Yaroslavsky and Braude Support Woo for Council

On Thursday, Los Angeles City Councilmen Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky did something that members of the city’s small, rather collegial governing body have not done in at least a quarter of a century.

They endorsed a challenger over an incumbent in a council race.

As they discussed their reasons for supporting Michael Woo, the challenger in the 13th District race, over veteran Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson, they made it clear that spite was one of several factors that led them to their break with tradition.

“Peggy Stevenson has been a reliable vote for special interests and City Hall lobbyists, to the detriment of my district and to the detriment of the city,” Yaroslavsky said.

“Mrs. Stevenson is not one of the hard workers on the council,” Braude said. “She is not one who has initiated anything or contributed to the debate.”

By way of justifying their harsh words, Braude and Yaroslavsky insisted that it was Stevenson who first breached council etiquette by crossing them on sensitive issues in their districts.

Vote Against High-Rise Ban

For Yaroslavsky, the straw that broke the camel’s back was Stevenson’s vote last year against a ban on high-rise construction in Westwood in his district. For Braude, it was her vote in favor of Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s controversial oil-drilling project on the edge of Santa Monica Bay at the western edge of his district. In years past, she had voted with Braude to block the project.

“Not only did she flip-flop,” Braude said, “she did so without having discussed her concerns with me in advance. This deviated from the long-established council custom of supporting, or at least consulting with, a council member on an issue in his district.”

It is true that council members usually bow to the wishes of a colleague when it comes to matters in his or her district.

“It is a tradition we follow, although it is not always observed,” said Council President Pat Russell.

However, the much longer and stronger tradition, said Russell, who is backing Stevenson, is the custom of council members’ refraining from openly opposing an incumbent.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who has been on the council nearly 25 years, longer than anyone else, said he cannot remember another time when an incumbent was publicly opposed by other members of the council.

Bernardi, who has often been an ally of Braude and Yaroslavsky, said he does not approve of what the two are doing.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” he said. “Members of the council ought to remain neutral. We are elected by districts, and the people who vote in those districts ought to be the ones who choose.”

Neither Yaroslavsky nor Braude is regarded as the kind of maverick likely to trample on tradition. Both are members of the council faction, which includes Stevenson, that is loyal to Mayor Tom Bradley on most citywide policy matters.

Bradley’s ‘Flip-Flop’

Bernardi noted that Braude supported Bradley’s recent campaign for reelection despite Bradley’s “flip-flop” on Occidental being far more important to the success of the oil-drilling application than Stevenson’s vote.

But if two environmental liberals like Braude and Yaroslavsky were going to turn their backs on tradition, Woo’s campaign provided a tempting opportunity.

With a graduate degree in city planning and endorsements from a host of environmental groups, Woo has made opposition to unruly development a major theme of his two campaigns against Stevenson. He is in his second runoff with her after losing in 1981.

Sitting on either side of Woo at a press conference Thursday, the two older men heaped high praise on the 33-year-old candidate they hope will be a council ally after the June 4 election.

‘Idealism, Vision, Energy’

“He reminds me of when I first ran for office,” said Yaroslavsky. “He is idealistic, he has vision and he has the energy to work 18 hours a day.”

Equally important, Woo apparently looks like a winner to Braude and Yaroslavsky.

For several days before their endorsements, the two council members were in close touch with members of Woo’s campaign staff who had been polling the district five nights a week and whose results reportedly show Woo holding a slight but steady lead.

“It was a risky thing that they (Braude and Yaroslavsky) did,” said a source who works with the council. “You know they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think Peggy could be beat.”

For Woo, who would become the first Asian member of the City Council, there must have been a moment of quiet exultation, while he sat between the two councilmen, when he realized that after two campaigns and five years of waiting, a couple of insiders had picked him to win. “What you’re seeing here,” Woo told the assembled reporters, “is a historic breakthrough.”