Bradley Reelected--Specht, Hahn Head for Runoff

Tom Bradley, overwhelming challenger City Councilman John Ferraro throughout the city, Tuesday night became the first Los Angeles mayor elected to four full terms, while the city attorney’s race--most tumultuous of the year--appeared headed toward a June general election showdown.

City Controller James Kenneth Hahn, front runner in the city attorney battle, said “it looks like we’re in a runoff” against Lisa Specht, a Westside attorney and former television commentator making her first run for political office.

The 67-year-old mayor, who previously made history as Los Angeles’ first black mayor and California’s first black Democratic party gubernatorial nominee, is the first person ever elected to four full four-year terms as the city’s chief executive. Mayor Fletcher Bowron served four terms but one of them was for three years.

“I can rightfully claim an historic victory, an election for the fourth time with the greatest margin in the history of this city,” Bradley told cheering supporters at the Biltmore Hotel.

Ferraro said he telephoned to congratulate Bradley: “I told him we need to work together....not all is lost. We ran a good campaign. I can hold my head high as can my campaign workers.”

To win in the primary, candidates must get more than 50% of the vote. If they don’t, winners will be decided in the June 4 primary election, and as returns were counted, Hahn teetered on the brink of a runoff.

With 766 of 2,752 precincts reporting, the vote for mayor was:

Bradley: 66%

Ferraro: 32%

The vote for city attorney was:

Hahn: 52%

In the other citywide race, for city controller, Dan Shapiro, an attorney, was leading Rick Tuttle, a community college trustee, Alice Travis, a former city commissioner, and Celes King III, a bail bondsman. A June runoff appeared likely.

Fog delayed the ballot count, grounding helicopters that usually carry in the ballots from polling places in West Los Angeles and San Pedro. The city clerk’s office ordered the ballots transported in by car.

Another delay was caused by the counting of absentee ballots. Overwhelmed by a record 35,000 absentee ballots, City Clerk Elias Martinez said that a tentative decision was made to stop counting them when regular ballots began arriving. As a result, he said, about 10,000 to 12,000 absentees might not be counted until today, potentially leaving close races unresolved.

Those technical problems caused no early evening concern at the Bradley headquarters at the Biltmore Hotel, where several hundred supporters filled the Crystal Ballroom. High turnouts in black areas, where the black mayor is a favorite, as well as other Bradley strongholds, buoyed early spirits. Citywide turnout neared the 40% mark, slightly higher than the previous mayoral primary in 1981.

Bradley, himself, relaxed in a suite upstairs with his wife and daughter, watching the Dodgers--his wife’s great favorite--lose their season opener at Houston. Obviously pleased, he told one supporter, Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), this was the first time he had ever won the absentees, Torres said.

Confident when voting this morning at the prospect of becoming Los Angeles’ first four-term mayor, he told reporters, “I will be very pleased to be part of history.”

If the first returns were any indication, the mayor was headed for the kind of victory some of his supporters hoped would vault him back into a top position in statewide politics and give him first claim on the Democratic Party’s 1986 gubernatorial nomination.

Bradley narrowly lost to Republican Gov. George Deukmejian in 1982 and since then his detractors in the Democratic Party have been pushing other potential candidates, saying Bradley had no chance in a rematch.

While Bradley has said he has “no plans” to run for governor, he refused to rule out the possibility and his campaign staff worked hard this year to repair 1982 weaknesses, especially a disappointing turnout in black areas that year for the mayor.

After looking at the absentee ballots, Hahn declined to predict a primary victory, saying only that “it’s clear that we are going to finish first.”

Specht said she was “delighted” with early returns and vowed “we’re going to do it in the general.”

Specht supporter Mickey Kantor, longtime Democratic political leader, said he was “very encouraged” by the Specht showing in absentee ballots. Specht campaign manager Robert Thomson said he had figured Hahn would get around 66% of the absentee ballots but he received only about 50%. Hahn’s father, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, said the campaign may have erred by not concentrating more on absentee ballots.

The mayoral and city attorney races offered a sharp contrast.

Bradley started far ahead in the polls and no matter what Ferraro did, he could not seem to catch the mayor. The city attorney contest, on the other hand, was unpredictable even from the beginning and became completely unfathomable with the 11th-hour withdrawal of Murray Kane, an attorney specializing in redevelopment law, and Deputy City Attys. Charles Zinger and Betsy Mogul.

There was also a contrast on the styles of the two contests. Even though Bradley consistently appeared to be the winner in the polls, sharp differences developed between him and his foe on important issues and they attacked each other in a personal manner. Specht and Hahn, on the other hand, refrained from personal attacks until the very end. And, rather than differing on the issues much, each devoted attention to portraying themselves as the best municipal prosecutor. Major substantive differences did not emerge.

Ferraro began the campaign with a clear agenda.

He promised an increase in the Police Department with no tax hike, contrasting himself to Bradley, who backs a 1,200-officer boost financed by a property tax increase.

Ferraro advocated a light rail system, to be built along freeways, another contrast to Bradley, who backed the Metro Rail subway project, designed to connect downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

Yet, after that start and an intensive early concentration on the San Fernando Valley, where Ferraro hoped to get substantial support, the challenger seemed to falter.

He assailed Bradley on some of his appointments and attacked him for his support of downtown redevelopment and his unexpected switch in favor of Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s proposal to drill for oil on the Pacific Palisades.

But Ferraro’s long support for downtown redevelopment and the oil drilling weakened his attacks.

Although the field was crowded at the beginning, the election for city attorney wound up pitting Hahn, a former deputy city attorney who has been city controller for the last four years, against attorney Specht, a political newcomer with the backing of influential Westside liberal Democrats.

Both Hahn and Specht had been anticipating a runoff, so they both adhered to a high-road style of campaigning for the last three months. For the most part, both Hahn and Specht avoided direct criticism of each other. Hahn stressed his citywide administrative and prosecution experience while Specht promoted four crime-related issues that had generated favorable publicity for former City Atty. Ira Reiner, who endorsed her.

But the complexion of the race changed dramatically last week when the three candidates who Specht had hoped would help her force Hahn into a runoff unexpectedly withdrew and endorsed Hahn. Suddenly faced with a two-way race, Specht abandoned her issues-oriented campaign style and went on the attack last Friday, charging that Hahn’s influential father had engineered an endorsement of young Hahn by his principal detractor, Kane.

On Monday, Specht resumed her attack during a radio talk show. Still predicting a runoff despite poll results showing Hahn close to a primary election victory, Specht said that voters would reject the “downtown political bosses” and elect her. Hahn, meanwhile, said that Specht is merely a tool of her Westside supporters who are trying to take over City Hall.