Area's economy, politics a lot like geology class.

GEOLOGISTS call the tangled mass of mountains and valleys that run from the Pacific to the Mojave the Transverse Ranges Province.

The name, of course, reflects that fact that the crumpled hills we call the Santa Monicas and San Gabriels run across the general north-south trend of California's topography, evidenced by everything from the Sierra Nevada to the San Andreas Fault.

Californians, all 34 million of us, live on the edge of the Pacific and North American plates, waiting for the Next Big One.

Seismologically, politically, or economically.

For any writer, "The Transverse Province" is an attractive metaphor for the sprawling mass of urban, suburban and downright rural landscapes between the Santa Monicas and the Los Angeles County-Kern County line.

For one coveting politics and business in that same area, it is downright irresistible.

What other part of California could be represented by state legislators as different as Sheila Kuehl, Richard Alarcon, Tom McClintock, and the late Pete Knight?

And what other part of California boasts employers as disparate as Newhall Land and Farming, Sunkist, Rocketdyne, DreamWorks, and Amgen?

This is the first of what will be a regular series of columns examining the impact these incongruities have on our region's economic health.

I hope you enjoy them and decide to contribute.

The Donkey in the Room: Will Villaraigosa Declare?

The elephant in the room--or, in Democratic Los Angeles, the donkey--in the city's mayoral race is Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa.

Villaraigosa, former Assembly Speaker and the first Latino in the post since the 19th Century, has yet to announce.

But the rumor moving last week was that his decision would be announced soon, perhaps even before the Democratic National Convention which begins July 26 in Boston.

Why should those outside the Los Angeles city limits care?

Because in spite of the opinions of untold numbers of elected officials, boosters, and wannabees from Ventura County to the San Fernando Valley, the city of Los Angeles remains the economic engine for southern California.

Urban planners and economists can cite chapter and verse about how important Los Angeles is to the region, whether in terms of industry, capital, or infrastructure, especially the future of Los Angeles International Airport and the port of Los Angeles.

Or even, in marketing terms, the "brand" of the larger region.

So the question of who sits in the mayor's office in the second largest city in the United States is important, well beyond the city itself.

More than three years into his first term, Mayor Jim Hahn should be cruising toward an easy victory in the March primary.

Instead, he has drawn three well-regarded challengers: former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and State Sen. Richard Alarcon (both San Fernando Valley residents) and Councilman (and former police chief) Bernard Parks.

Any one of the trio could mount an effective challenge to Hahn, but given Villaraigosa's showing in the 2001 mayoral election, he could be Hahn's most formidable opponent a second time around.

And all it will take for a challenger to force Hahn into a runoff would be to keep the mayor below 50 percent of the vote.

With four candidates that could happen.

With five, the odds only increase.

Staff Reporter Brad Smith can be reached at [phone] or at [e-mail].