Would we lose the three local seats on the Harbor Commission board? Would either Hertzberg or Villaraigosa be as committed to the “Bridge to Breakwater” redevelopment? And would either of Hahn’s contenders be anymore inclined to pay attention to the long list of grievances that have historically plagued San Pedro and Wilmington? Things really could be a lot worse. There could be no term limits, and we could have been forced to deal with Dick Riordan running for a fourth term. But as things are now, Hahn has to fight for his political life.
     City watchers, who know, predicted just such an election months ago, forecasting that Mayor Jim might not even get into the run-off. Bernard Parks and Bob Hertzberg split off from Hahn the traditional Jewish-African American liberal alliance that elected Tom Bradley to four terms as mayor. The two Latino candidates take the east Valley and East Los Angeles, leaving Hahn with just the 15th district and a small percentage of the rest of the city. Even as this has appeared to have already happened, particularly with Bernard Parks playing spoiler with the black vote, Hahn still remains in the running of the top three candidates, which with a standard three point margin of error in the polls, makes it a dead heat going into the March 8 primary election. But only the top two vote-getters will survive to the runoff.
     It’s going to be tight. If this district and the citizens of the Harbor Area really value having Jim Hahn, and most of his top leadership who come from this area, to represent their concerns, then we are going to have to get out the vote here like never before. This includes the rank and file ILWU, whose union has endorsed Hahn, but whose membership seems conflicted over past allegiances to Villaraigosa. San Pedro and the rest of the 15th has to vote with an overwhelming majority to see its favorite-son candidate return to the office of Mayor.
     Jim Hahn has been the best mayor that San Pedro has ever elected and certainly ranks in the top three historically for the entire city, which is why I endorse him for reelection. Of course, there is more that needs be done, and should be done. But knowing the way the City of Los Angeles works, it will take a new guy three years just to get started. I think it both prudent and wise to let this mayor finish what he has started, and let Hertzberg, Villaraigosa and AlarcÛn come back in four years after they have learned more about what makes LA tick—to sort things out amongst themselves. Clearly we are fortunate to have the choice between all of these candidates­­—it could be a lot worse—there is not a Bushite Neocon amongst them.

Carson City Limits

     As a significant amount of our circulation goes into the City of Carson I would be remiss if I did not mention the race for mayor there as well. While the mudslinging is at its all time high in this race, with allegations over who actually lives where, in or out of the city, in both the council and mayoral contests, I have to admit that Jim Dear has been the best leader for what ails Carson to come along in a very long time. He is a true progressive with strong labor support who needs to be reelected to fight some of the more pressing development and environment battles that face Carson. Can any citizen of Carson forget exactly why Dear was elected in the first place? His predecessor Sweeny and his cohort, Keith McDonald, were both sentenced to prison on federal corruption charges. Need I say more?