Riordan Chooses to Choose

Mayor Richard Riordan’s endorsement Wednesday of former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa to succeed him ended weeks of much-publicized indecision over which, if either, of the two candidates he would support in the June 5 runoff election. Whom he endorsed may matter less than the fact that he made an endorsement at all. He has sent the right message.

Like any voter, Riordan had to choose, even though he clearly was disappointed that his early favorite, San Fernando Valley businessman Steve Soboroff, didn’t make it past the primary. For the city’s leader to sit out the runoff--as he was rumored to be considering, and as too many voters do in elections--would have been exactly the wrong example.

How much clout any endorsement carries is impossible to measure. But even a few votes swayed could make a difference in a race between two liberal Democrats whose positions don’t differ all that much--a race that polls put at a dead heat, which puts Riordan’s earlier indecision in perspective. A nod from the businessman-mayor, a moderate Republican, sends a signal especially to moderate and conservative voters, including those who backed Soboroff or Joel Wachs in the primary.

These are exactly the votes both Villaraigosa and his opponent, City Atty. James K. Hahn, covet, and each had vied for the mayor’s endorsement. But as a Latino and a onetime labor activist, Villaraigosa arguably faces the tougher task in convincing white, conservative voters that he is not the candidate of Latinos and labor only--and therefore he stood to gain the most from Riordan’s backing.

This is not good news for Hahn and his supporters. But while they can, and will, argue that the mayor made the wrong choice, they can’t fault him for the example he set in choosing to choose.