Five days before the Los Angeles election, Mayor James K. Hahn touched off an exchange of explosive campaign television ads Thursday with a spot slamming challengers Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa for seeking the early prison release of a drug trafficker.
Villaraigosa responded with an ad pounding Hahn for "corruption" and "scandals" at City Hall, citing a grand jury subpoena of the mayor's personal e-mails, resignations of three top officials and the indictment of a public-relations executive accused of overbilling the city.
Striking a lighter note, Hertzberg came back with an ad featuring himself as a towering giant whose oversized black shoe crushes a tiny television showing the Hahn spot.
"I'm Bob Hertzberg, and that's just plain wrong," the enlarged candidate says in his first ad attacking the incumbent by name. "Another Jim Hahn excuse, like Jim Hahn saying a mayor can't do anything to fix our schools -- or that we need a tax increase to hire more police officers."
The charges and counter-charges set up an all-out campaign brawl for the days leading to Tuesday's election. Until Thursday, the candidates had refrained from direct attacks in television ads, the main vehicle for reaching voters in an L.A. mayoral race, even as they sniped in mailers and public forums. But Hahn, the city's first mayor in 32 years to face a serious threat of losing a run for reelection, decided to risk the potential voter fallout.
The double blast at Hertzberg and Villaraigosa reflects the difficult task Hahn faces in capturing enough votes Tuesday to win one of two spots in the expected May 17 runoff. A Times poll completed Sunday found the three locked in a statistical tie for the lead. Also in the race are City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), but polls have found neither likely to make the runoff.
For Hahn, the candidate posing the biggest strategic threat is Hertzberg, a Sherman Oaks lawyer who has emerged as the favorite of voting blocs once allied with Hahn -- whites, San Fernando Valley residents, Republicans and Jewish voters.
By targeting Hertzberg and Villaraigosa simultaneously, Hahn appears to be trying to minimize the chance that voters who sour on Hertzberg might shun the mayor too and defect to Villaraigosa. But the dual hit also made Hahn the target of simultaneous televised responses from both opponents. Echoing the attack on Hahn is Parks, who went up with an ad Thursday saying he would "restore integrity to the mayor's office."
