Antonio Villaraigosa's coalition with Blacks in Los Angeles paid off and is promising

Mayor James Hahn was elected mayor through the close margin of the Black vote his father had skillfully cultivated through working for and responding to Black needs. The son, however, has not been responsive to the Black Community and has just about lost the Black vote entirely. His major blunder was to replace the Black Chief of Police, who ran for and won a City Councilman position. Since that time he has worked against Mayor Hahn and eroded his support in the Black Community.

Former State Assembly Speaker Villaraigosa ran for mayor against Hahn and lost by a hair. That hair was a Black hair that Father Hahn had grown in the Black community over a period of many years. But today, Son Hahn does not have the Black support he had when first running for mayor, and with the size of the Hispanic and Black communities, Villaraigosa could easily win against Hahn.

Some reports have Villaraigosa 18 points ahead of Hahn. According to Villaraigosa's web site,

The survey shows that Hahn has yet to rebuild the historic coalition of South L.A. blacks and San Fernando Valley whites that thrust him into office four years ago. Both groups favor Villaraigosa by wide margins in the May 17 runoff.

Villarigosa is a skilful politician, having been both a City Councilman and former State Assembly Speaker; he knows politics. But the significant factor of this election, if Villaraigosa wins, is that he has done what many have failed to do--build an effective, winning coalition of Blacks and Hispanics. This would be a start of a movement that has longed been talked about but seldom done effectively by anyone, other than Harold Washington, Mayor of Chicago.

A winning coalition in Los Angeles could spell the beginning of the California promise of political coalition-building that could be a model throughout the nation. And that coalition building model will help elect more Black, Brown, and Asian politicians.

Simond Griote 
5/23/05

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