3 Mayoral Candidates Make the Valley Home Base

Mayoral candidates Steve Soboroff, Joel Wachs and James Hahn have all decided to put their campaign headquarters in the San Fernando Valley, signaling the significant role they expect Valley voters to play in electing the City of Los Angeles’ next chief executive.

Valley voters made up 48% of all those who went to the polls citywide in the Nov. 7 election, even though the Valley is home to only 38% of the city’s registered voters. The Valley played a decisive role in electing Richard Riordan to two terms as mayor.

“It’s an important place,” said Matt Middlebrook, a political strategist for City Atty. Hahn. “You are going to have 40% to 50% of the vote in the Valley. It is going to be a focus for us in turning out the vote.”

Hahn’s campaign headquarters will open Monday on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana. A satellite office is planned for the Crenshaw district, Middlebrook said. Hahn lives in San Pedro.

Soboroff, president of the city Parks Commission and a commercial real estate broker, said he will open his campaign headquarters on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks today, saying the location has symbolic importance.

“This is the corner of Main and Main for Los Angeles,” he said. “I grew up in the Valley. The Valley is Los Angeles. The issues of the Valley are the issues of Los Angeles.”

Soboroff said he will open satellite offices elsewhere, but none as large as the 5,000-square-foot Valley facility, which will house 40 phone banks.

“It is a huge statement of my confidence in the Valley, and the Valley’s confidence in me, to open it there,” said Soboroff, who lives in West Los Angeles and has pledged, if elected, to work two days a week in the Valley.

With the primary election April 10, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs of Studio City said he plans to open his mayoral campaign headquarters somewhere in the Valley soon, but has not picked a location.

“I live in the Valley, I work in the Valley, I represent the Valley, and it will be my primary headquarters,” Wachs said.

Among the other major mayoral candidates, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) has opened a campaign office in Echo Park, and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has a temporary office downtown, but has not decided where to put his permanent headquarters.

State Controller Kathleen Connell, another candidate for mayor, has opened a temporary campaign office in West Los Angeles, where she lives. Connell said she has not yet decided where to put her headquarters, but said she believes she will at least have a field office in the Valley, where she announced her candidacy.

“It’s a significant voting bloc in the city, and I intend to spend a large amount of time campaigning there,” she said Friday.