Villaraigosa’s Latino Backers Warming Up to Hahn

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn was due to arrive at the El Sereno Senior Center any moment. But before the mayor walked through the door Monday morning, City Councilman Nick Pacheco issued a warning to the lively gathering of senior citizens.

“Now remember what I said,” Pacheco urged. “Just be nice.”

The center, after all, lies blocks from the Eastside neighborhood where former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa grew up. The area overwhelmingly backed Villaraigosa for mayor, and when he lost in June, many were angry about the tough tactics Hahn used against the man who could have been the city’s first Mexican American mayor in modern times.

Some accused Hahn of racism for using grainy footage of Villaraigosa and the image of a crack pipe in a television commercial about the former Assembly speaker’s efforts to shorten the sentence of a drug trafficker.

On Monday, however, much of the acrimony appeared forgotten--or at least had subsided. When the mayor arrived for his first substantial visit to the city’s Eastside since taking office, he was warmly applauded. People clamored to shake his hand and snap his picture.

In fact, as Hahn toured El Sereno Monday morning--announcing improvements to a major intersection and visiting the site of a potential new park--there was no evidence of the bitter resentment that surfaced last spring as he and Villaraigosa competed to run the city.

“I put that where it belongs: in the past,” said community activist Lou Santillan. “Most of the Eastside was in favor of Villaraigosa, but the people in the city in general chose him. I didn’t vote for him . . . but I’m a political realist, and I have to work with those elected by the people.”

The growing public acceptance of Hahn appears to be shared by some Latino leaders around the city who say the passage of time and the mayor’s efforts to include them in governing and decision-making have helped assuage some of the hard feelings.

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) campaigned for Villaraigosa but since Hahn’s election has worked closely with him on airport security and other issues.

“I feel people are looking forward and are actively seeking to work with him and are going to be judging him on what he is going to be doing from now on,” said Roybal-Allard, noting that she has not heard complaints about the mayor from other Latino leaders. “I’m never pleased with any kind of negative campaigning, but I think we need to look forward now, rather than look back.”

Political observers said the mayor’s naming of numerous Latinos to city commissions and his backing from local Latino leaders such as Pacheco and City Council President Alex Padilla have helped quiet much of the anger that lingered after the campaign.

“I think there’s a collective sense among the Latino political class that . . . you cannot govern this city without taking Latinos into consideration,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. “So Villaraigosa may have lost, but Latinos in this city didn’t lose.”

Obviously, the entire Latino leadership has not yet forgiven the mayor, and some community activists say privately that a large share of Villaraigosa backers are still resentful about the tenor of Hahn’s campaign. But they acknowledge that the general community sentiment toward the mayor has warmed.

The distrust of Hahn among Latinos appears to have dissipated despite the fact that he has made few public gestures to reach out to those who supported Villaraigosa.

The most significant effort came during his July 2 inauguration speech, when he praised his rival as “someone I truly respect” and carefully recited some of his address in Spanish. At the end of the month, he attended a reception with Latino leaders sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision.

Since then, however, Hahn has done little, at least publicly, to woo those who supported his rival. And he declined an invitation by the White House in early September to attend a state dinner with Mexican President Vicente Fox, a move that many political observers thought was a mistake, considering the large number of Mexican Americans who live in Los Angeles.

The Hahn administration now appears to be turning more of its focus to that constituency. And on Monday, nearly four months into his administration, Hahn made three stops in the hilly neighborhood of El Sereno, northeast of downtown.

“I don’t think I’ve spent enough time in any of the communities yet,” Hahn said in an interview Monday. “There’s a million things to do at once, and I’m just trying to do them all.”

The half-day he spent on the Eastside was a coup for Pacheco, whose support for Hahn in the campaign angered many of his constituents. The councilman is one of the first members of the City Council to host a visit from the mayor in his district.

“In terms of the votes here on the Eastside, the mayor obviously has a lot of ground to make up, and today is one part of reaching out to the Latino community,” Pacheco said. “I really want to be there and help him to close that gap.”

Hahn began the day talking with about 50 senior citizens who munched on pan dulce and shouted out comments as they sat under purple Halloween banners festooning the ceiling of the El Sereno Senior Center.

“We’re celebrating, at least in my office, El Sereno Day,” the mayor quipped, prompting cheers from the seniors.

Hahn listed various city efforts to improve the area, including a $5-million project to remove an old trolley overpass and help smooth traffic congestion at the intersection of Soto Street and Huntington Drive, and a push to convert a training facility owned by the Department of Water and Power into a community park.

“That’s what I think government is all about: delivering those services,” the mayor said.

Many said they were impressed simply by the mayor’s presence.

“To have him come out to a little community like ours that’s not well-known, it’s really an honor,” said El Sereno honorary mayor Michael Romero, so named for his volunteer efforts on behalf of the neighborhood.

Even the most loyal Villaraigosa supporters allowed that they didn’t have any specific complaints about the new mayor.

“I guess he’s doing all right,” said Delia Cordero, 73. “We’ve got to let him do his job.”

Added her friend Ernie Padilla: “Now that he’s in, we’re going to give him all the support he deserves.”