Padilla Out Front With Hahn Away

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Crises like last week’s terrorist attacks bring with them the opportunity for political leaders to show what they are made of. Just ask former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who used the 1994 Northridge quake to show he was a “can-do” leader; from that point on, Riordan’s popularity rose and he never looked back.

So it was current L.A. Mayor James Hahn’s misfortune last week to be stuck in Washington on a lobbying trip when the attacks occurred, leaving him stranded in a hotel room for days on end. During his first two months in office, Hahn has kept a very low profile and he desperately needed the opportunity to show Angelenos that he could be a leader.

“You’ve got to feel for the Mayor, stuck in Washington like that,” said political consultant Coby King. “It was a missed opportunity.”

Instead, the crisis turned into a political opportunity for another local politician: L.A. City Council President Alex Padilla. The young councilman, whose political star had been on the rise until he got mired in controversy last month over his council committee picks, was the acting mayor while Hahn was out of town, under terms of the city charter.

Padilla generally made the most of his unexpected chance, making frequent appearances at press briefings with L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks and other local leaders in those first chaotic hours while millions of Angelenos were glued to their television sets.

“He spoke calmly and firmly and reached out to the city,” King said. “Yet at the same time, he didn’t overstep his role, he didn’t pull an Alexander Haig,” he said, referring to the former Secretary of State during the Reagan administration and his remark that he was “in control” after President Reagan was shot.

King said Hahn might have tried to connect more with the voters by making a video statement at one of the frequent press briefings. However the logistics to set up such an event might have been difficult, given the chaos in the nation’s capital during the first 48 hours after the attacks.

Overall, though, King said he doesn’t expect this to have any long-term effect on Hahn’s political standing.

“Longer term, his role with this crisis will quickly be forgotten. People instead will be looking more at how he responds to the next crisis.”

As for the rest of the Hahn administration, City Hall and other government buildings were evacuated after the attacks. But, contrary to most reports, not all City Hall staffers went home. Dozens of City Council staff members went to their respective district offices instead.

We just moved our staff down to San Pedro,” said Jerry Jeffe, legislative aide to Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

A similar scenario unfolded in Sacramento, where state buildings went dark, even though it was to be the last week of the session. Much of the work was shifted to district offices.

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