New mayor says he'll seek to unify Angelenos

LOS ANGELES -- The last time this happened there were horse carts in the streets rather than BMWs, the city had fewer than 6,000 people rather than more than 3 million, and Ulysses S. Grant was president.

For the first time in 133 years, the nation's second-largest city will have a Hispanic mayor. In a landslide victory, Angelenos on Tuesday elected City Councilor Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor of this increasingly Hispanic city. Hispanics now make up 47 percent of the population.

Yesterday, people began to comprehend the importance of what happened.

''I think this is really important for us Latinos and the whole city," said Alma Perez, 22, a student. ''You know, it will make us feel part of the power structure and that alone will make things change. It will show young people that the path is open now."

Some cautioned that one man could not change an entire system.

''Antonio is a smart guy, it seems, but there are a lot of smart people running this city, and he is going to have to work the politics," said Juan Gonzales, 43, who works for an insurance company. ''He can't just be the Latino mayor either. This is a big city. But I'm sure he knows that already."

Addressing supporters just before midnight Tuesday at a downtown office building, Villaraigosa, 52, said his goal as mayor would be to unify and energize this wildly diverse city.

''Our goal is to bring this city together," Villaraigosa said. ''It doesn't matter whether you grew up on the Eastside or the Westside, whether you're from South Los Angeles or Sylmar.

''It doesn't matter whether you go to work in a fancy car, or on a bus, or whether you worship in a cathedral, or a synagogue or a mosque. We are all Angelenos, and we all have a difference to make."

Villaraigosa defeated one-term Mayor James Hahn, 59 percent to 41 percent. It was the first time since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872 that Los Angeles -- then just a few years from having been part of Mexico -- has had a Hispanic mayor. Turnout, according to the city clerk's office, was just 30.5 percent.

His election put Villaraigosa on the national political map, a fact not lost on the Democratic Party. During the final weeks of the campaign, Senator John F. Kerry stumped for Villaraigosa in Los Angeles.

''What he has done is to catapult himself into the middle of the [national] arena," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political commentator and a professor at the University of Southern California. ''It is no small thing what he did."

She said the victory was enormously important for the city's Hispanics. ''For Latinos, it is a very important symbol. It signals that the Latino electorate has arrived," she said. ''He is a terrific role model and not just for Latinos. His back story is amazing," she said of his struggles from poverty to the city's top elected office.

Both the mayor-elect and Hahn are Democrats. Exit polls indicated Villaraigosa won with a broad base of support that included Hispanics, liberals, blacks, and whites. Much of the support from blacks and whites came in the form of a rejection of the 54-year-old Hahn, who defeated Villaraigosa four years ago.

Many blacks, who helped Hahn win in 2001, were angered over the mayor's decision not to rehire black Police Chief Bernard Parks. Many whites from the San Fernando Valley turned against Hahn after he worked hard to defeat an effort by the valley to secede from the city.

Hahn said he had failed to promote the positive elements of his tenure as mayor such as reduced crime rates and an improved economic climate. He said as a low-key politician he suffered from ''charisma deficit disorder."

Villaraigosa was born on the east side of Los Angeles and raised by his mother after his parents split. The family was poor. Although he never joined a gang as a youth, the mayor-elect had a spotty school record, especially during high school, which he attended intermittently.

During that time he sported a tattoo that said ''Born to raise hell," but he never really did that and ultimately graduated from UCLA. He later earned a degree from the People's College of Law, a Los Angeles law school that focuses on social issues, particularly labor organization.

After getting his law degree, Villaraigosa became an organizer for a teachers' union. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1994, where he quickly became speaker. Forced out by term limits in 2000, he ran unsuccessfully against Hahn for mayor in 2001, then was elected to the City Council in 2003. He will be sworn in as mayor July 1.