Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who backed Antonio Villaraigosa's 2001 mayoral runoff after developer Steve Soboroff lost, then switched to endorse Bob Hertzberg instead this year - is scheduled today to come came out for Villaraigosa all over again.
UPDATE: AP reports the endorsement did indeed happen, and that Riordan's backing will help Villaraigosa tap into the moderate and conservative end of the voting pool ...
(earlier)
Mayor Sam points us to a hint dropped in Rick Orlov's story today about the candidates' sparring over LAX security. Orlov mentions that Rep. Jane Harman (D-El Segundo) has endorsed Villaraigosa, while Hahn just got the backing of former councilman Nate Holden, and L.A.Co. Supervisor Mike Antonovich the day before.
Riordan had hinted in this week's CityBeat Q&A that he, uh, liked Villaraigosa better than Mayor Jim Hahn:
Do you have any specific gripes with Hahn?
No, how can you? He hasn’t done anything. [Laughs] There’s nothing for me to gripe about.
What do you think of Hahn’s chances?
It’s a different election now than before. From Villaraigosa’s point of view, he learned the last time how to take some vicious attacks on himself, and has run a more balanced campaign than he did last time. From Hahn’s point of view, I think people didn’t know him last time. He was an anonymous city attorney. Today they’ve seen his record as mayor and I think that’ll have an effect on voters.
The press conference for the Riordan endorsement - touted by the Villaraigosa camp only as a major endorsement - was set for 9 a.m. today, but so far, neither the Times nor the Daily News has popped a story.
Still in the breeze endorsement-wise: Bob "Where-Are-the-BigIdeas4LA.com" Hertzberg.
Posted by: mack_reed on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:17 PM
