Ferraro Dons a Republican Look : Democrat Stresses His Conservative Side in Bid for Mayor

Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro, a Democrat who opens his campaign for mayor today, has put together a team with a distinctly Republican look in hope of gaining an upset victory by emphasizing his conservative side.

Ferraro, trying to defeat Mayor Tom Bradley’s bid for a fourth term, is scheduled to announce his candidacy at a morning press conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club. Then he heads to the area that offers him his greatest potential--the San Fernando Valley--for a luncheon with reporters.

“We look to the Valley, to the areas where President Reagan won,” said Jay Grodin, a downtown Los Angeles attorney active in Ferraro fund raising. But he also said “there’s no question he’s the underdog.”

Grodin is one of 10 chairmen for a Feb. 21 fund-raising dinner for Ferraro. Like several of them, Grodin is a Republican. In addition, Ferraro’s campaign manager, Ron Smith, has represented several Republican candidates, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana.

His professional fund-raiser, Joyce Valdez, is considered by politicians as one of the best in the business for the GOP and is part of Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson’s political team.

Ferraro’s pollster, Arnold Steinberg, is also associated with Republicans.

It all shows that Bradley, the Democratic Party’s 1982 gubernatorial nominee and a longtime party leader, has locked up Democratic financial and political leader ship support in a city that is predominantly Democratic in registration and supported Democrat Walter F. Mondale over Reagan, 503,393 to 404,232, in last November’s election.

Ferraro is also a Democrat, but has a more conservative image than Bradley on some issues, such as civil liberties, and has not been as active in party affairs. Although the mayor’s post is a nonpartisan office, partisan political affiliations are important in highly politicized Los Angeles.

Another sign of the power of the incumbent mayor is the absence of downtown Los Angeles corporate executives from the Ferraro dinner committee. While these executives, mostly Republican, tended to oppose Bradley for governor, they have supported for mayor the man who has backed downtown high-rise development and the Metro Rail subway.

“I think it means that traditional Bradley supporters, even those who support John privately, are reluctant to do it openly,” said Republican Evelle J. Younger, former state attorney general and his party’s 1978 nominee for governor.

Younger is also on the Ferraro dinner committee, as is Margaret Brock, an influential Republican leader and fund-raiser who co-chaired the California Finance Committee for Reagan-Bush last year. In 1980, Brock attended a major Bradley mayoral fund-raising dinner.

Another well known Republican on the committee is Celese King III, a GOP black leader.

Also on the committee is an old Ferraro friend, Neil Papiano, an attorney whose clients include Hollywood Park race track and who has raised money for such diverse politicians as Sen. Wilson and Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles)

Fund-raiser Valdez was asked if the presence of so many Republicans indicated that Republican Gov. George Deukmejian was putting GOP forces into the Los Angeles battle to weaken the mayor in case Bradley wants to run against him for governor again. “I haven’t picked up the phone or called any of Duke’s supporters,” she said. “I haven’t been approached by anyone, period, except the candidate.”

The $1.5-million campaign fund Valdez seeks to raise will finance a citywide campaign that she terms “an uphill battle, a tough race.”

In choosing the Valley for his second campaign appearance of the day, Ferraro, in the view of campaign financial official Grodin, is choosing an area of great opportunity.

Other political sources agree with Grodin that the Reagan-Mondale vote last November along with votes in the Howard Jarvis-backed property tax measure help point out the Valley as a potential strong point for Ferraro. Bradley has carried the Valley only once, against the weak opposition of former Mayor Sam Yorty in 1981.

A study of the vote and interviews with political sources pinpoint these City Council districts as Ferraro possibilities:

- 1st District in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, represented by Howard Finn. Reagan beat Mondale in this partly rural, partly blue-collar, traditionally conservative area 33,804 to 22,594, and the Jarvis measure, Proposition 36, badly beaten citywide, carried here 30,789 to 23,375.

- 2nd District in the Santa Monica Mountains and adjacent parts of the Valley, represented by Joel Wachs. Mondale barely won and Proposition 36, while losing, did better than in the city as a whole.

- 3rd District, the West Valley area represented by Joy Picus, which supported Reagan 48,300 to 29,598. Proposition 36, however, lost by 11,000.

- 7th District, the mid-Valley area represented by Ernani Bernardi. This district, anchored by Van Nuys, backed Reagan and Proposition 36.

- Outside the Valley, the 4th District, the mid-Wilshire district that Ferraro represents. The fact that Ferraro is a local politician and the district, which includes rich Hancock Park, went for Mondale by only 18,870 to 16,046 makes this a Ferraro target area.

- Grodin and campaign manager Smith said Ferraro needs more than the Valley to win. Grodin pinpointed the Westside as an area of opportunity.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s 5th District, heavily Democratic, solidly Mondale and dominated by the powerful political organization of Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman, is considered strong for Bradley. But the 11th District of Councilman Marvin Braude might offer Ferraro some hope. Bradley has always carried it, but Reagan defeated Mondale 47,220 to 44,168, indicating a chance for a more conservative approach.

The district includes Pacific Palisades, and Bradley’s impending decision on whether to veto an ordinance permitting oil drilling there could be important. A veto would help the mayor in the Palisades. (Not vetoing the drilling project, however, would not hurt Bradley, as Ferraro voted for it.)

Two other areas where Ferraro might concentrate, according to political observers, is the harbor area, where Bradley’s harbor political appointments have been criticized, and Latino East Los Angeles, where the mayor is favored but where Ferraro is making an effort.