Threatening Mayor James K. Hahn's hopes of recapturing support in South Los Angeles, more than two dozen African American religious and political leaders Wednesday endorsed challengers Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa in the March 8 election.
"We cannot afford leadership that allows our city to drift into the future without a sense of destiny and purpose," said Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, one of the city's largest and most influential black churches. "It is time for a change."
Blake, who backed Hahn four years ago, stood with other community leaders at his Crenshaw Avenue church in the heart of an African American community that has helped nurture Hahn's political career and could hold the key to its future.
"It's a big blow to Mayor Hahn," said Kerman Maddox, a veteran political consultant and South Los Angeles community activist. "It indicates a further erosion of his support in a community that historically has been his strongest base."
Maddox and others said the endorsements from a who's who of African American leaders could provide a critical boost for Parks, who is trying to climb into contention for one of two spots in the expected May runoff.
They could also help Villaraigosa pick up African American support that largely eluded him during his unsuccessful 2001 mayoral campaign.
Both city councilmen said Wednesday that they planned to aggressively publicize the endorsements, and several of the endorsers said they would work hard to rally support for Parks and Villaraigosa in the African American community.
Hahn, who said Wednesday afternoon that he had not heard about the endorsements, discounted their importance.
"Their support ... is not as important as the support of the voters," the mayor said at a Long Beach news conference where he was pushing for increased funding for port security.
But in recent months the mayor has been laboring to win back support among African Americans that he lost when he blocked Parks' reappointment as police chief three years ago.
The 2002 showdown between the two men shattered Hahn's decades-old relationship with many black leaders who had supported Hahn out of loyalty to Hahn's father, the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.
Many said they felt betrayed by the mayor, who had not said during his 2001 campaign that he wanted to replace Parks.
