Political Pulse—Riordan Action May Make Villaraigosa Unstoppable

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L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan’s endorsement last week of mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa could very well give the former Assembly Speaker the boost he needs to come out on top in the close June 5 runoff election.

“This is a very strong endorsement,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior scholar with the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development who was on hand for the endorsement at the flag plaza across the street from City Hall. “Antonio already had organized labor and its (get-out-the-vote) muscle; now this is going to help win over some of the conservatives and Valley voters.”

Supporters of rival candidate and City Attorney James Hahn point out that Riordan has a mixed track record in backing candidates, particularly in the most recent school board races, where three Riordan-backed candidates went down to defeat. They also note that Hahn has a number of high-profile endorsements of his own, including Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Warren Christopher.

But two things are likely to work in Villaraigosa and Riordan’s favor this time around. First, as political consultant Jorge Flores noted in a previous column, Riordan didn’t do well with his endorsements in those school board races because the candidates themselves weren’t the greatest quality and they didn’t have realistic chances of winning in an environment where anti-incumbency had died down.

That’s hardly the case with Villaraigosa, who actually placed first in the primary.

But perhaps more importantly, Villaraigosa now has support from both Mayor Riordan and the county Federation of Labor, with its legions of foot soldiers. In the past, that combination has usually proven successful: witness the election of Alex Padilla to the City Council against a candidate with a much longer history of community involvement who was initially picked to win against the much lesser-known Padilla.

It is this combination of union strength and mayoral coattails that prompted one media observer at the endorsement to say, “Before today, it was too close to call. But now, this is Antonio’s race to lose.”


Radio Spots

KFWB News 980 is expanding its local public official call-in shows.

Two years ago, KFWB premiered a one-hour call-in show with Mayor Riordan, called, appropriately enough, “Ask the Mayor.” It aired on the fourth Wednesday of each month, in the 10-to-11 a.m. time slot.

That show caught on with local listeners, resulting in many times more listeners calling in with questions than there was time on the air, according to KFWB spokeswoman Crys Quimby. Equally as popular were the substitute “hosts” that filled in for Riordan when he was unable to attend: L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks and L.A. Unified School District Superintendent Roy Romer.

Well now, both Romer and Parks have their own call-in hours on KFWB. “Ask the Schools Chief” with Romer premiered on the second Wednesday in February and has been airing each second Wednesday of the month ever since.

And “Ask the Chief” with Parks started last Wednesday. Parks fielded calls on everything from the murder of actor Robert Blake’s wife to the Rampart scandal to the “3-12” compressed workweek schedule that has caused so much friction in the mayoral campaign.

“This concept has gotten such a great response from our listeners that we would like to do this every Wednesday morning,” Quimby said.

The next target: Gov. Gray Davis. Quimby said there have been some preliminary discussions with Davis’ office to have him come on once a month.

“An ‘Ask the Governor’ program would be a great vehicle for the governor to reach out,” she said. “It’s been successfully tried in other states. WBBM in Chicago, which I worked at, had great success with its ‘Ask the Governor’ show.”

Eventually, Quimby said, KFWB would also like to reach out to public officials in Orange County, including possibly one or more county supervisors and the sheriff.

But isn’t that more than four or five Wednesdays a month? Not to worry, Quimby said. “There are always times when a public official can’t make it, and that’s when we can rotate in some of these other officials.”

Meanwhile, over at rival news station KNX 1070 Newsradio, there are no plans for similar programming.

“We consider what KFWB is doing as moving more toward talk radio,” said KNX director of news and programming Bob Sims. “We have no specific plans for any similar hour-long shows.”


Freeman Volley

Former L.A. Department of Water & Power chief S. David Freeman had some harsh words last week for the George W. Bush administration. The newly designated state “energy czar” took the administration to task for “trying to have it both ways,” on the energy issue.

“On the one hand, the Bush folks refuse to step in and put in place regional price caps on wholesale generators that can help our state and the entire Western region get the energy situation under control,” Freeman told a crowd of 300 or so at the Jewish Vocational Service’s semiannual luncheon. “On the other hand, those same Bush folks have said that the federal government may need to step in and use the power of eminent domain to put up more transmission lines.

“It’s just plain hypocritical,” he said.


Business Tax Bill Advances

AB 63, the bill by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, that would grant cities access to state income tax records to track down business license tax scofflaws, passed the state Assembly on May 10. The bill, which provides much of the financial underpinning needed to implement Mayor Riordan’s business tax reform proposal, is now awaiting committee assignment in the state Senate.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be contacted at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227, or at [email protected].

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