Bradley, Ferraro Gird for Their Only Debate

For weeks, City Councilman John Ferraro has been hammering away at Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in a variety of ways, trying out a number of themes that might give him an upset victory.

He has attacked Bradley’s appointees, accused him of being weak in his support of the Police Department, blasted him for slowness in cleaning up a major toxic dump and criticized him for favoring campaign contributors in downtown redevelopment projects.

But still, in the view of supporters and according to the findings of polls, he remains far behind. The Teichner Poll of 400 residents, taken for KABC on Monday night, had the challenger trailing 61% to 21%, with 18% undecided. And that survey came after four days of a substantial diet of Ferraro television commercials on popular shows.

Tonight, Ferraro gets a chance to put all his attacks together in his only debate with the mayor in a way he hopes will catch fire with the voters.

At 8 p.m. in the ballroom of the Sheraton Premier Hotel, before guests paying $60 each, Ferraro and Bradley will debate for an hour in a meeting sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

Unfortunately for Ferraro, the debate will be seen live only on eight cable television systems--Group W, CommuniCom, Copley/Colony, Jack Barry, King Video, Sammons, Times Mirror and Valley Cable. The only live commercial broadcast will be on radio stations KABC and KFWB. KCSN-FM, the Cal State, Northridge, station, will also carry it live.

And, Ferraro aides fear that a cumbersome format, with five panelists asking questions and Ferraro and Bradley given no more than 90 seconds to answer a question and 30 seconds for rebuttal, will hurt the councilman’s ability to launch a strong attack against the mayor. Ferraro wanted more debates, held in television studios so commercial stations would cover them. But Bradley, unwilling to give his challenger publicity, declined.

Because of the format, Ferraro campaign manager Ron Smith and other aides are giving their candidate three hours of preparation aimed at helping him sharpen his attacks so he can effectively make his points in the short time allotted.

For his part, Bradley will spend three hours with aides, going over his record and campaign issues.

Despite the limitations of the debate, the Ferraro camp is hoping that a sharp attack will generate good news coverage. Aides hope that a debate success, combined with the television commercials, will add up to a successful final drive that will begin to make up his vote deficit.

“The real campaign starts now,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, one of Ferraro’s major supporters in the San Fernando Valley, the middle-class, suburban area that contains a third of the city’s residents and is the place where Ferraro hopes that his conservative-oriented campaign will catch fire.

“It’s not probable he will win,” Bernson said. “It is certainly not a sure thing. But I think there is a possibility that this could be a close race before it is over.”

The Teichner Poll, the latest survey of the race, gives only slight comfort to Ferraro.

It marks a change from a Teichner Poll of two weeks ago that showed Bradley leading 69% to 19%, with 12% undecided. Thus, according to Teichner, Ferraro, trailing about 50% two weeks ago, now is only 40% behind.

According to some polling experts, the Teichner sample is too small to be conclusive as to whether Ferraro has actually moved up by that amount. But campaign manager Smith said: “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Even if Smith is correct, said Stephen Teichner, director of the poll, the findings show that Ferraro has a long way to go.

He said that the last two Bradley opponents, Gov. George Deukmejian in the 1982 gubernatorial race and Sam Yorty in the 1981 mayoral contest, each got about 35% of the vote in the city.

“There is an anti-Tom Bradley vote of 35% in the city,” Teichner said. “Ferraro is running behind that standard.”