Alarcon Unveils Website for Race

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, who became the first major politician this spring to challenge Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, stepped up the cyber-battle Tuesday by unveiling one of the mayoral campaign’s most extensive websites.

Full of information about the candidate, places to sign up to donate and organize events, and a blog by the candidate, Alarcon’s website is the second by a major mayoral candidate to replicate the high-tech bells and whistles that national candidates are using.

Alarcon’s site, at www.alarconforla.com, even features a page explaining how to pronounce the candidate’s name. (It sounds like cone, which the website illustrates with an ice cream cone.)

Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg last month unveiled a similarly flashy site at www.changela.com, making it a centerpiece of his campaign.

Both candidates hope to lure voters to their sites with regular postings on their blogs, the Hertz-blog and the AlaBLOG.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, the former police chief, has a partially operational site at www.bernardparks.com.

Hahn’s campaign said the mayor’s site will debut later this year.

Without a public relations operation and little visibility around Los Angeles, Alarcon has for months been running a relatively quiet campaign, as other candidates grabbed the headlines with their fundraising and community meetings.

But on Tuesday morning, Alarcon rallied more than 150 supporters at a Van Nuys movie theater to show off his website and publicize a campaign message focused on “Building Middle-Class Dreams.”

“This campaign is not about money. It’s about people,” the Sylmar Democrat said as he showed off the website full of videoed testimonials from supporters.