By Steve Christol
Daily Bruin Contributor As Tuesday’s Los Angeles city primary
election approaches, one thing the top six mayoral candidates may
have in common is that they have too much in common. Of the 15
mayoral candidates on Tuesday’s ballot, two will go on to a
June 5 runoff election if no candidate wins a majority of the vote.
The six leading contenders share similar views on issues such as
education, police reform and the economy. But some voters said they
have difficulty differentiating between the candidates’
views. Second-year philosophy student Kristina Meshelski, who
attended last week’s mayoral debate at Royce Hall, said she
was uncertain as to where the candidates stand on the issues.
“All of the candidates were trying to blur their
positions,” she said. “None of them were trying to be
completely clear.” Meshelski also said the candidates were
not direct in answering the questions asked by the panel of L.A.
media representatives. But the candidates do vary in their
approaches to the issues central to each campaign.
Xavier Becerra Democratic L.A. Congressman,
Xavier Becerra, for instance, has focused his campaign on shared
issues such as education and police reform, but from more of a
grassroots standpoint than the other candidates. Becerra has
made it a priority in his campaign to put “neighborhoods
first,” and he hopes to make city government more accessible
to the public, according to his campaign Web site. Included in
Becerra’s agenda are plans to make education, safety and the
economy more neighborhood-friendly and locally oriented. In his
efforts to increase safety in neighborhoods, Becerra would like to
encourage police officers to live in the communities they patrol.
He also intends to help the economies of local neighborhoods by
making it easier for small-business owners to get information on
obtaining permits for their companies located within those areas.
Becerra also looks forward to making the city government more
accessible to the public. His “Open Doors, Open
Government” policy is aimed at increasing the availability of
government services to the people of the city. He even plans to
hire an independent auditing firm to assess government spending and
keep city expenditures in check. Though Becerra is trailing with
only six percent of the popular vote ““ according to a recent
L.A. Times poll ““ about 23 percent of Latino voters do plan
to vote for him. This could pose a threat to the only other Latino
among the top six mayoral hopefuls ““ Antonio
Villaraigosa.
Antonio Villaraigosa The former state assembly
speaker is among the three leading contenders in the race, with 20
percent of L.A. voters supporting him, according to the Times poll.
Villaraigosa, an East L.A. native and UCLA graduate, holds about 26
percent of the Latino vote, according to the Times poll. With the
Latino voter turnout expected to make up about one-fifth of all
anticipated voters, Becerra’s support among Latino voters
could undermine Villaraigosa’s edge in the polls and
compromise his spot in the June runoff, according to an article in
the L.A. Times. “Antonio is either in first or second place,
depending on which poll you look at,” said
Villaraigosa’s press secretary Elena Stern on Sunday.
“It has made absolutely no difference in Antonio’s
frontrunner status.” Villaraigosa, often considered the most
charismatic and the best speaker of the leading candidates,
envisions a “Los Angeles where the level of justice,
prosperity and harmony is unparalleled in human history,”
according to a statement on his campaign Web site. He not only has
the backing of many Latino voters, but of a large portion of Jewish
voters as well. The county labor federation also supports him, as
does the California Democratic Party, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
and Gov. Gray Davis.
Kathleen Connell The California state
controller is one of three female candidates running for mayor. She
has recently attempted to set herself apart from the six leading
candidates by focusing on the energy crisis in California. Connell
has taken the lead on this issue and offered a plan for the L.A.
Department of Water and Power, including a 50 percent rate cut for
customers who reduce their power consumption by 10 to 15 percent
this summer. In one of her television campaign advertisements,
Connell touts her record as a state fiscal expert and claims to be
the only candidate with the experience to help solve the energy
crisis. “If L.A. doesn’t conserve (energy) this summer,
if we don’t do our fair share, the lights are not going to
stay on,” Connell said at the mayoral debate last week.
Regardless of her efforts on this issue, only 6 percent of voters
support the state controller, according to the Times poll.
Joel Wachs L.A. City Councilman Joel Wachs
tried to set himself apart in his campaign by calling on the city
last week to reduce levels of cancer-causing chromium 6 in
L.A.’s tap water. In addition, Wachs has plans to restore the
L.A. Police Department’s Senior Lead Officer Program and
create community based policing if elected. Whether or not to fire
L.A. Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, embroiled in the Rampart
scandal for several years, has been a key issue in the race. Wachs
is the only leading candidate to have said that he would fire Parks
upon becoming mayor. All of the other candidates said they would
give Parks a certain amount of time before deciding whether or not
to keep him as chief of police. Wachs is in fourth place in the
mayoral race with 11 percent of voters likely to support him.
Steve Soboroff Independent businessman Steve
Soboroff is in a close race at the top of the polls with former
speaker Villaraigosa and L.A. City Attorney James K. Hahn.
 Although Soboroff, the only Republican among the leading six
candidates, does not have an agenda significantly different from
others in the race, his varies slightly from theirs. His plan for
education reform, according to his campaign Web site, includes
splitting up the L.A. Unified School District into 20 to 40
different districts with one to three high schools in each
district. “The LAUSD has proven that it cannot effectively
deliver a quality education in a nurturing (and) safe environment
to the children of Los Angeles,” according to a statement on
his Web site. In addition, Soboroff has a 23-point plan for
improving traffic problems in L.A. The plan includes a ban on road
construction during peak traffic hours and a “pothole
bounty” paid to private firms for filling potholes on L.A.
roads.
Jim Hahn City Attorney Jim Hahn leads the race
with about 24 percent of the popular vote, according to the Times
poll. Issues Hahn will be focusing on if he makes it into the June
runoff include education, reforming the L.A.P.D., reducing traffic
congestion and helping L.A.’s economy grow, according to Hahn
spokeswoman Julie Wong. Wong also said improving the economy will
be good for students who plan on living in L.A. after graduating.
She said Hahn will help create good paying jobs for people here,
which would help students in paying for a house and living in the
city. “This election is important to students at UCLA,”
she said. Wong added one last suggestion to voting students:
“If students are not already registered to vote for this
election, they should register to vote for the June 5
election.” The deadline to register to vote in the June 5
election is May 21.