Stevenson, Woo Dig In for 2nd Runoff Battle

With the Los Angeles city primary barely over, Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson and challenger Michael Woo, who are locked in a second runoff battle, braced themselves Wednesday for another heated general election campaign much like the bitter contest they waged four years ago.

Woo, who finished second to Stevenson in the 13th Council District race Tuesday, was back campaigning Wednesday at a Hollywood senior citizens’ center, where he told reporters that he feared that “racial innuendoes”--which marked the 1981 contest--could surface once again.

Woo, whose Chinese ancestry became a campaign issue four years ago, claimed Stevenson has tried “to tap into a reservoir of racial tension in this district” and said he was prepared for a similar assault this time.

Scoffs at Notion

But Stevenson, when asked about Woo’s comments, scoffed at the notion.

“People who know me, know I’m not a racist. . . . We’re going to run a positive, aggressive campaign,” she said.

The Stevenson-Woo rematch looms as the most volatile of two runoff campaigns for city offices in the June 4 general election. The other runoff involves Studio City lawyer Dan Shapiro and community college trustee Rick Tuttle in the race for city controller, a job that was vacated when City Atty.-elect James Kenneth Hahn chose to run for that office.

In the other council races Tuesday, incumbents fared well. Councilmen Howard Finn, Ernani Bernardi and Gilbert Lindsay easily turned back their opponents. Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores won over a write-in candidate and Councilmen Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky ran unopposed. In the West San Fernando Valley’s 3rd Council District, Councilwoman Joy Picus captured 56% of the vote to survive a strong challenge from five opponents.

But in the most closely watched council race, voters in the 13th District--which covers Hollywood and Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Echo Park--split their votes among six candidates as Stevenson fell short of the majority she needed to avoid a runoff.

The outcome was reminiscent of four years ago when Woo stunned Stevenson, who has represented the district since 1975, by pushing her into a runoff. But Stevenson swamped Woo in the general election.

Ballot Shares

In Tuesday’s primary, Stevenson received 41.6% of the vote compared to Woo’s 34.9%. The third-leading vote-getter, math teacher Michael Linfield, garnered 13% and said he will now back Woo.

Stevenson, meanwhile, blamed a poor voter turnout.

“If the turnout had been a larger one and more in keeping with what we had expected, then there would be no runoff,” Stevenson said.

The 33-year-old Woo, an aide to State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), was elated with the results and said the general election will be an emotionally charged race.

“Emotions are going to be running high on both sides,” Woo said. “For Peggy Stevenson, it’s a life-or-death situation because what does she do if she loses? For me, it’s my second time around the track.”

And this time, Woo said, he intends to put Stevenson on the defensive.

“She was very effective last time turning the tables on me and making me the issue in the runoffs by launching into personal attacks on me and members of my family. That won’t happen this time,” he said.

Partial Focus

Stevenson, however, said the issues will focus partly on Woo. “We’re going to highlight what I have done for the district, and we’re also going to tell people who Mike Woo is and who Mike Woo isn’t,” she said.

During the primary campaign, Stevenson’s challengers sought to depict her as a lazy, ineffective council member who has allowed Hollywood to deteriorate and was too cozy with developers. Stevenson fought back with a heavy mail barrage that tried to portray Woo as a candidate of “outsiders” and favored by those too politically liberal for the district, a charge Woo said smacked of “red-baiting.”

In the controller’s race, the 38-year-old Shapiro, a Studio City lawyer, ran ahead the entire evening and finished with 36% of the vote. Tuttle, 45, a UCLA administrator, finished ahead of two other challengers with 31% to make the runoffs.

Shapiro, who put $100,000 of his own money into his campaign, used television advertisements to emerge as the front-runner while Tuttle relied heavily on a barrage of targeted mail aimed at likely voters.

Office Overshadowed

The controller’s race has been largely overshadowed by the other political contests but both candidates are banking on more media exposure and their aggressive political organizations to win office. The firm of Winner, Taylor & Associates will run Shapiro’s campaign while the Westside organization of Berman-D’Agostino will be behind Tuttle’s effort to win the third highest citywide elective office.