Posted on 05/18/2005 1:04:53 AM PDT by RWR8189
LOS ANGELES - Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa unseated Mayor James Hahn on Tuesday to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century, confirming the rising political power of Latinos in the nation's second-largest city.
After a lackluster term tainted by corruption allegations at City Hall, Hahn was turned out of office in favor of a high school dropout and son of the barrio who turned his life around to become speaker of the California Assembly and then a member of the Los Angeles City Council.
With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Villaraigosa had 202,861 votes, or 59 percent, to 140,416 votes for Hahn, or 41 percent.
"You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.," an exuberant Villaraigosa told supporters.
Villaraigosa will become the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles since 1872, back when the city was merely a dusty outpost of only about 5,000 residents on the edge of the Western frontier. Hahn, the scion of a prominent political family, becomes the first Los Angeles mayor in 32 years to be bounced from office.
Villaraigosa, 52, positioned himself as a unity candidate who would bridge racial and ethnic groups in a city that is 48 percent Hispanic, 31 percent white, 11 percent Asian and 10 percent black. The Democrat lined up marquee endorsements from John Kerry to basketball legend Magic Johnson.
The bruising runoff between the two Democrats was a rematch of the 2001 election, in which Hahn rallied to defeat Villaraigosa and win his first term. But Villaraigosa came back strong this year, nearly ousting Hahn in the March primary.
Elsewhere, Pittsburgh held a primary for mayor with the city mired in worst financial crisis since the collapse of the steel industry during the 1980s. And voters in Dover, Pa., picked their candidates for the school board in a community that has been roiled by a new and apparently first-in-the-nation policy requiring that students learn about the "intelligent design" theory of creation.
Hahn's family has been active in Los Angeles politics for decades; his father, Kenneth, was a beloved county supervisor. He touted Los Angeles' dropping crime and argued that he is the man to cure such urban ills such as failing schools and gridlock.
But the coalition of blacks and moderate-to-conservative San Fernando Valley voters that put him in office four years ago broke apart this time. He lost black support because he backed the ouster of Police Chief Bernard Parks, who is black, and suffered fallout from allegations that his administration exchanged city contracts for campaign donations.
And Hahn's lawyerly — some say drab — image left him open to criticism that he isn't up to being the public face of star-studded L.A.
"People want substance rather than style. I think they want results rather than rhetoric," Hahn, 54, said after voting early Tuesday. "You know, maybe I have a charisma deficit disorder, but I've done the job people have elected me to do."
Villaraigosa, who once wore a "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo before turning his life around, promised to bring a fresh start to the city.
"I will never forget where I came from. And I will always believe in the people of Los Angeles," he said Tuesday night.
In other races Tuesday:
_ Former City Councilman Bob O'Connor beat a crowded field of Democrats in the Pittsburgh mayoral primary. O'Connor will be heavily favored to win in November because Pittsburgh is predominantly Democratic. Mayor Tom Murphy is not seeking a fourth term.
_ In Dover, Pa., a party-line split emerged in a school board primary that has made national headlines because of the board's October decision to require that ninth-grade students be told about "intelligent design" when they learn about evolution in biology class. Republicans picked seven incumbent school board members who support the policy, while Democrats favored a slate of seven challengers who say intelligent design doesn't belong in science class. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex, it must have been created by some kind of guiding force.
_ Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, once called "America's Deadliest D.A." for her pursuit of the death penalty, took a big step toward winning a full fourth term by cruising to victory in the Democratic primary. The 64-year-old prosecutor defeated a 38-year-old lawyer who accused Abraham of being soft on City Hall corruption.
_ In Erie, Pa., Mayor Rick Filippi, who is under indictment on charges of using insider information to try to profit from real estate deals, lost his re-election bid in the Democratic primary. The primary came a day before he faced a preliminary hearing in the corruption case.
That is fine by me.
The ONLY way I have found to stop from being the target of unwanted, unanswered insulting race-baiting freepmails, has been to post them in the open. That is the ONLY way.
I am not talking about part of "private correspondance" between freepers which turned ugly. I am talking about unasked-for and unresponded-to harassing and insulting emails.
Why the big split? I think it does have to do race, more than some want to admit.
One more post from you on any immigration thread or one more complaint of a FReepmail message like the one you sent to Travis and your account is permanently banned.
I posted my last before reading your last. 205 is fine by me. Thanks.
Why I should not post on immigration threads?
Get a Crucifix and Holy Water out, this towns going to need an exorcism.
Yeah, that's what I was wanting to see as well.
Just dang; look at that! Brazen.
Lets see whether he can deliver the goods now that he is Mayor of LA.
I don't have high expectations...
Lol, are YOU freakin' kidding??
You've engaged in a FR scorched-earth policy, yet been given every benefit of doubt.... and still you have the audacity to ask this question of JR??
Amen.
Cost me 7500 bucks in 1988 to get my Brasilian ex-wife legal in Miami after she had come up with me preggers and all.
And the INS folks were downright mean about it all.
Someone else mentioned that to me once as a possible analogy to today in the US.
Thanks...I will look it up.
Señor veritas ees no longer among us. Hasta la vista?
Gracias a Los FR Dios!
I'm way out on a limb here but it seems Puerto Ricans and Dominicans go for all out urban in areas that are already heavily minority.
Of course I just sawed off said limb when one looks at Dade County and the Cubanos.
It may simply be as simple as the more African the Latino...the more likely to adopt native Black American cultural ways. Still....I think that logic is way flawed too.
I think the Puerto Ricans bring the leftist bent with them from the island.
That said....there are exceptions in those groups.
It's like why do cowboy-western and southern whites vote R more than northern or left coast whites?
Culture I assume.
Why are rural Southern blacks more culturally conservative then their rust belt cousins? I know this one to be a solid fact btw. Again....I reckon culture.
Why are men more conservative than women?
LOL...ain't touching that one...now way.
Why are the Caymans successful and Jamaica in trouble?....both are mostly black nations. I don't know. Probably has to do with where they started. Caymans started with mostly shipwreck descendents and a few slaves. Jamaica started with about an 80% freed population in 1836 but should have stayed a Brit colony in 1960.
Why is Haiti so screwed up? I blame the French.
What you said is all too correct. What a disappointment. Hard to imagine Hugh doing this.
What's next for Hugh, a paean of effusive praise for Ted Kennedy?
OTOH, if someone is covertly dedicated to erasing our borders, and melding America into a world government, or retaking the Southwest to create "Aztlan," they are my enemy. And in that case, I don't care how long they have been in this great nation.
Worth posting again...I tried, but unfortunately it doesn't fit in my tag line...
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