Stein Wins Riordan’s Endorsement

Seeking to bolster the campaign of a former aide, Mayor Richard Riordan on Thursday endorsed Ted Stein’s candidacy for Los Angeles city attorney.

Riordan said he had planned to stay neutral in Stein’s battle against three-term incumbent City Atty. James K. Hahn. But the mayor said he has grown disheartened with Hahn’s lack of support for the mayor’s charter reform effort.

A Hahn campaign spokesman said he was puzzled by the comment because Hahn agrees with the mayor on charter reform.

Riordan described Stein, his former senior policy advisor and Airport Commission president, as a “tough, focused and energetic leader--the ideal leader to save our taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and to crack down on crime.”

Stein, who trails Hahn by a wide margin in the polls, was ebullient. He and a beaming Riordan exchanged high fives at a news conference in front of one of the Police Department’s busiest divisions, Rampart, west of downtown on Temple Street.

Joining them were representatives of two police unions--the Los Angeles Police Protective League and the department’s Command Officers Assn.--which also have endorsed Stein.

Stein said he was “strengthened immeasurably” by the support of law enforcement officials and the popular mayor, who appears to be cruising in his bid for reelection in a race against state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

A San Fernando Valley lawyer and real estate developer, Stein remains virtually unknown among the electorate at large, polls show. But he is well-financed and is said to be prepared to launch a television ad campaign next week in preparation for the April 8 primary.

Hahn, who said he heard that the mayor planned to endorse Stein a few hours earlier, attributed the mayor’s decision to the pull of friendship.

“I understand personal friendships,” Hahn said. “I understand Ted and the mayor go back years and Ted was part of his administration. I view this endorsement in that context.”

Hahn added that he was “sure it was going to happen at some point even though the mayor had told me he was going to stay neutral.”

Hahn downplayed the importance of Riordan’s endorsement and said Stein’s candidacy was “drowning. I think this is one way he thinks he can finish in a respectable finish,” the city attorney said.

Stein sought to preempt concerns that he would be a mayoral yes-man if he were elected to run the city attorney’s office, which acts as the lawyer for city agencies and prosecutes misdemeanors.

“The mayor and I will not always agree on every issue,” Stein said, “but I will always seek to be a force for progress and I will do what is right for law enforcement and the taxpayers.”

Riordan, a onetime venture capitalist and multimillionaire, personally funded the effort to put charter reform on the April ballot in the form of Proposition 8. It calls for election of a commission to rewrite the city’s 1920s-era charter and submit a new version to voters. Fearing that Riordan’s aim is to give future mayors more power at its expense, the City Council has appointed its own charter reform commission.

Hahn spokesman Matt Middlebrook said Hahn supports Proposition 8. But Riordan accused Hahn of having unsuccessfully tried to keep Proposition 8 off the ballot.