Meyerson sees a real race

For mayor of Los Angeles, that is. Writes Harold, no Hahn man to begin with, in today's LA Weekly:

Against all odds, L.A. is going to have itself a bang-up mayoral election next year.

It’s not supposed to be this way. Once the city enacted term limits, restricting mayors to two four-year terms in office, the accepted wisdom was that there would be donnybrooks every eight years when the office came open, but that the incumbent, bolstered by an incumbent-sized bankroll, would get a free pass for his or her second term...

More fundamentally, Hahn has given Angelenos small reason to support him. Since taking office, he has been without energy or agenda. Meanwhile, investigations proceed on a number of his commissioners, who’ve been alleged to have awarded city contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.

Not surprisingly, challengers have emerged.

Sounds as if Meyerson would like to see Villaraigosa go again and face off with his one-time Sacramento roommate (they are now estranged) Bob Hertzberg. Also in LA Weekly: Nikki Finke likes David Letterman's turn to Bush bashing, and a piece written in 1999 for the paper's literary supplement by Hubert Selby Jr.