EDITORIAL HAHN (MIS)CALCULATES MAYOR'S POOR ETHICS RECORD CAN'T BE EQUALED.

LOS Angeles Mayor James Hahn is fighting with his usual campaign ferocity to hang on to his job despite the odds against him.

He insists he hasn't broken any laws and no criminal misconduct has been proven against members of his administration. But he's taken utterly no responsibility for the corruption of the city's political processes that has taken place under his watch.

Whether crimes are ever proven or not, Hahn put the head of his campaign fund-raising operation in charge of overseeing the city's departments in charge of the harbor, airports and water and power, and he put other fund-raisers in key positions in those three contract-rich agencies.

So when San Fernando Valley secession reared its ugly head, the Hahn team milked the contractors, consultants, developers and unions for millions to crush it. They corrupted the processes to the extent that some people have been charged with crimes, and many others are under local and federal investigation.

That's why Hahn's only hope for winning re-election is to convince voters that his opponent, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, is no better. It's not a pretty sight.

At Monday's debate, Hahn blasted Villaraigosa for two supposed crimes: Back in 2001, Villaraigosa told Valley voters that he would support the removal of then-Police Chief Bernard Parks but later told voters in South Los Angeles that he supported him. Then, in 2003, when running for the City Council, he promised not to seek the mayor's office in 2005; yet here he is.

Hahn is right. On these two occasions, Villaraigosa did something unseemly that politicians, Hahn included, do all too often: He spoke out of both sides of his mouth.

Sadly, there are precious few politicians around who still hold true to their word. Remember four years ago, when Hahn promised to hire 1,000 new cops? Hahn doesn't. Remember when he promised to treat the Valley fairly and with respect? He didn't.

Still, let's not indulge Hahn's fantasy that some gaps in Villaraigosa's credibility are the moral equivalent of Hahn's turning City Hall into a special-interest swap meet.

Hahn can swear up and down that he and his administration are clean, but he's the one who dumped top aides once the scandal began to break. He allowed them to resign under fire in order to sweep the scandal under the rug without assigning - or accepting - responsibility.

Yes, Villaraigosa has some explaining to do in the remaining seven weeks before the runoff election. But it's Hahn who faces the real challenge: He must convince voters that he's honest enough to come clean about how his administration became the most investigated in Los Angeles in 75 years - and how a second term won't be worst than the first.