10 Are Running in a 2-Man Race : 8 Minor Candidates Also Have Eyes on L.A. Mayor’s Job

Bus driver Jim Thompson says he was inspired to run for mayor of Los Angeles by “the Almighty Father, my pastor and (news commentator) George Putnam.”

Eileen Anderson, the “singing-dancing candidate,” contends that giant fans could rid the city of smog, and she pledges that if elected mayor, she will not run for governor in 1986.

Retired policeman Walter (Buck) Buchanan vows that even if he fails to unseat Mayor Tom Bradley and suffers his 13th straight election defeat, he won’t quit running. “What’s the Guinness record?” he asks defiantly.

They are among the eight lesser-known mayoral candidates in the April 9 primary, diverse personalities (ranging from a baker to a retired stripteaser) representing diverse interests (from the Socialist Worker’s Party to Lyndon Larouche’s ultraconservative party to personal crusades).

Little Recognition

All share one problem: Lack of recognition.

When the League of Women Voters invited the mayoral hopefuls to speak in Universal City recently, Bradley and his main challenger, City Councilman John Ferraro, were placed in one hall for their two-man debate, the rest in a smaller room.

“Our room wasn’t even set up for us,” recalls Sal Genovese, another aspirant. “It was as though no one knew we had prepared speeches. People just wandered in, talking loudly and drinking. It was a circus.”

Judy Huffman, a financial consultant representing Larouche’s National Democratic Policy Committee, believes there is a “conspiracy” to deny media coverage to the un-Bradleys and un-Ferraros. Oddly enough, cable television coverage of Huffman’s speech that night was marred by technical difficulties.

Are Posters Legal?

Another mayor hopeful, William Loska, a baker, claims that Ferraro and Bradley posters are pasted on numerous utility poles in violation of a city ordinance.

Meanwhile, the eight novices (some, like Buchanan, veteran novices) continue to scratch for votes, each in his or her own way.

Anderson’s “campaign headquarters” are on the corner of Main Street and Temple Avenue, where she has been dancing every weekday afternoon for 10 years. She is protesting what she says was mistreatment by Secret Service agents when she attempted to dance an Irish jig near the late U.S. Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey at Farmer’s Market.

Clad in green leotards (she shed her bikini after protests from other women), she warbles her platform while dancing on the sidewalk. All together, now:

“Dig a hole in the mountains/ Put a tunnel through/ Put some wind behind it/ And blow some fresh air through/ Blow away the smoggy-og/ Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

‘Unusual Group’

Venus de Milo, the former stripper (formerly known as Miss Bareless), is a serious advocate of rent control who resents being compared to Sally Stanford, the madam-turned-mayor of Sausalito.

Genovese, co-owner of a drug treatment facility, styles himself as “the alternative” but complains he has been “lumped in with the others (minor candidates), and they’re a very . . . uh . . . unusual group.”

Thompson, who favors a more bombastic style, makes statements like: “A vote for me is a vote to clean up the streets. Not voting for me means you like to be treated like an animal.”

Thompson, who decided to run after speaking on Putnam’s radio show, qualified as a write-in candidate by paying a $300 fee. (The others qualified for the ballot either by presenting a petition with 500 signatures and $300 or by coming up with 1,000 signatures.)

Thompson, Genovese, Loska and Buchanan see crime as the No. 1 issue.

‘Dirty Elements’

Huffman, who claims the Democrats are controlled by “dirty elements,” admits approval--but puzzlement--over the decision of Bradley, a Democrat, to back oil drilling by Occidental Petroleum in Pacific Palisades. “I can’t figure out what the lefties are up to,” she says.

Socialist Labor’s James Harris, an unemployed auto worker, is campaigning against U.S. intervention in Central America. (An internationally minded mayor would not be unusual for Los Angeles. Sam Yorty used to give President Lyndon B. Johnson advice regularly on how to conduct the Vietnam War.)

Few of the also-runners seem confident of victory.

“People seem reluctant to put my bumper stickers on their cars,” Genovese admits. “Even after I tell them that they’re made of a new material and are easy to take off.”

“If I can just shake up people a little, that will be enough,” Buchanan says.

The candidates scoff at the possibility that they might be unqualified--especially in California.

“The first time I ran for mayor,” says Anderson, who is 0-11 in elections so far, “we had an ‘acting’ governor (Ronald Reagan) and a dancing (U.S.) senator (former actor George Murphy). Why not a singing mayor?”