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It's common for the city council to end each meeting by adjourning in memory of residents who recently died. Today, the council went further. The entire day's agenda was cancelled so members could show their faces at the 11 a.m. funeral of Johnnie L. Cochran at West Angeles Church of God in Christ on Crenshaw. It's also the only event on the public schedule distributed by Mayor Hahn's campaign. I'll assume Antonio Villaraigosa is there too. Meanwhile, today's Forum page in the L.A. Daily Journal carries an appreciation from Melanie E. Lomax and short tributes from other lawyers, including Howard Weitzman, Robert L. Bastian and Stanford Law's professor Robert Weisberg. There's even three sentences from O.J. Simpson.
* P.M. Update: The Times says Simpson (and Michael Jackson) attended, Stevie Wonder sang, and eulogies or remarks were given by Hahn, Geronimo Pratt, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Sean Combs and Cochran's children. I'm told that Villaraigosa wasn't there, and may have been in San Francisco for a fundraiser, but I've asked his campaign to clarify.
Also today:
• Joe Scott blogs that the runoff campaign is bereft of good ideas and that Villaraigosa is sitting on his lead with a risky rope-a-dope strategy: "The race remains Villaraigosa’s to lose. But it is still possible unless he gets off the ropes, goes toe-to-toe with Hahn and inoculates himself as the tough reform candidate able to overcome a perception that he is too liberal, too soft on crime and too smooth by half. Would he, for example, have the guts to say, if elected, he would dump every current commissioner who has served in the Bradley, Riordan and Hahn administrations?....This race should be about changing the L.A. music, stupid! So far, neither of these guys gets it."
• The Yale Club of Southern California has a panel about the race tonight with consultant Harvey Englander, ex-council member Ruth Galanter and ex-DA Gil Garcetti. It's at UCLA's Anderson School of Business.
Edited