L.A. Mayor: Poll Shows Close Race

A new poll out today shows that the Los Angeles Mayoral Race (March 8) is virtually a dead heat (within the margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points):

Don't Know, 31%
James Hahn (Incumbent), 21 %
Antonio Villaraigosa, 20%
Bernard Parks, 13%
Bob Hertzberg, 12%
Richard Alarcon, 3%

The poll also shows that Mayor Hahn's approval-disapproval ratings are at 44%-48%.
The most important issues to voters (with some geographical variation) were: Education (24%), Crime (21%), More police (16%) and Traffic/Congestion (14%).

BACKGROUND: The race is a rematch between Hahn and Villaraigosa from 2001's race to replace the retiring, nominally republican, billionaire mayor Richard Riordan. In that race Villaraigosa placed first in the primary, 3 points ahead of Hahn, and then lost the runoff to Hahn by 7 percentage points. Hahn's victory was seen as a postponement of the political dominance of the burgeoning Latino population by large African American turnout coupled with conservative white Republican suburban (San Fernando Valley) who combined to thwart Villaraigosa's attempt to become the first modern-era Latino mayor of the city whose official name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula." Parks was effectively fired by Hahn three years ago when the Mayor announced he would not reappoint him as Chief of Police of Los Angeles and the City Council failed to overturn the action. Hertzberg was roommates with Villaraigosa in Sacramento when they were both members of the State Assembly and succeeded him as Speaker, the third most powerful political position in California. He has been active on the internet early and is the first candidate to be airing television ads.