Valley voters watch as L.A. mayoral race takes shape.

In the first months of the year, all five of the major candidates for mayor are going to have to work hard to convince Valley voters that they understand the major issues facing a region that almost separated from the city two years ago.

The election is March 8, and if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, they would proceed to a runoff election on May 17.

Mayor Hahn met with Valley VOTE, a key architect of the secession movement, for the first time in two years last month. He received a fairly cordial reception as he outlined past projects designed to improve Valley life, like new police stations, community improvements and the passage of business tax reform.

There will be plenty more work to do, however.

"They're going to have to demonstrate that they understand some of our key issues," said Marty Cooper, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. "The continual closing of trauma centers has to be dealt with, and business tax was truly just the first step in a process of continuing business tax reform."

"The secession movement was a wake-up call in a very real sense, letting the political powers that be know that there are a whole lot of people out here unhappy enough to want to seriously consider separating," he said.

Cooper said that the mayor was able to help defeat the secession movement by carrying out a "two-pronged strategy, one by raising enough money and scaring people, saying 'you can't make it on your own,' and by a community outreach strategy, fixing potholes, making traffic lights sync better, and making the permit process more streamlined," he said. "That did help, but whether it was a permanent, long-term attitude change, that's a different question."

Cooper said that it was too early in the race to hazard any kind of prediction about who would pick up most of the Valley vote, although he said that popular opinion seems to be assuming that state senator Richard Alarcon and former Assembly Speaker and Valley resident Robert Hertzberg will likely split the vote.

"This is a generalization, but I think that Richard Alarcon has been perceived as more oriented toward labor, while Hertzberg is more oriented toward business," Cooper said. "I don't think that Bernard Parks will do terribly well in the Valley, and with Villaraigosa and the mayor, it's too early to tell," he said.

Ace Smith, campaign manager for Villamigosa, said that the councilmember has been in touch with the business community's wishes ever since he was speaker of the Assembly, and that he helped to enact business tax reform this November.

"The councilmember was instrumental in pushing for reform of the business tax, another thing that Mayor Hahn had promised to do something about, but it took the city council to do what the mayor couldn't, and now the mayor's trying to take credit for it."

Smith said that Villaraigosa will be rolling out his full platform, including planned policies to attract Valley voters, in the coming months.

"I know it's after Christmas," Smith said. "But we're not going to be unwrapping presents until it's time, in this case it's the spring."

Villaraigosa lost a close election to Hahn in 2001 after a brutal campaign, and has said that advocating for the film production industry, a major employer for the Valley, would be a priority upon entering office.

Endorsements

Last October, Villaraigosa won the official endorsement of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Fifth District Councilman Jack Weiss and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys), prompting the mayor's campaign office to remind voters that he's received the endorsement of influential public officials as well, such as Senator Diane Feinstein. The endorsements are expected to help Villaraigosa shore up Jewish and Westside support, but none of the five major candidates has pulled away from the pack this early in the contest.

Richard Alarcon, currently serving as state senator representing more than 800,000 Valley voters, said that his strategy for the campaign will be to remind people of the work he's already accomplished as a city councilman, state senator and as Mayor Tom Bradley's representative in the Valley.

"I think people know very well what I did at the GM plant, they know the Panorama Mall is booming as a result of what I did," Alarcon said.

Bernard Parks' campaign office could not be reached as of press time, but councilmember is hoping to charge his campaign by going after issues that the public have fisted as their priorities: public safety and transportation. On December 14, Parks released a press release saying that an FBI report had demonstrated the failure of the Hahn administration's crime fighting strategy. Police reported a 5.1 percent increase in homicides between January 1 and July 3, which Parks attributed to a shortage of officers on the city's streets.

Parks said that when he was chief in the late '90s under Mayor Riordan, homicides dropped by 45 percent, and that one of his first acts as mayor would be to reinstate the five day work week for Los Angeles police officers, who currently work a three day work week.

Earlier in the month, Parks also criticized the mayor's record on transportation, saying that even though Mayor Hahn had listed transportation concerns among his highest priorities, he had failed to improve congestion.

Hertzberg is also using transportation as a campaign issue. Hertzberg is widely credited with securing funding for the Orange Line rapid bus line, which will connect the Valley from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills when it is completed. The $330 million rapid bus line is scheduled to open in August 2005.