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Noam N. Levey, the new guy in City Hall for the Times, takes stock of the potential lineup of challengers to Mayor Jim Hahn and finds enough interest out there to complicate things for the mayor. Hahn won by riding the Valley and the black vote, but the hopefuls thinking about a run include Valleyites Richard Alarcon and Bob Hertzberg and the former police chief Bernard Parks, thought to be popular with blacks. Alarcon and Antonio Villaraigosa, if he runs, might grab a lot of Latino and liberal votes.
It could all leave Hahn without much of a core group of supporters, at a time when the grand jury investigations into alleged corruption in the city departments could soil his image. "There is blood in the water, and the sharks are circling," says Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount. Still, Hahn has $1.3 million in the bank, and no incumbent mayor has lost since 1973. Also, none of the potential rivals has yet had the gumption to openly admit he is running (though Alarcon says he will take out papers this week).
Update: David Zahniser does a similar piece in today's Daily Breeze, quoting Jaime Regalado of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute for Public Affairs saying of Hahn: "He is definitely vulnerable." Zahniser, as does Levey, includes controller Laura Chick among the prospective candidates.