How The West Was Won

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Antonio Villaraigosa seemed destined to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. He was a charismatic Latino politician in a city where Spanish is more than a second language. He had been a successful speaker of the California assembly and had the endorsement of everyone from the outgoing Republican mayor to the state's Democratic Party and its Governor.

So why did he lose? Because James Hahn, 50, the mild-mannered city attorney and fellow Democrat who most people figured would get lost beside the flamboyant Villaraigosa, turned out to be the better street fighter. With a tough, tightly focused campaign that kept Villaraigosa on the defensive, Hahn managed to convince a winning coalition of blacks and moderate white Democrats and Republicans that there were too many questions about Villaraigosa's integrity to entrust Villaraigosa with running the nation's second largest city. "I can be as tough as necessary," the silver-haired bureaucrat said on Election Day, showing a side of him that few voters knew existed. "I've been a prosecutor. I know what it takes to win."

Villaraigosa, 48, a former labor organizer, certainly had plenty of baggage. A former street tough who grew up in East L.A., he had out-of-wedlock kids and failed the state bar exam four times. But Hahn didn't bother with any of that. He had all he needed in a letter Villaraigosa wrote to the White House in 1996, seeking a presidential pardon for convicted drug trafficker Carlos Vignali, whose father was a campaign contributor. Before the election, Hahn hammered Villaraigosa for a solid week with a TV ad showing images of a crack-cocaine pipe, a copy of the letter and the message: "Los Angeles can't trust Antonio Villaraigosa."

That may have made the difference. More than half of Hahn's voters cited character as a key factor. Villaraigosa complained of Hahn's tactics, but Hahn shrugged. "Campaigns," he said, "are not prom dates." Critics accused Hahn of playing on racial sensitivities at a time when Latinos are surpassing blacks as the city's most powerful ethnic constituency. The races were split: about 4 out of 5 blacks voted for Hahn (like his father, a onetime county supervisor, he is a stalwart supporter of the black community), while about the same proportion of Latinos voted for Villaraigosa. "The negative ethnic factor was being brought in," insists Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Claremont, Calif., a nonprofit Latino think tank. "It may have been unintended, but that was the message that the Latino community picked up." Others disagreed. "Those who are not black or Latino are making more of this than we are," says state Democratic chairman Art Torres, who campaigned for Villaraigosa.

Angelenos have had to deal with more than their share of temblors, political and otherwise, but the transition from Republican Mayor Richard Riordan to Hahn shouldn't bring much of a jolt. Hahn campaigned as a moderate, and that's what Angelenos will get. "We need to all build bridges toward each other," he said after the election. He can start by repairing his fractured party.