Posted on 05/18/2005 6:48:14 AM PDT by freepatriot32
LOS ANGELES (May 18) - Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa trounced Mayor James Hahn to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century as voters turned to the promise of change in a metropolis troubled by gridlock, gangs and failing schools.
Tuesday's election confirms the rising political power of Latinos in the nation's second-largest city.
In a victory speech before thousands of supporters in downtown Los Angeles, Villaraigosa, 52, paid tribute to his heritage while promising to bring the city's diverse racial and ethnic groups together.
''I stand here today because people believed in me. I want you to know I believe in you as well,'' he said amid chants of ''Si, se puede,'' Spanish for ''Yes, we can,''
''Our purpose is to bring this great city together.''
"You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.,'' an exuberant Villaraigosa told supporters.
The election was a resounding defeat for Hahn, who was unable to keep his campaign focused on Los Angeles' falling crime rate and rising job growth. 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 once sported a tattoo that proclaimed ''Born to Raise Hell.'' Villaraigosa turned his life around to become speaker of the California Assembly and then a member of the Los Angeles City Council.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Villaraigosa had 258,405 votes, or 59 percent, to 182,582 votes, or 41 percent, for Hahn.
The election will have an impact even beyond Los Angeles. Villaraigosa's decisive victory immediately places him among the front rank of the nation's Latino political elite, while his city becomes the largest in America to be led by a Hispanic mayor.
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.
Now mayor-elect, Villaraigosa must find solutions to the problems he pointed out during the campaign - gang crime that terrorizes poor neighborhoods, a lack of affordable housing and worsening traffic congestion.
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. 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 he 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.''
Hahn left his own party shortly before Villaraigosa declared victory Tuesday night. Before bidding his supporters goodnight, Hahn praised his administration and said he had accomplished much of what he set out to do.
Villaraigosa 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.
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.
Yesterday was a primary election. School directors can cross-file. If Dover is a Pub stronghold (and I suspect it is) this basically what would be expected and should be thought a win for ID. Of course, the real election is in Nov.
Except for the stuff on L.A., it's all Pa.
Probably true.
The San Fernando Valley has already already voted once (or twice) to cede from LA.
It's been my understanding that Valley residents pay a disproportionate amount of taxes in return for the city services they get from LA.
The next four years will be interesting to see if LA continues to fragment.
Really. Someone from Spain or native to Mexico, Lation and South America does not have a race? What are they then?
'Twas only a matter of time.....
That is very true. Someone posted a table of how much UHaul charges to rent a moving van going *out of CA*, vs the cost to *move to CA*. Very interesting implications.
We are all part of the human race.
I remember that. SV residents have been complaining about that for quite a long time. They keep getting stymied, because LA needs that higher income level to support the ghettos.
More people should have voted. The voter turn out was unbelievably low. Let me guess, Villagairosa's first act will be to replace Bill Bratton. Sigh....
Mexico/AZTLAN has conquered L.A. folks, get used to it. Kiss what you used to know as "California" good bye.
California will soon be to the rest of the U.S. as Quebec is to Canada.
Tis "ping worthy", as ID anywhere on the East Coast, albeit Deleware is the financial stronghold of the right wing, it is "problem" for the secularists, as it brings a new successful talking point to the game.
They've already been doing that for the last 10-15 years now.
We'll just hear a little more louder stampede now, stay tuned...
Yes, Villaraigosa is a secessionist.
I seriously doubt LA will ever have a non-Hispanic mayor again. Within a few decades, they will probably have a mayor who cannot speak English.
Hispanics or Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire -"Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano," "Puerto Rican", or "Cuban" -as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." Persons who indicated that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or people identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on.
Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race. Thus, the percent Hispanic should not be added to percentages for racial categories. Tallies that show race categories for Hispanics and nonHispanics separately are available.
It's interesting that several of my Portuguese-speaking friends from Brazil also now think of themselves as "hispanics." I doubt that Portuguese in Portugal do!
Viva Los Mojados
Good information, thanks. I really did not contemplate the origins of the word hispanic. And if we contemplate the orgins of the people claiming to be hispanic, I suppose we find many of them are actually Europeans.
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