Mayoral election in Los Angeles

Steve Sailer:

All the local big shots have endorsed challenger Antonio Villaraigosa, but the irony is that if Mayor Jim Hahn loses today, it will because of the single best thing he did during his term: hire superstar Police Chief William J. Bratton, the reformer who shook up the somnolent NYPD under Rudy Giuliani. He was fired by Giuliani because he was so popular he might have become a political rival.

Unfortunately, for Hahn, to give LA the police chief with the best reputation in the country, he had to not reinstate Bernard Parks, who was black. Angering the black vote unraveled the weird blacks and Republicans coalition he'd put together to beat Villaraigosa in 2001. The loss of the blacks made Hahn's re-election unlikely, which led to everybody who was anybody jumping on the Villaraigosa bandwagon.

So, while Hahn wasn't a terribly good mayor, he at least can take some bitter pride in losing for the one thing he did that was deserving of getting himself re-elected.

Ethnic nationalism in Los Angeles

When a campaign issue isn't an issue