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Shouts and Recriminations - Hertzberg Slams Villaraigosa's Backers
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 So, no sooner does Antonio Villaraigosa campaign worker Parke Skelton post news at LAVoice of some key endorsements than Bob Hertzberg's camp fires back, belittling the endorsements via their "LA Confidential" email as "political payback."
The unsigned email then goes on to declare Hertzberg as "the only private citizen running for mayor." This is a pretty disingenuous claim coming from a former Assembly speaker who spent six years making laws and connections in Sacramento, particularly when there are at least three other non-politicians registered to run, lawyer (and non-politician) Walter Moore among them ...
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The email says: Given that Bob is the only private citizen running for mayor, he never expected to get the support of career politicians.
This endorsement was about political payback for favors past (like Antonio helping Berman carve a safe seat for himself) and future (Weiss wanting Latino support when he runs for City Attorney). Bob knows that you don’t change LA from Washington, DC, or from the bowels of City Hall, which is why Bob is out in the neighborhoods, working for change where it matters.
That said, the person that should be most concerned about this is James Hahn. Hahn should be worried because of the message it sends when three elected officials choose a challenger instead of an incumbent from their own party. By dismissing the potential for retribution from a sitting mayor, Berman, Waxman and Weiss are as good as saying that Hahn won’t win. Perhaps not, but while Councilmen Villaraigosa and Bernard Parks are against him, Hahn won endorsement from seven of the 15 City Council members, the Times reports: The mayor has been endorsed by council members Eric Garcetti, Tom LaBonge, Cindy Miscikowski, Ed Reyes, Greig Smith, Dennis Zine and Janice Hahn, the mayor's sister.
Still uncommitted are council President Alex Padilla, Tony Cardenas and Wendy Greuel, all supporters of Hahn in 2001. "I haven't endorsed anybody yet. I'm focused on my reelection," Padilla said when asked whether he would back Hahn again.
One city official close to Cardenas said the lack of an endorsement of Hahn "means that Hahn has not lived up to the councilman's expectations or the mayor's promises."
The source said Cardenas could end up in the camp of mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg, who beat Cardenas for the Assembly speaker post several years ago but later appointed Cardenas as chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. And here I thought Bob "never expected to get the support of career politicians."
Meanwhile, the mayor's dead campaign website has strangely fallen off the map. The domain name JimHahn.org no longer resolves to the sad little "under construction" page with the 3-year-old graphics, beneath which once lurked promise of a major facelift.
But it's still owned by Carol Trevelyan Strategy Group, so who can say what's really going on. I'll try to keep an eye on it for you.
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| Posted by: mack_reed on Monday, October 18, 2004 - 09:23 PM
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