James K. Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa raced the breadth of Los Angeles on the final Saturday before election day, striving to pull together the patchwork coalition each needs to prevail in their bitterly fought mayoral rematch.
Hahn, fighting to keep his job in Tuesday's election, made more than half a dozen stops on the summer-like day, including appearances courting moderate and conservative voters in his home base of San Pedro and in the San Fernando Valley.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 18, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 32 words Type of Material: Correction
Villaraigosa age -- An article in Sunday's Section A about the final days of the Los Angeles mayoral race said that City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa is 55 years old. He is 52.
City Councilman Villaraigosa targeted moderates and more liberal voters during stops in the city's Westside and at several synagogues, before winding up at a Lebanese American Foundation dinner in Beverly Hills.
Hahn continued to criticize Villaraigosa as soft on crime. "We can't trust him with an issue as important as public safety," Hahn said at a morning rally at his Miracle Mile headquarters.
Villaraigosa brushed aside the mayor's attacks as typical mudslinging. "I think there's no room for that in American politics, but unfortunately it's what desperate politicians do," Villaraigosa told reporters outside the Adat Ari El Temple in Valley Village, where he broke ceremonial bread with congregants.
Today, both candidates will focus on the vital African American vote, with appearances planned at more than half a dozen black churches across South Los Angeles.
Hahn, who has never lost a citywide election, is fighting to avoid becoming the first Los Angeles mayor ousted in 32 years -- and the first to be denied a second term since the days of Prohibition.
Villaraigosa stands to make history of his own: If elected, he would be the first Latino mayor since Los Angeles was a remote 19th century outpost on the Western frontier.
Saturday's frantic morning-to-night campaigning came near the close of a rancorous 10-week runoff contest dominated by clashes over personal integrity and the candidates' records -- Hahn's as mayor and Villaraigosa's as a state lawmaker and member of the City Council.
At stake Tuesday is the top job in a government serving nearly 4 million residents spread across 470 square miles, from the booming harbor to the rows of tract houses sprouting in the San Fernando Valley. Beyond oversight of police, firefighting and paramedic services, the mayor wields power over the city's water, power and sewer systems, garbage collection, libraries, parks and four airports.
