For most big city mayors, the response to last week’s train wreck would have been a no-brainer.

Stand in front of the cameras, express appropriate outrage, console victims and their families – election or no election, get out there and show your face.

Not Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. He kept his distance, and when he did finally arrive, his comments lacked the emotion displayed hours earlier by L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who blasted the driver of the sports utility vehicle and gave the public its first glimpse of what caused the accident.

It’s an apt metaphor for the “charisma-challenged” Hahn, who was expected to coast to a second term as mayor but now finds himself in an unexpectedly tight fight to keep his job.

Hahn’s reserved nature has led to one of the most persistent criticisms levied by his foes – that he’s disengaged, lacks a grand vision and doesn’t display a sense of passion that can motivate.

“He often gives the impression of being aloof,” acknowledges Hahn supporter Julie Butcher, general manager of Service Employees International Union Local 347, which represents some 9,000 city employees.

The 54-year-old Hahn, scion of a beloved political family, can count two major accomplishments in his first term: bringing in a police chief and keeping the city together when threatened with secession. But his administration has been bogged down by ongoing federal and county investigations into the way the city has doled out contracts.

“The irony is that this is a guy most people thought had some of the highest integrity in politics. Others may be more charismatic or energetic, but he had that perception of honesty,” said George Kieffer, former chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and Hahn’s policy and economic adviser during the early days of his administration.

All four of his major challengers have pounded him on the theme of corruption at City Hall. A runoff is virtually assured, and if he loses it would mark the first time an incumbent L.A. mayor has been ousted since Sam Yorty lost to Tom Bradley 32 years ago.

For now, however, Hahn still remains the man to beat. He learned the art of politics at the side of his father, the ever-popular county supervisor from L.A.’s south side, Kenneth Hahn. And he’s seemed particularly vigorous – even feisty – in recent weeks as the campaign has come alive.

The fact that he’s won six straight citywide elections, more than any politician in recent history, is also part of the equation.

‘Politically Savvy’

“Jim has always been a little more reserved and maybe even shy,” said Janice Hahn, the mayor’s sister and a city councilwoman from San Pedro. “He seemed to take after his mother, while people say I’m more like my dad in personality. But he’s very politically savvy – he got that from his father.”