Holden’s Inside Info

It was classic Nate Holden.

Standing in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, wearing a Raiders cap and sweatshirt, the City Council’s designated loose cannon once again had made enough noise to draw his favorite sort of crowd--one equipped with cameras and notebooks.

This time, the target was not a skinless pug dog but the task of bringing a professional football franchise--in this case the Raiders--back to Los Angeles.

And, once again, it quickly became clear that Holden didn’t have the goods.

“Have you spoken to the Raiders about coming back to Los Angeles?� asked a reporter.

“I will not deny that statement,� Holden said, adding that he would not reveal whom he had spoken to or what--if anything--they promised or whether such a conversation, in fact, occurred.

Instead, Holden repeated several times that he thinks the Raiders will return to Los Angeles, that Raiders owner Al Davis is really a decent guy and that the city wants the team back.

Uh-huh.

A Los Angeles Times poll found that fewer than 10% of respondents considered themselves strong Raiders fans before the team left the city in 1994. More than half the respondents--54%--said they were not Raiders fans at all.

But back to Nate. The councilman’s news conference, packed with television crews and reporters, left others at City Hall rolling their eyes.

“It’s vintage Nate Holden,� said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is making a serious attempt to revamp Exposition Park and lure the National Football League back to Los Angeles. “He has a penchant for this.�

This is the lawmaker, after all, who became involved in a bizarre San Fernando Valley police case involving a pet pug whose skin was removed either by unnamed sadistic vandals (according to Holden) or hungry coyotes (according to the Department of Animal Regulation).

Holden is the lawmaker who lashed out at his council colleagues Laura Chick and Mike Feuer for behaving “like Westside Ku Klux Klansmen.�

Before that, he addressed a San Fernando Valley meeting on secession and was roundly jeered for his anti-secessionist comments. One audience member said his remarks were making her sick.

The list goes on. And on. And on.

A random survey of council votes found Holden dissenting on most issues. It’s little wonder, then, that last summer Holden lost his chairmanship of the council’s Transportation Committee. Council President John Ferraro stripped Holden of that position, leaving him the less prestigious Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

“He seems to enjoy being the loose cannon,� said one council aide.

“Nobody knows what Nate is talking about,� said Councilman Joel Wachs, who recently became the target of Holden’s ire by outsmarting Holden in the downtown sports arena controversy. (They were on the same side opposing the complex until Wachs secured some financial guarantees and switched sides; Holden then turned his wrath on Wachs.)

But back to the latest sports sensation. And a sensational story it was--a local television station first broadcast Tuesday evening that Holden would make a major announcement about the Raiders on Thursday. That report sparked a flurry of press calls around City Hall on Wednesday, but Holden was unusually tight-lipped--at least until Thursday morning.

“It’s going to be Al [Davis, the Raiders owner] or nothing at all,� said Holden, a former boxer whose district, by the way, does not include the Coliseum. “Because Al is going to win.�

The councilman’s predictions were eerily reminiscent of those of his former boss, the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who in 1978-79 tried to lure several professional teams to the Coliseum. At one point, Hahn even announced that he had found a team: the Baltimore Colts. Colts officials immediately denied having an interest in Los Angeles.

Now listen to Al LoCasale, the Raiders’ executive assistant, on the issue: “I said two days ago that I didn’t know what the hell it’s all about. I’ve seen nothing to change that. . . . We’ve spent the last two or three days--to the detriment of other work and to the detriment of our fan base here--in a situation that appears to be the dog chasing its tail.�

And this is what NFL spokesman Greg Aiello had to say: “We don’t know what he’s talking about.�

Ferraro, who makes Holden the butt of many jokes, said he doesn’t see a groundswell of support for the Raiders--or for any professional team. Moreover, he said he doubted whether Holden would have any secret information.

“First of all, Nate wouldn’t have any inside knowledge of Al Davis’ doings, and second of all, I don’t know if Al Davis would be welcomed back to Los Angeles,� Ferraro said. “Nate loves to tweak the press and he’s very successful at it. . . . Nate is fun to watch, if you don’t take him too seriously.�

Holden--loose, but still a cannon--blasted back at his critics.

“They don’t know what they’re talking about,� Holden said. “I’m a substantial, substantiated legislator. It’s easy to be a crybaby. . . . I know what I am talking about.�