L.A. race hard to predict

LOS ANGELES – City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa surged ahead of Mayor James Hahn in early returns Tuesday as he sought to take down an unpopular incumbent and become the city’s first Hispanic mayor in more than a century.

With 38 percent of precincts reporting, Villaraigosa had 139,773 votes, or 59 percent, to 98,486 votes for Hahn, or 41 percent. In a troubling sign for Hahn, a preliminary Los Angeles Times exit poll found that more than seven in 10 voters wanted the city to head in a new direction.

The bruising runoff between the two Democrats was a rematch of the 2001 election in which Hahn rallied to defeat Villaraigosa and win his first term as mayor of the nation’s second-largest city. Villaraigosa came back strong this year, nearly ousting Hahn in the March primary.

Villaraigosa, a high school dropout and immigrant’s son from the barrio who rose to speaker of the state Assembly, was seeking to become the first Hispanic mayor in Los Angeles since 1872. Hahn, scion of a prominent political family, was in danger of becoming the first Los Angeles mayor in 32 years to be bounced from office.

Hahn, 54, saw his first term hampered by corruption allegations against his administration. Villaraigosa, 52, tried to capitalize on those allegations. But his campaign was slowed somewhat when he had to return nearly $50,000 in donations from employees of two Florida companies with possible interests in airport concession contracts.

Hahn’s family has been active in Los Angeles politics for decades. His father, Kenneth, was a beloved county supervisor. He touted Los Angeles’ dropping crime rate and argued that he is the man to cure such urban ills as failing schools and gridlock.

But the coalition of blacks and moderate-to-conservative San Fernando Valley voters that put him in office four years ago broke apart this time. He lost black support because he backed the ouster of Police Chief Bernard Parks, who is black.

And Hahn’s lawyerly – some say drab – image left him open to criticism that he isn’t up to being the public face of star-studded L.A.