Hahn Defeats Villaraigosa in Los Angeles Mayoral Race
City Attorney James Hahn (D) yesterday defeated former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D) 54% to 46% in the race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports (Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 6/6). During the campaign, Hahn pledged to use the "power of the office" to help the uninsured, but remained "adamant" that no city taxes should be used to address the problem. Hahn stated that getting more businesses to offer coverage for their employees and providing low-income residents better access to government-sponsored coverage were keys to reducing the ranks of the uninsured. "I think health care is a basic right, and we ought to push employers, and the city needs to have the courage to take a moral stand that we believe that if somebody (has) a full-time job that they ought to have health care," he said. Hahn also said that he would work to increase awareness about enrollment in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families through the use of schools, libraries, the Internet and private, not-for-profit community groups. In addition, Hahn pledged to call on state and federal lawmakers to increase the city's share of health dollars and said that the city's tobacco settlement funds should be used for health care services, including anti-smoking campaigns (California Healthline, 5/29).
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