LOS ANGELES — City Attorney James Hahn was elected mayor of Los Angeles over former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who had sought to become the city’s first Hispanic mayor in more than a century.
“To all of you people who honored me, elected me as your city controller, elected me four times as your city attorney, thank you for that vote of confidence over and over again,” Hahn told supporters at a victory party early Wednesday.
With 81 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, Hahn had 250,523 votes, or 54 percent, to Villaraigosa’s 212,212 votes, or 46 percent.
The two Democrats had waged one of the fiercest mayoral campaigns in Los Angeles history, spending $13 million for a race that became increasingly nasty toward the end.
Villaraigosa, 48, the son of a Mexican immigrant, grew up on the rough streets of East Los Angeles. He had sought to become the city’s first Hispanic mayor since 1872 by building a coalition that ranged from labor unions to millionaires, but the Hahn family’s political capital ultimately proved too much.
Hahn, 50, the city attorney since 1985 and a former city controller, is the son of a famous Los Angeles political figure with an ardent following in the city’s black community.
His late father, Kenneth, was a four-decade county supervisor representing the largely black neighborhoods of South Los Angeles that now constitute his son’s base. His sister, Janice, also won a City Council seat Tuesday.
Hahn attributed his victory to the same sort of coalition-building that characterized Villaraigosa’s campaign.
“Our campaign put together a coalition as diverse as this great city,” Hahn said. “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.”
Mayor Richard Riordan, a wealthy Republican businessman who has been in office since 1993, could not run again because of term limits and had endorsed Villaraigosa.
Political observers were surprised when Villaraigosa, with strong support from liberals and Hispanics, emerged from the crowded April 10 primary five points ahead of Hahn.
Hahn then launched a campaign that cast Villaraigosa as soft on crime as the two battled for support from the moderate to conservative voters who backed other candidates in the April primary.
“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.”
Villaraigosa was gracious in defeat.
“Jim, congratulations,” he told supporters. “I look forward to working with you for the great city of Los Angeles. I love this city, Jim, and I know you do too. I wish you the best of luck.”
In other races, Los Angeles voters chose:
—Diane Watson, the first black woman to serve in the California Senate, to succeed Rep. Julian Dixon in the overwhelmingly Democratic 32 congressional district. Dixon died of an apparent heart attack in December.
—Five City Council members. Vying for one of those seats was former federal prosecutor Jack Weiss, who had 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for former state legislator and ’60s radical Tom Hayden, with 150 of 179 precincts counted.
