Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa soundly defeated incumbent Mayor James Hahn in Tuesday’s runoff election, to become L.A.’s first Latino mayor in modern times.
With all of the city’s 1,600 precincts counted, Villaraigosa won with 58.7 percent of the vote, compared to Hahn’s 41.3 percent, easily beating the 7-point margin of victory that Hahn posted in their first matchup four years ago. In defeat, Hahn became the first incumbent mayor to lose his job since Sam Yorty lost to Tom Bradley 32 years ago.
In a press conference in the Crenshaw District Wednesday morning, Villaraigosa called reducing crime “my absolute top priority.” He said he had met earlier in the morning with L.A. Police Chief William Bratton and pledged to find money to hire more officers, boost community policing and double the number of officers in anti-gang units.
He also said he would focus his administration on bringing “good quality jobs” to L.A., saying he would bring back the business teams that were prominent in the administration of former Mayor Richard Riordan.
Villaraigosa said his first set of actions upon taking office would focus on “cleaning up” city government. He said he would remove all lobbyists from city commissions, require all general managers and commissioners to sign an ethics pledge, pass a comprehensive ethics overhaul package through the City Council, and ban “no-bid” contracts.
Villaraigosa downplayed his role as a national leader now that he’s the first Latino mayor-elect since the 1870s of the nation’s second largest city. “I’m not concerned about being a national leader. I’m mayor here in Los Angeles and that’s what I’ll focus on.”
Villaraigosa had given a midnight victory speech before a crowd of thousands at L.A. Center Studios downtown, promising to be a mayor who would bring all the people of L.A. together. Hahn did not give a concession speech Tuesday night, but emerged late in the evening to give brief words of encouragement to his supporters. He posed briefly holding hands up high with his sister, Janice, a city councilwoman representing San Pedro, and then headed home for the night.
Campaigning on Tuesday, Hahn acknowledged that he didn’t do a good job in getting the message out about the accomplishments of his administration.
The mayoral campaign took on an increasingly hostile tone during the final week as Hahn tried to make up ground on the front-running Villaraigosa. Each side unleashed attack ads on television and radio, with Hahn trying to portray Villaraigosa as soft on crime and Villaraigosa trying to paint Hahn as a politician presiding over a corrupt administration.
Amid the negative campaigning, turnout managed to just top 30 percent, the lowest in modern L.A. history for a runoff mayoral election.
In Tuesday’s other closely watched contest, former cable television talk show host Bill Rosendahl defeated community activist Flora Gil Krisiloff to replace termed-out Westside City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. With all but one of the district’s precincts reporting, Rosendahl held a 56.6 percent to 43.4 percent lead.
Charter Amendment A, which sought to merge the Los Angeles International Airport police with the Los Angeles Police Department, was soundly rejected, losing by a 64.6 percent to 35.4 percent margin.
Charter Amendment B, which clarifies recall voting procedures, eked out a narrow victory, 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent.
In Redondo Beach, former Councilman Mike Gin won a runoff election for an open mayoral post, defeating Councilman Gerard Bisignano 60.9 percent to 39.1 percent.
