6/08/00 2:30 p.m.
City of Confused Angels
What tangled webs we weave — at least when it comes to Los Angeles politics.

By Arnold Steinberg, political strategist and author

os Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has saved the day for feuding local Democrats, who seemed unable — despite their riches — to raise the funds necessary to meet the city's $33.5 million pledge for their party's national convention here in August. Riordan, a registered Republican, included President Bill Clinton in his most recent fundraising conference call. Clinton will close the fundraising gap during an upcoming soft-money breakfast here for Al Gore.

A key figure in all this is million-dollar donor Eli Broad, again the richest man in Los Angeles now that Gary Winnick's (Nasdaq-listed) Global Crossing has seen its stock decline precipitously. (A trophy GC employee is Gov. Pete Wilson, largely ignored by George W. as he courts Mexican-American voters, now called Latinos.) Oddly, Broad, an otherwise orthodox Democrat, had previously joined another Democrat — Riordan's liberal wife, Nancy Daly — in supporting, of all things, Teddy Forstmann's national school-choice campaign.

Despite the cooperation on money, behind the scenes, maneuvering is going on among Democrats to succeed term-limited Riordan in 2001. Broad chairs the campaign of ex-State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who probably cannot defeat the frontrunner, City Attorney Jimmy Hahn, whose campaign is led by former Clinton campaign chairman Bill Wardlaw. Once managing partner of the Riordan-McKinzie law firm, Wardlaw later headed Riordan's campaign for mayor. In this incestuous city, Clinton confidant Wardlaw remains a full-time business partner with George W.'s college roommate Brad Freeman, now W.'s California finance chair. Got it?

Wardlaw, who controlled patronage for Riordan, has now split from the mayor. He refuses to back Riordan's hand-picked mayoral successor, Steve Soboroff (who pushed for taxpayer subsidies to build Staples Center, site of the Democratic convention.) So Broad (for Democrat Villaraigosa) and Riordan (for Republican Soboroff) share a common interest — limiting the convention role of the city's top Democrat, Jimmy Hahn. No wonder Riordan, a Republican, was able to replace Democratic convention operative Lucy McCoy with his own deputy mayor, Noellia Rodriguez.

All this convention maneuvering and it's barely even June! What about Riordan, who endorsed Dianne Feinstein over Michael Huffington for Senator in 1994, and Dan Lungren over Gray Davis for Governor in 1998? Riordan stayed away from Bob Dole in 1996. Will he endorse George W. this year?