Stevenson-Woo Race Turning Mean : Councilwoman’s Campaign Mailer Sparks Angry Reaction

The Los Angeles City Council race between Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson and former legislative aide Michael Woo turned mean Friday as the Woo camp reacted angrily to a Stevenson campaign brochure that said Woo is under investigation for accepting illegally laundered political contributions.

“Mike Woo is not under any investigation, and Peggy Stevenson is a damn liar,” Harvey Englander, Woo’s campaign manager, said. Woo could not be reached for comment.

The Stevenson brochure said that Woo was being investigated for accepting $5,400 in 1981 from a firm alleged to have been a conduit for money from W. Patrick Moriarty, an Orange County businessman who has pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to several California politicians, including Gov. George Deukmejian.

Woo has said that he had no way of knowing whether Moriarty was behind the contribution, which came to him in the form of two checks from a firm called Condo Vest.

Stevenson, nevertheless, has made the contribution a major issue of the campaign, contending that Woo has not been truthful with voters in discussing the details of the contribution.

Her brochure, which reached voters less than a week before next Tuesday’s election, is the sharpest attack she has made on the subject. But while saying that Woo is under investigation, the brochure did not say by whom.

Richard Drooyan, the chief assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Moriarty investigation, said Friday that he would not corroborate the Stevenson charge about Woo.

“The investigation of Mr. Moriarty’s activities is ongoing,” Drooyan said. “We have not identified any particular person as being under investigation. Not every person who may have received laundered campaign funds is necessarily under investigation.”

Allan Hoffenblum, Stevenson’s campaign manager, who took credit for the material in the brochure, said Friday that he had not confirmed with law enforcement authorities whether Woo is under investigation.

He said that newspaper reports and conversations with people, whom he would not identify, made him confident that Woo was under investigation.

“I stand by the material we printed,” he said.

Hoffenblum said that the state Fair Political Practices Commission “has, by law, to investigate when there is a conflict like this one.”

He said he was referring to a discrepancy in statements by Woo about the contribution. Woo has said he received the money two days before the 1981 election, during a rush of last-minute campaign activity. However, Woo’s campaign statement indicated that the money came in two checks--the first, 11 days before the election and the second, 10 days after.

However, John Keplinger, executive director of the FPPC, said Friday that his agency is not conducting an investigation.

“There is nothing before the FPPC right now regarding Mr. Woo,” he said.