Special report: George Bush's America
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Tuesday June 5, 2001 The Guardian
The election which could give Los Angeles its first Latino mayor for nearly 130 years has grown increasingly ugly and divisive in its final days. Smear tactics from the old school of city hall campaigning have dominated the final days, leading to calls for a criminal investigation into the conduct of the contest.
Antonio Villaraigosa, a charismatic liberal Democrat and former union organiser, hopes to become the city's first Latino mayor since 1872 in the run-off today. Standing in his way is the city attorney Jim Hahn, also a Democrat but of a more conservative complexion.
Mr Hahn's latest campaign commercials show a crack cocaine pipe and a photo of Mr Villaraigosa, drawing attention to Mr Villaraigosa's intervention on behalf of the convicted drug trafficker Carlos Vignali, pardoned by Bill Clinton during his last days in office.
Mr Villaraigosa received campaign money from Mr Vignali's father and wrote to Mr Clinton seeking clemency.
The commercial says that Mr Villaraigosa "falsely claimed that the crack cocaine dealer had no prior criminal record", and concludes: "Los Angeles can't trust Antonio Villaraigosa".
Mr Hahn's campaign has also suggested that his rival, a former local president of the American Civil Liberties Union, is soft on crime and gangs - a key campaign issue.
The increasingly bitter contest has opened rifts in LA's diverse ethnic communities. Mr Hahn is a white man and his father, Kenneth, was a respected city supervisor who fought for civil rights; the family name still carries great weight with the city's African-American voters, and this has caused some tension.
"That dark little secret - the divide at the heart of America's racial and ethnic politics - has been exposed by the contest for mayor," the commentator Richard Rodriguez wrote in the LA Times at the weekend.
"In America's largest Hispanic city, a majority of African-American voters are expected to side with the white candidate against the Hispanic candidate."
Mr Villaraigosa, 48, comes from east LA, the city's low-income Latino heartland. He dropped out of secondary school but went to night school and graduated in law from UCLA.
He was an organiser for the United Teachers union, was elected to the state assembly in 1994, and was its speaker from 1998 until last year.
Married with four children, he has the backing of the unions, civil rights groups, Jesse Jackson, women's and gay groups and, more surprisingly, the outgoing Republican mayor, Richard Riordan.
Mr Hahn, 50, lives in the harbour area of the city and has degrees in English and law from Pepperdine, a Christian university in Malibu.
After private law practice, he became a city attorney and introduced injunctions to stop gang members assembling. Married with two children, he is backed by the police union and luminaries such as the basketball legend Magic Johnson. He also has strong support from the conservative white voters in the San Fernando Valley.
An LA Times poll last week showed Mr Hahn leading by 7%, with 13% undecided, resulting in frantic last-minute campaigning.
The paper suggested that Mr Hahn "represents the risk of stagnation at a time when this dynamic city can least afford it. We go with aspiration. We go with the daring that built Los Angeles".