Polls and endorsements suggest that a historic alliance of blacks and Latinos is taking shape behind the mayoral campaign of City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa. But political strategists say anxiety among some blacks about supporting a Latino for mayor could make that alliance tenuous.
Driving the anxiety, the strategists say, is a sense of rivalry over political power and jobs that has intensified amid a surge in the Latino population of South Los Angeles, where most of the city's African Americans live.
Villaraigosa campaign aides say they still must overcome voter misgivings before he faces Mayor James K. Hahn in the May 17 runoff election.
Some blacks "think that because it's a Latino candidate, he'll only take care of Latinos, and therefore African Americans will somehow be left out of the picture and diminished," said Anthony Thigpenn, director of campaign field operations for Villaraigosa.
"It's a big challenge for Villaraigosa," said Thigpenn, an African American who has worked for years to strengthen political ties between the two groups. "It's a big challenge for L.A."
Blacks, who composed 16% of those who cast ballots last month, are one of the voting blocs that strategists for both candidates have described as up for grabs in the runoff. Initial signs point to an edge for Villaraigosa, who lost the mayor's race to Hahn four years ago.
A Times poll this month found that African Americans favored the councilman over Hahn by 20 points -- but were less likely than Latinos and whites to believe that he would pay equal attention to all ethnic groups.
Interviews with about three dozen black voters in South Los Angeles found ambivalence about a Latino mayor among both supporters and opponents of Villaraigosa.
Devon Dunning, 38, a vendor on Crenshaw Boulevard, said he was dissatisfied with Hahn and leaned toward Villaraigosa. But he had misgivings. "I'm not really sure he has the benefit of our community at heart," he said of the councilman.
For Hahn, a crucial goal in the campaign's final weeks is to recapture his family's once-formidable African American political base, built over decades by his late father, county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. His biggest obstacle: The mayor has yet to recover from the African American backlash against his push in 2002 to oust a black police chief, Bernard C. Parks.
Many issues beyond race are sure to drive the black vote -- among them crime and education. And many black supporters of Hahn say race has nothing to do with their choice.
