Controller Race Tests Strategies : Shapiro Opens TV Blitz, Tuttle Pursues Direct Mail

Los Angeles city controller candidate Dan Shapiro opened a television advertising blitz Tuesday and rival Rick Tuttle answered with direct mail ads in a test of differing campaign strategies as the race entered its final week.

Shapiro, a Studio City attorney, opened a nearly weeklong $100,000 television campaign that he hopes will duplicate his success in the April primary, in which he finished first in a field of four controller candidates.

Meanwhile, Tuttle, a community college trustee, sent out the first of what is expected to be a blitz of direct mail this week aimed at promoting his campaign to become the city’s top financial officer in next Tuesday’s general election.

“We will have a more intensive mail campaign than we had in the primary,” said Ann Hollister, Tuttle’s campaign manager and a member of the Berman-D’Agostino political consultant firm that specializes in such targeted mailings.

Hundreds of thousands of pieces of pro-Tuttle material are expected to arrive in mailboxes over the next few days, nearly all of it earmarked for voters most likely to go to the polls on June 4.

Among the first batch of letters were those from Mayor Tom Bradley and the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

“Without question, Rick Tuttle is the best qualified candidate for controller--the office which watches how our money is spent,” Bradley said in a letter to fellow Democrats who had supported his successful reelection bid last April.

“I need him, and need him with me in City Hall,” Bradley added in the computerized letter that went out to 200,000 households.

Hollister said the letter is similar to postcards, slate cards and other material that will be arriving in the mail from such other Tuttle backers as Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, a former controller and city attorney.

Those political endorsements have become the cornerstone of the Tuttle camp, whose consulting firm of Berman-D’Agostino handles political campaigns for the Berman-Waxman organization, an influential Westside group led by Democratic Reps. Howard Berman of Studio City and Henry Waxman of Los Angeles.

Although the Berman-D’Agostino firm has apparently eschewed television for the mailbox campaign, its counterpart in the controller’s race, Winner, Taylor & Associates, is depending on television to elect Shapiro in his first attempt at public office.

“I think it’s a very close election, extremely close,” said Rick Taylor, Shapiro’s campaign manager.

Bowing to the economic restraints of a campaign that has both sides struggling to raise money, the 30-second Shapiro spot is an edited version of the television commercial he used in the primary.

Emphasizing his role two years ago as head of the mayor’s ad hoc Committee on Finance and Budget, Shapiro has sought to establish his credibility with the electorate in a relatively low-profile race.

Letter of Support

Even as he pins his hopes on television, Shapiro, who has the backing of such politically conservative supporters as Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) and Councilmen Ernani Bernardi and John Ferraro, also mailed an endorsement letter to Republican voters from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Antonovich’s support for Shapiro, a Democrat, triggered a critical note in Bradley’s letter: The mayor reminded his fellow Democrats that Tuttle has been endorsed by the county Democratic Party and that his opponent has the backing of Antonovich, the head of the state Republican Party.

Although the controller’s office is nonpartisan, about 63% of the city’s nearly 1.4 million registered voters are Democrats. Fewer than 20% of the voters are expected to turn out.

With the battle for the third-highest citywide office shaping up as a test of campaign tactics and strategies, both candidates have spent most of their time raising money.

In the latest campaign reports, Shapiro reported $94,798 in loans and contributions, and Tuttle reported raising $120,254 from March 24 through May 18.

Most of Shapiro’s money--$50,000--came in loans from family and friends; Tuttle received $25,000 in loans, including $20,000 from a campaign committee headed by Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles).

Campaign Contributors

Among Tuttle’s major contributors were Bruce Corwin, president of Metropolitan Theatres Inc. and Tuttle’s former college roommate, $10,000; Friends of (State Sen.) David Roberti (D-North Hollywood) $2,000; Waxman’s campaign committee, $5,000, and various city employee organizations, which gave a total of $6,500.

Shapiro received a $2,000 contribution from the Bench Ad Co., an advertising firm; $1,500 from Pacific Utility Inc.; $1,000 from Union Oil Co., and $5,000 from James R. Burroughs, an executive with the First Gray Line Corp.