L. A. Politic: Dangerous Name Games

30 March 2005 |permalink | email article

Integrity is again the key issue in the runoff campaign between James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa, just as it was in 2001. That year, the underdog mayor came from behind to beat the former Assembly Speaker on the strength of a negative assault on his character. Last weekend, Hahn, again the underdog with a dismal 43% approval rating going into the primary, began a fresh round of attacks on Villaraigosa using the same issue. He stepped it up this week in their first televised debate. Nobody thinks Hahn will stop before the May 17 runoff.

During the debate, I was fascinated as to why Hahn repeatedly referred to his opponent as simply “Antonio” Then I recalled a March 11 column by the irreverent Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times with the grabber headline, “It Helps If Voters Can Pronounce Your Name.” He suggests  that readers have seen Villaraigosa’s name in print and heard it on TV put can’t pronounce it to save their life. He spells the candidate’s surname phonetically in several different ways - like Vil-ga-ro-sa - but concludes, “Close, but no enchilada.”   

Lopez then asks in jest, “Are the good citizens of Los Angeles ready to elect a Latino mayor whose name many of them can’t pronounce?” That got my attention, especially when the columnist said he bumped into Councilman Tony Cardenas on election night who bet him a steak dinner that Hahn would beat Antonio Villaraigosa. Cardenas told him Los Angeles isn’t ready to embrace a Latino mayor because Hahn is better on policy issues. This strikes me as a disingenuous hint to suggest that “Antonio” lacks the integrity to become the first Latino mayor of the pueblo since 1872.

I was Tom Bradley‘s press secretary in his 1969 primary campaign against Mayor Sam Yorty. Bradley shocked the city and the nation by getting 42% of the vote, with good chance to become the first black mayor of a major American city. It didn’t happen. I vividly remember Yorty’s vicious, race-baiting attack on the councilman’s integrity, and the repetitious code word hint that Los Angeles wasn’t ready to embrace “Tom.”

The Hahn campaign this week pledged not to run a racial campaign. Enough said, except that the perception of a code word to describe a candidate can have serious consequences. I believe the next several weeks will be volatile, full of unpredictable surprises. 

Opinion

“What does it mean to be pro-life? As far as I can tell, most of those who would keep Schiavo alive favor the death penalty. Most favored allowing the assault weapons ban to expire and oppose other forms of gun control. The president makes an excellent point when he says we “Ought to err on the side of life.” It’s a shame how rarely that principle is put into practice.”

- E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post, March 25,2005

“Whether Mr. DeLay violated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out again.”

- The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, March 28, 2005

Political Potpourri

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, 67, California’s longest-running political bachelor, is getting married. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phil Matier and Andy Ross report the Oakland mayor, gearing up to run for attorney general in ‘06, is finally planning to wed his longtime live-in girl friend, Gap Inc. chief counsel Anne Gust, 47, in a civil ceremony which will be performed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The former Democrat governor has in the past has described his political  philosophy as “paddling a little to the left, a little to the right and straight ahead.” Now, he’s padding hard right on law-and-order issues. He may get substantial support from police unions, much to the dismay of the GOP, assuming he wins his party’s nomination. . .  

Bush’s nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations will get the full MSM (main stream media) treatment. Forty-three Democrats  voted against his nomination as undesecretary of arms control four years ago; even some Republicans privately expressed dismay at his Bolton’s elevation on March 3. He faces a very  tough test April 7 when Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings begin. The outspoken conservative’s writings have been highly critical of the U.N. He’s shown a willingness to flaunt diplomatic language, hardly in keeping with the administration’s recently touted efforts at “consultative diplomacy.” Democrats most remember him for his key behind-the-scenes role in the 2000 Florida recount that cinched W43’s victory. . .

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