It was probably as much Dick Riordan’s paternalism as his lingering aversion to City Attorney Jim Hahn that birthed the ultimate endorsement of the 2001 Los Angeles mayor’s race. Distant as they might be on pure ideology, and as contrastingly beguiling and unbeguiling personally, Antonio Villaraigosa and Richard Riordan, the up-from-poverty legislator and the well-born investor, can both claim maverick standing against the City Hall hierarchy. Jim Hahn is that hierarchy’s standard-bearer.But something else really clinched it, as Dick and Tonio did their endorsement show-and-tell outside City Hall last Wednesday. This was the fleeting pretense that Villaraigosa was Dick Riordan’s hand-picked successor, his political foster son. This historical imposture not only authorizes Riordan’s ostensible role as the Marshal Dillon who cleaned up Dodge City so that a bright young local sheriff might run things in peace. It also legitimizes Villaraigosa as the strong man’s pick for new mayor.
Source: Antonio’s Line | L.A. Weekly