District Attorney Steve Cooley just jumped into the fray over Antonio Villaraigosa's $1,000 campaign checks from workers (and their families) at two Florida firms that want to sip from the LAX concessions trough. Cooley's office issued a statement, and balances it by pointing out that Hahn contributions also have been targeted:

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced today that his office has opened a preliminary inquiry into questionable out-of-state contributions to the campaign of mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa.

"In response to extensive media coverage, I believe an inquiry is warranted and have instructed our Public Integrity Division to take the necessary first steps," Cooley said.

Cooley noted that PID still has pending two cases about alleged money laundering involving the 2001 campaign of Mayor James Hahn.

One involves Westside developer Mark Abrams for laundering contributions to Hahn's campaign. The matter against attorney Pierce O'Donnell is currently pending in court. He is charged with laundering $25,000 in donations to Hahn's campaign by reimbursing employees and associates.

Villaraigosa's campaign can't be happy today. They've got John Kerry coming into town for a Rally in the Valley tomorrow, but Villaraigosa's big theme that he is Mr. Clean while ethical clouds swirl around Hahn suddenly sounds a mite stretched. Villaraigosa can accurately claim that no wrongdoing has been proven and nobody charged — but that's what Hahn has been saying all along about the investigations into his commissioners and deputy mayors. This all serves to highlight how lucrative — and political — those contracts to run a business at LAX can be. Those are the kinds of contracts (among others) that the pay-to-play investigations into Hahn's airport commissioners are looking at. Also today, after pledging to return $47,000 in Florida donations, Villaraigosa called on Hahn to return $32,700 in contributions from executives at the PR firm Fleishman-Hillard.

Meanwhile: If Villaraigosa hangs on to win, "Spring Street gnomes" think Bob Hertzberg is a good bet to chair the transition team, Joe Scott blogs today.

* Speaking of Hertzberg: His BigIdeas4LA website and blog didn't last long. Nothing new that I can see since April 15.

** Saturday print stories: Cooley tells the Times, "There may be money-laundering issues. Sometimes information from an investigation opens a criminal filing, sometimes it doesn't. But we still have to do the investigation to gather the facts." Villaraigosa on Friday spoke more openly about the controversy, saying "The difference between me and Jim Hahn is I take responsibility for my actions...I want to demonstrate to everybody that my dealings are going to be honest and forthright. I've got to maintain a higher standard, and that's what I'm doing here." Times, Daily News, Daily Breeze