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James Hahn Elected L.A. Mayor

City Attorney James Hahn, center, is mobbed by his supporters on stage as they celebrate his victory over former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villariagosa in the Los Angeles Mayoral race Wednesday, June 6, at his election night party in Los Angeles. Photo by Associated Press.

By Erica Werner/AP

James Hahn, a mild-mannered Democrat and longtime city attorney, will take the reins in Los Angeles after beating back an aggressive campaign from a man who had hoped to be the city’s first Latino mayor in more than a century.

Hahn, 50, won election Tuesday as the new mayor in the nation’s second-largest city. He received 54 percent of the vote in the runoff race to 46 percent for former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, also a Democrat.

“Our campaign put together a coalition as diverse as this great city,” Hahn told supporters before declaring victory early Wednesday. “We had Democrats, Republicans and independents, too, and I’ve always been committed to bringing the people of this great city of Los Angeles together.”

Villaraigosa, 48, the son of a Mexican immigrant who grew up on the rough streets of East Los Angeles, caught the imagination of the city’s growing Latino population with his charisma and up-from-the-barrio story. His candidacy put a focus on the changing face of the city.

But Hahn kept Villaraigosa on the defensive with a harsh campaign focused on public safety issues.

“In all campaigns it’s rough and tumble, and you have to be able to defend your record,” Hahn said Tuesday night. “I know I was attacked on mine and I defended. I think it’s important for people to know the differences between the candidates. That’s what campaigns are all about.”

With all precincts reporting, Hahn had 293,273 votes to Villaraigosa’s 254,491.

Hahn, who takes office July 1, enjoyed high name recognition thanks to his years of city service and his late father, Kenneth, who served four decades as a county supervisor. Hahn’s sister, Janice, also triumphed Tuesday night, winning election to the City Council.

Hahn, who is white, had overwhelming support from the black community, which constituted his father’s base, and also succeeded in winning over many of the more moderate and conservative voters who backed other candidates in the primary.

Mayor Richard Riordan, a wealthy Republican businessman who has been in office since 1993, could not run again because of term limits. He had endorsed Villaraigosa.

With Latinos on their way to becoming the city’s new majority population, Villaraigosa appealed to many as the face of the future as he vied to become the city’s first Hispanic mayor since 1872.

But analysts said he never recovered from a Hahn attack ad that used grainy images of a lit crack pipe and a razor blade cutting cocaine. The ad slammed Villaraigosa for a letter he wrote on behalf of a drug dealer whose sentence was later commuted by former President Clinton.

“Having a new L.A. is not a winning argument for a majority. You need something more than that,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at California State University at Fullerton. “It’s an important piece of it, but it’s not enough, especially when your opponent is saying you’re soft on crime.”

Villaraigosa surprised analysts by emerging first in the April primary. He had momentum and a coalition that ranged from labor unions to millionaires, and included Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and Riordan.

In defeat, he said he looked forward to working with Hahn.

“I have no tears here, because I put every ounce of my being into this, because I wanted to make a difference,” Villaraigosa told supporters after conceding early Wednesday. “I love you L.A.”

Hahn, too, reached out to his opponent.

“I want to honor my opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa, who brought such passion and energy and ideas into this race,” he said. “I know that he made me a better candidate and I look forward to working with him.”

After running a campaign some considered racially tinged in a city with a history of racial unrest, Hahn also spoke Tuesday night of the need to unite Los Angeles.

“I’m committed to keeping the city of L.A. together and the only way we can do that is by earning the trust of every part of this city,” he said.

One of Hahn’s first tasks as mayor will be to quell a secession threat from the city’s San Fernando Valley, even as the city undergoes a dramatic demographic transformation.

Los Angeles lost 15 percent of its black population over the past decade while its Hispanic population rose 24 percent. With nearly 4 million residents, the city is now 11.2 percent black and 46.5 percent Latino.