Blacks in a Quandary Over L.A. Mayor's Race
Wave Newspapers, News Report, Betty Pleasant, Posted: Aug 06, 2004
LOS ANGELES — Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa’s entry into the mayor’s race has conflicted the city’s African-American community and put black voters in a such a quandary that they are unsure of what to do, according to sentiments expressed this week.
The black voters’ dilemma turns on whether to support Villaraigosa, who entered the race Monday, or his African-American City Council colleague, Bernard Parks, who began his campaign for mayor in the spring. A cadre of black professionals and community activists indicate that they want “the black guy” to do well in the race for mayor, but they really like Villaraigosa and they want to win.
But black voters looked at the campaign financial reports published Tuesday and saw Parks is last among the candidates in fundraising, with a $130,000 war chest, and they see that as an immovable impediment to victory and a formidable obstacle to even a decent loss.
“You can’t run for mayor with $100,000,” said political consultant Kerman Maddox. “I’ve had City Council candidates run for office with more money than that, and they had lower contribution limits.”
One prominent black attorney said he is troubled by the race and does not know what to do. “I want my candidates to inspire me, and Villaraigosa does,” he said. “Parks is unexciting, more conservative than I like, and I don’t want him to be mayor. But he’s a brother and I don’t want him to look bad, because he’s one of us.”
Maddox agreed that black voters are definitely conflicted. “A lot of folks are nervous,” Maddox said. “They’re saying that if it doesn’t look good for Parks — and it doesn’t — then it doesn’t look good for the black community. They’re saying that if he’s marginalized as a candidate, then we’re marginalized as a community. They don’t want him to be first, but they don’t want him to finish last. They are suddenly seeing the race as more than just electing a mayor.”
Maddox, who directed Parks’ campaign for the Eighth District council seat, said the challenge for Parks is to generate some excitement and raise some money.
“[Parks] will get the majority of the black vote, but how large a percentage is up to him,” Maddox said. “He’s got to get 70 percent of the black vote, and some play in other communities, to get into the runoff, and it’s going to take money to do it.”
Villaraigosa considers Parks a friend with whom he has worked closely on the City Council. Villaraigosa spoke long and passionately in Tuesday’s City Council meeting in support of Parks’ position to retain the Keyser Tow Official Police Garage contract. Villaraigosa had broken from the pack early in the year-long controversy and supported Parks on the issue, and angrily asserted yesterday that the council “is ganging up on Bernard, and that’s not right. I had to stop them when they tried it once before.
“Bernard and I have a great deal of respect for each other,” Villaraigosa said. “We love this city and we believe it needs a leader with the passion and energy to commit to a metropolis where all the communities in it are growing and prospering together.”
The general consensus among African American politicos and pundits is that Villaraigosa’s entry into the race guarantees a runoff for the top job. The big question is: Will incumbent Mayor Jim Hahn be in it?
Councilman Martin Ludlow, a close ally of Villaraigosa’s and a staunch supporter of his run against Hahn in 2001, doubts it. “I think there are absolutely clear strategies that show a [Robert] Hertzberg/Villaraigosa runoff,” Ludlow said.
“I don’t think Parks should be underestimated, because numbers I have seen show him as a very strong third place candidate behind Hahn and Villaraigosa. But I think Hertzberg’s ability to raise money and his great campaign team will slingshot him up to the upper tier of three candidates. So I think Antonio has a long fight ahead of him. But the one with the biggest fight is Hahn.”
The Rev. Norman S. Johnson, former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is one of only two of the usual people identified as “the black leadership” who supported Villaraigosa when he ran against Hahn for mayor in 2001. Villaraigosa’s entry in the 2005 race assures a runoff, Johnson said, adding: “He has such a name identity based on that previous race, even if he joins seven months before the election, I believe he will make up ground and very quickly join the others.”
Johnson said he is not committed yet to any particular mayoral candidate. “I’m committed to a process that involves the candidates articulating where South Los Angeles fits in their vision for the city,” Johnson said. “And this is not rhetoric. We’re very interested in terms of city services, business expansion, crime and employment. Very specifically, we want to know what candidates are committed to and what we will be able to hold them accountable for.”
Like Ludlow, Maddox doesn’t envision Hahn making the runoff, either. He sees Villaraigosa taking a large chunk of the African-American vote from Hahn — whose 2001 support put him into City Hall.
“[Villaraigosa] will do much better in the black community this time because black voters are looking for an alternative to Hahn,” Maddox said. “They’re upset by the use of excessive force by police and by comments made by [Police Chief William] Bratton. Blacks feel they only have two options: Parks and Villaraigosa. Hahn doesn’t even figure in the equation in most neighborhoods.”
Maddox also pointed out that Villaraigosa has some significant supporters in the African-American community this time. “He’s got Ludlow and future Assemblywoman Karen Bass, and other allies who are good organizers and proven vote-getters — a virtual beachhead — in the black community,” Maddox said. And he’s got a ready-made constituency of Latinos, Westside voters and a whole group of people who classify themselves as progressive. That’s a good 25 to 30 percent of the vote right there before he even begins asking for it. I think he’ll do all right.”
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