Last chance for a Jewish mayor? *

Joel Kotkin, still in disbelief about Bob Hertzberg's inability to make the runoff, writes in Friday's Jewish Journal that Jewish political clout in L.A. is on the wane and ain't coming back. Essentially, he blames liberal Westsiders for not voting Jewish enough:

For the second time in four years, Los Angeles voters turned down a smart, moderate Jewish candidate —- last time it was Steve Soboroff —- for people whose primary affiliations lie with other interests and ethnic groups.

As occurred in Soboroff’s loss, the deathblow to Hertzberg’s spirited campaign came from his fellow landsmen, less than half of whom bothered to support him. In contrast, African Americans rallied in larger percentages for City Councilman Bernard Parks, as did Latinos, clearly the city’s ascendant group, in their backing for City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Jewish rejection of Hertzberg is all the more puzzling since, unlike the Republican Soboroff, he is a well-known Democrat with moderately liberal credentials. Hertzberg’s pro-business stance and positions on critical issues, such as traffic and the schools, should also have won him broader support.

To a large extent, the explanation for this defection lies in a continued, and growing, divide between two distinct groups of Jewish voters. On the one side are the more middle-class Jews, concentrated in the San Fernando Valley, who are more likely to run local businesses and would like to be able to send their kids to public schools. These largely secularly oriented Jews, although mostly registered Democrats, joined the more Orthodox, particularly in places like Pico-Robertson, in backing Hertzberg...here Hertzberg failed was with another large bloc of Jewish voters, the very liberal, generally more affluent constituencies that cluster largely on the Westside. These people split their vote evenly between Hertzberg and liberal heartthrob Villaraigosa.

Also around the campaign:

• How could you? Harold Meyerson pens an open letter to Miguel Contreras, needling the County Fed boss (and Hahn airport commissioner) for endorsing the mayor over Villaraigosa: "The most profoundly pro-labor mayoral candidate in Los Angeles history is on the ballot this May and, as I hardly need tell you, is the clear favorite to win. And how are you...responding to this? By backing his opponent, of course."

• Joining Antonio: Former Hertzberg campaign co-chair Keith Richman endorsed Villaraigosa. He's the Republican assemblyman who would have been mayor of the country's sixth-largest city if Valley secession had gone through.

• Thinking recount: Hertzberg's attorney wants to see the ballots that the city clerk's staff inked, apparently without the required sign-off from state election officials.

• Busted: The staff of the Ethics Commission accused Councilman Jack Weiss of forty campaign rule violations. Clerical errors, his consultant says.

* Also in the Jewish Journal: Several prominent Jewish community figures, including Rabbi Steven Weil of Temple Beth Jacob, say their signatures were forged on Hahn campaign endorsement pledges. It's the second JJ story about questionable endorsements.