James K Hahn

Although Mayor James K. Hahn has said improving security is the most important element of his $9-billion plan to update Los Angeles International Airport, security experts have criticized nearly every aspect of the proposal -- and some suggest LAX might be safer without the upgrade than with it.

James K. Hahn was having lunch in a Beverly Hills restaurant four years ago when a developer walked up and introduced himself. Mark Alan Abrams said he wanted to help Hahn, then Los Angeles city attorney, become the next mayor. Soon, the developer was among Hahn's biggest fundraisers. He helped funnel more than $300,000 to the mayor and his political campaigns through an array of associates and businesses.

The contest for mayor of Los Angeles is growing increasingly tense as Tuesday's election approaches, with much of the heat generated by attacks on the records of the most experienced candidates. But the assaults have not masked an essential truth: In politics, incumbency almost always provides a crucial boost. Its benefits are immeasurable: a battle-tested army of aides, ready attention from the media, and that most important political asset of all, access to money.

After months of criticizing Mayor James K. Hahn for accepting questionable political donations, mayoral challenger Antonio Villaraigosa found himself answering questions Wednesday about $31,000 in donations to his campaign from workers at two affiliated Florida-based companies. Although some employees said they supported Villaraigosa, others struggled to explain the donations, sounded confused when told of their donations or declined to answer questions.

Following the lead of his mayoral opponent and all but one elected official in the city and county of Los Angeles, Mayor James K. Hahn on Friday afternoon released the calendar of his activities since he took office. The mayor's decision came less than 3 1/2 weeks before he faces reelection May 17 against Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who on the campaign trail has repeatedly criticized Hahn's refusal to release the records.

During his campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, James K. Hahn boasted that his two decades of experience in City Hall would allow him to hit the ground running if he were elected to head the second-largest city in the country. "I don't think it's the kind of job for on-the-job training," he declared.

Dora Orozco, a mother of three, walks her children to Langdon Avenue Elementary School every day, because she is scared to let them walk alone. She worries most about her son, who will go to middle school next year. "I have an 11-year-old; he could come himself," Orozco said Tuesday, sitting in the schoolyard, which is separated from the street by an 8-foot-tall wire fence. "But I don't let him come alone. I don't like [gang members] to look at my son that way." She welcomes City Atty.

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa has raised $2.3 million more than incumbent James K. Hahn in the mayoral runoff campaign, giving him a huge financial advantage as he makes his closing argument to Los Angeles voters this weekend. The last preelection finance reports, filed Friday with the city Ethics Commission, show that Villaraigosa has raised nearly $3.8 million, more than 2 1/2 times as much as the incumbent, who collected about $1.4 million.

With polls showing that crime is the No. 1 concern of Los Angeles residents, San Fernando Valley lawyer and real estate developer Ted Stein focused on it Thursday in airing the first television ad in his uphill campaign to unseat three-term incumbent Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn in the April 8 election.

Targeting what he considers the hub of the rock cocaine trade in the San Fernando Valley, City Atty. James Hahn revealed Monday that he has filed a court injunction against the Langdon Street gang in North Hills, his eighth such lawsuit. "This is the center of the crack cocaine trade in the San Fernando Valley and we want to strike at the heart of it and put this gang out of business," Hahn said in an interview.

Former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, testifying at the only trial stemming from "pay to play" allegations that dogged his administration, said Wednesday that he didn't know whether one of his top commissioners was taking bribes.

At least it wasn't done in charcoaled shades of gray. A solemn official portrait of a former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn was unveiled Thursday at City Hall in a ceremony tinged with laughter, if not with color. Hahn is depicted with folded arms and a somewhat aloof expression. He is pictured wearing a black suit, white shirt and pale blue tie, against a green backdrop.

Former Mayor James K. Hahn has agreed to pay $5,450 in fines to settle allegations by the executive director of the city Ethics Commission that he violated campaign finance rules in his unsuccessful reelection campaign. Hahn, who lost the 2005 election to Antonio Villaraigosa, conceded that he exceeded the $1,000 limit on individual contributions in seven cases between June 12, 2003, and Nov. 30, 2004, including $2,000 in checks from Crown Realty and Development Inc. and owner Robert A. Flaxman.

Leland Wong, a power broker in former Mayor James K. Hahn's administration, surrendered Wednesday to face a bribery and conflict-of-interest indictment that makes him the only public official accused of crimes in a three-year probe of alleged "pay to play" contracting practices in Los Angeles. Wong was accused by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on Tuesday of accepting $100,000 in bribes from Ren-Gung Shyu, executive vice president of Taipei-based Evergreen Marine Corp.

The secretary to prominent Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell has been fined $41,000 by the city Ethics Commission for her role in "aiding and abetting" his laundering of contributions to James K. Hahn's 2001 campaign for mayor. The fine imposed Tuesday brings to $445,700 the amount of civil and criminal penalties levied in connection with O'Donnell's laundering of 26 contributions to Hahn's campaign.

James K. Hahn has found a new calling: real estate entrepreneur. The former Los Angeles mayor plans to use his political experience and connections in a new post as chief executive of a planned $800-million fund intended to help create affordable housing and other developments around transportation hubs such as rail stations. The fund is being launched by Chadwick Saylor & Co.

In this year's costly campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, incumbent James K. Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa each received thousands of dollars in political contributions that violated city limits, according to audits released Thursday by the city Ethics Commission. Villaraigosa, the victor, received $9,250 in excess contributions and Hahn received $11,450.

Antonio Villaraigosa spent twice as much as incumbent James K. Hahn to win the May runoff election for mayor of Los Angeles, according to the final tally of campaign finances filed Monday. The new mayor spent $5.2 million compared with $2.5 million for Hahn, although Hahn substantially outspent Villaraigosa in the March round of the mayoral election, the campaign reports show.

The Logicon building, one of the tallest in San Pedro, sits empty, its garish black "Available" sign visible across the harbor. Residents closest to the waterfront live in a dingy public housing project with barred windows. Rail tankers bearing chemicals rumble past in the shadow of looming harbor cranes. The shoreline of San Pedro remains shabby. But this summer, orange-vested workers have been laying pavement, and backhoes are carving out flower beds.

Former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who lost his bid for a second term to Antonio Villaraigosa in May, has taken a job at a politically connected Los Angeles real estate investment firm. William J. Chadwick, a managing director of Chadwick, Saylor & Co., said Hahn probably would provide legal advice to the firm and help with business development. "It's a little bit of a work in progress," said Chadwick, who praised the former mayor's skill and understated style.