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.
I think the category even allows Spanish-speaking Blacks from the Caribbean and elsewhere to be classified as "hispanic." Politics does strange things to logic and truth, especially liberal politics.
This has everything to do with the fact that Mexico is working night and day to swallow up the US. They call it 'integration'. We're exchanging one culture/language/work ethic with another not known for producing widespread prosperity and jobs. Latinos in large cities are pandered to by politicians. Once they get power, you'd better believe they'll vote in changes. They want what they left behind, as silly as that sounds. But it's human nature. They come here, looking for prosperity, a better life, and they don't realize thisi s tied to the culture and mores/English language/work ethic of the US. LA is now gone, most of Texas, Arizona. New Mexico, Colorado not far behind. NY will have a Latino mayor soon. Aztlan was a pipe dream not long ago. Not now.
'Hispanic' is out as a term. 'Latino' is in. God only knows the nuances of all this. Well, and John Kerry and NPR.
not really, that's the perfect place for a "son of the barrio" to continue wreaking havoc
I was suprised there are that many citizens in L.A.
LA is going down the tubes. He'll be LA's David Dinkins.
''Si, se puede,'' Spanish for ''Yes, we can,''
Actually, I think it means "It can be done."
probably an anchor baby - his parents are Mexican and he's born in the US, so he could eventually run for President
oops i think I was counting the county too, what is the pop of LA city 5 mill? still a very low turnout.
We tend to believe our very own FRevos, who parrot the above Democrat line, aren't the conservatives they pretend to be.
LOL. Good one.
Can anyone remember the fawning coverage of Mel Martinez winning a senate seat? Surely he and the Attorney General are the most influential, but I don't recall the media liking it very much.
I'm sure he will be a very "progressive" mayor.
Villaraigosa received a law degree from the Peoples College of Law in Los Angeles in 1985.
Peoples College of Law is a small, fully licensed, degree-granting law school located in downtown Los Angeles, California offering a four-year evening Juris Doctorate program to accommodate working students.
Peoples College of Law was founded in 1974 as a non-profit, community-run law school to bring legal resources to under-represented communities and train legal advocates to secure progressive social change and justice in society.
We only admit those students who, regardless of their quite varied political, spiritual, cultural or social backgrounds, have demonstrated a commitment to progressive social change, have an awareness of working class issues and will employ the skills gained at the school to further these goals in their own way. Thus, if you want to be a prosecutor or a corporate attorney, don't waste our time applying; there are plenty of other schools out there for you!
Our graduates work as lawyers, state and federal administrative judges and commissioners, activists and union organizers, labor and legislative leaders (including the former Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa). All have shared the unique and galvanizing experience of graduating from the only non-competitive, cooperative, student and community-run, progressive law school in the world!
If you have read all this stuff and still want to find out more, contact us. Please be sure to provide us with your name, address, and contact information.
"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."
So, the election was between two so-called Democrats?
Yep, those were our "choices".
Huh. That's kinda different. Maybe not for California...
So, the winner ran as an independent?
1) he'll blame whatever opposition is left for being opposed to whatever change he demands
2) he'll blame the state gov't for local budget shortfalls
3) he'll blame the federal gov't for local budget shortfalls
4) he'll alienate a lot of MOR Dims in LA and statewide
5) he'll be on the short list for Hillary's running mate in 2008
I don't know the current population of L.A. city (it's not 10 million), or how many of the people eligible to vote in L.A. are registered, but this is from the last mayoral race in 2001
June 8, 2001 - Of the 1,538,229 registered voters in the City of Los Angeles, 556,979--or 36.21%--showed up at the polls to vote.
http://www.csun.edu/~govrel/ArchivesJan-June01.html
Hilarious
non-competitive - does that mean all grading done on a flat curve? I wonder how many times he actually attended class, and did he get a free Big Gulp with that law degree?
No, they both ran as Democrats. We have a sort of primary-type election and then the top two condidates (regardless of party afflication) have a run-off. The only Republican running didn't make the grade.
"Condidates" was a typo, but I decided to leave it that way. :-)
Quien sabe? (Who knows.) :-)
He's taken, and flunked, the CA bar exam 3 or 4 times.
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