EDITORIAL `FRIENDS' OF LUDLOW L.A. CIVIC LEADERS GIVE THEIR BLESSING TO PUBLIC CORRUPTION.

WHAT kind of people would gather at a swank setting to celebrate a criminal and pump tens of thousands of dollars into his pocket?

Rap gangstas? The Sopranos? No way, it's Los Angeles' elite that's paying homage to a confessed and convicted criminal.

In a grotesque mockery of justice, many of the city's most prominent civic and political leaders got together in Holmby Hills Friday night to raise money for Martin Ludlow, the former city councilman and head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Plates at the soiree ranged in price from a $500 ``donation'' to as much as $4,000 for the truly dedicated.

And why does Ludlow need these mucky-mucks' generosity? Because he illegally funneled union resources into his 2003 City Council campaign.

This is not an ``alleged'' crime. Ludlow admitted his guilt to a felony in federal court. As part of his slap-on-the-wrist sentence, which includes probation, he has to pay $180,000 in restitution.

That's a pretty light sentence for a fellow who betrayed the union movement and his community.

Astonishingly, Ludlow has gotten nothing but sympathy from the city's elite, as if he were a victim of wrongdoing and not a criminal.

You'd think they might be a little indignant. Ludlow stole resources from hard-working union members. He then corrupted the political process by using those resources to sway a hotly contested election. He also may have tried to deceive investigators by covering the whole thing up.

As guardians of the public trust, city leaders should want nothing to do with Ludlow. If they had an ounce of respect for the people of L.A. who pay the price for such acts of corruption, the city's leaders might even enact tough reforms to clean up City Hall once and for all.

What they wouldn't do is show their contempt for the public by putting together fundraisers to let him off the hook.

Yet the ``reception committee'' for this event reads like a who's-who of city politics.

The committee includes civil-rights attorney Connie Rice, who just issued a report condemning the city's leadership for tolerating a culture of corruption in the LAPD. Apparently Rice fails to see the irony in her own support of the corrupt culture of L.A. City Hall.

Another member of the reception committee is John Mack, who, as head of the city's Police Commission, is charged with upholding the laws of L.A. Mack's involvement in this event calls into serious question his fitness for his post.

The same could be said for City Councilman Herb Wesson, State Senator-elect Mark Ridley-Thomas, U.S. Rep. Diane Watson and Assemblywoman Karen Bass.

If they have no respect for the law and common decency, why should their constituents?

These leaders have made their contempt for the law -- and the people of L.A. -- all too clear. And that is truly a disgrace.