VILLARAIGOSA REFUSAL TO HIT BACK COST HIM RIVAL'S ATTACK AD WENT UNANSWERED.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Why did Antonio Villaraigosa pull his punch in the face of a harsh attack from James Hahn?

That question on Wednesday overshadowed the election of five new faces to the City Council and the first Latino to citywide office in more than a century, with the prospect of a new era in Los Angeles politics.

Villaraigosa's chief campaign consultant, Parke Skelton, defended the decision not to counter Hahn's attack over the former Assembly speaker's letter five years ago seeking presidential clemency for convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali with ads hitting the city attorney's record on police corruption.

``In the end, it was Antonio's decision, but all of us in the campaign concurred,'' Skelton said.

Others in the Villaraigosa camp, however, engaged in a round of second-guessing over the lack of response to an inevitable attack.

``It was a strategic mistake that there was no war game strategy to pull the trigger when it (the ad) came,'' a source said. ``It was a serious mistake. We knew it was coming.''

The Vignali ad coming two weeks before the end of the campaign derailed momentum the charismatic Villaraigosa was carrying from his stunning first-place finish in the April 10 primary.

He had the full support of the state Democratic Party and national labor unions, had won over Mayor Richard Riordan, and was riding a wave of public enthusiasm heading into the campaign's stretch.

``He was the John McCain of the Los Angeles city election,'' said Xandra Kayden, president of the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, referring to the U.S. senator who created a stir in the 2000 GOP presidential race.

``He created a spirit this is going to be a new Los Angeles. He had the excitement vote,'' she said. ``(But) that ad just really threw people. This issue of trust never entered until the last two weeks.''

Added political consultant Howard Sunkin: ``Everybody in this town knew what was coming, it was just a matter of when.''

Villaraigosa's campaign considered a counter-attack right up to the last minute to buy TV advertising time.

Ben Austin, Riordan's spokesman on leave to the Villaraigosa campaign, went so far as to write a script, reviving a 1997 ad run by city attorney candidate Ted Stein. It accused Hahn of botching the background check of a serial rapist who later murdered a young woman.

``The script was fair,'' Austin said. ``Hahn's excuse was that it's his record. We could have come back, too. I told Antonio, `We need to go with this.'''

But Villaraigosa refused.

``He said, 'We're not going to win that way,' '' Austin said.

Connie Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project, a legal public policy action group, said Los Angeles has Villaraigosa to thank for his restraint and criticized Hahn for pushing ``racial fear buttons.''

``The fallout leaves a bitterness we just don't need. This is a city where you stay away from (provoking racial fear) at all costs,'' Rice said. ``People begged him to go negative, but he said, 'I'm running a campaign of hope.' ''

John Shallman, media consultant for winning Valley school board candidate Marlene Canter, said Villaraigosa's team may have become overconfident - losing sight of tactical issues - as money, endorsements and volunteers flooded in.

``Villaraigosa's team perceived the overwhelming sense of momentum, endorsements, money, Riordan, the party and that that would be enough, but it's never enough,'' Shallman said.

``It was a really harsh ad that ran,'' he added. ``It was incumbent on Antonio's team to not say, He's running a negative campaign. We hear that whine all the time. Rather, they should have counterattacked immediately and gone for the jugular.''

Shallman, on the Steve Cooley team that last year upset incumbent District Attorney Gil Garcetti by sharply tying the prosecutor to the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division scandal, said he couldn't understand why Villaraigosa's team didn't make the same link.

``(Hahn) clearly had as much to do with it as the D.A.,'' Shallman said.

Political consultant Richard Lichtenstein said it's likely the Villaraigosa campaign did test responses to the ad.

``It's possible and likely they did research and came to the conclusion there was not an effective way to respond to the Vignali charge,'' Lichtenstein said. ``Whatever creativity they came up with, whatever responses they came up with may have seemed more hurtful than staying silent on the issue.''

Others saw in Villaraigosa's failure to respond a deep deniability of how badly the Vignali letter would damage him.

Staff Writer Rick Orlov contributed to this story.