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2001 Flashback: Following Villaraigosa's Trail

By Jeremy Rosenberg
March 2, 2009
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Barring a huge last-minute surge of Walter Moore supporters, the outcome of today's city of Los Angeles mayoral race would seem quite clear.

That wasn't always the case for the soon-to-be second-termer, Antonio Villaraigosa.

Back in spring, 2001, he of course ran and lost, to Jim Hahn.

That means its been eight years since TTLA's byliner wrote this, for the old "Secret City" column on latimes.com.

The piece was about following then candidate-Villaraigosa's campaign schedule for a day -- even on a day Villaraigosa wasn't on that trail. Twelve stops, eleven hours, one bad bowling-as-politics metaphor and 172 odometer miles later, the piece concluded, "Hey, there's always 2005."

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