From a City News Service story this evening:

About two dozen African American political, religious and community leaders announced a dual endorsement today of two City Council members who are running for mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa and Bernard Parks.

The group includes the Rev. Cecil "Chip'' Murray and Bishop Charles E. Blake, both of whom endorsed Mayor Jim Hahn in 2001, and Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack, who did not endorse a candidate last time. Councilman Martin Ludlow and former Assemblyman Herb Wesson, who are considered Villaraigosa allies, are also part of the endorsing group.

Mack said he broke his own tradition by supporting candidates in the March 8 election because of his "dissatisfaction'' with Hahn and a "strong conviction that we just need new leadership.''

"I think that Mayor Hahn brings a leadership style that's almost running in place going nowhere, and that's not good enough for Los Angeles,'' said Mack, who sat on a committee Hahn assembled to monitor the recent Stanley Miller investigations.

* Thursday stories: "It's a big blow to Mayor Hahn," Kerman Maddox, a KCAL-9 commentator and political consultant who is supporting Parks, said in the Times. "It indicates a further erosion of his support in a community that historically has been his strongest base." Daily News, Daily Breeze.

Also: Latinos not as excited this time—yet—the Times finds...Council diverts funds to hire police...In the New Republic, author and urban affairs commentator Joel Kotkin writes, "Hahn, is dull, bland, a shameless servant of labor, and under investigation for widespread corruption at the highest levels of his administration. In short, he is a mediocrity....And yet, despite his shortcomings, and despite the fact that in early polls he has garnered the support of barely one in five voters, Hahn still has a chance to win....Whether he triumphs will tell us a lot about the direction Los Angeles is headed; it may also tell us whether the momentum of the '90s urban reform movements has really been lost forever." Kotkin has advised Hertzberg and calls him "arguably the biggest threat to Hahn--and the best hope for urban reform."...Orange County Republican Adam Probolsky is out with a poll showing Villaraigosa at 22.6%, Hahn 21%, Hertzberg 16.4%, Parks 9% and 24.9% undecided. The numbers are out of whack with other polls and the margin of error is a whopping plus or minus 5.7%.