Factions Almost Dwarf Candidates in W. Hollywood

In the final hectic week of West Hollywood’s first election campaign since its 1984 incorporation, City Council incumbents traded charges with seven challengers, two influential political factions exchanged accusations and one group took on the city over its refusal to accept 600 controversial absentee ballot applications.

The customary last-minute charges by individual candidates have been almost overshadowed in the campaign’s final days by the heated propaganda battle between the city’s most well-organized interest groups.

Arrayed against each other are the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenant activist group trying to win reelection for Mayor John Heilman and Councilwoman Helen Albert, and West Hollywood for Good Government, a coalition of businessmen and political moderates backing incumbent Councilman Stephen Schulte and challengers Ruth Williams and Tom Larkin. Council terms are two years.

In a candidates forum earlier this week, many of the council candidates spent as much time criticizing and defending the two political factions as they did tackling issues.

Broadcast Scheduled

During the televised discussion, which is being broadcast this week and Monday by Group W Cable, Heilman and Albert, who are both members of the Coalition for Economic Survival, had to defend both themselves and their controversial tenant organization.

Although it has flexed its grass-roots muscle in only one previous West Hollywood election (the November, 1984, council race), the coalition helped elect not only Heilman and Albert, but also council members Alan Viterbi and Valerie Terrigno.

Because of its emphasis on rent control, the coalition has made deep inroads among senior citizens and has been able to translate their support into voting power in recent West Hollywood elections. Stressing fears that other candidates could weaken the city’s tough rent control law and taking credit for the city’s sharp reduction in crime, Heilman and Albert hope they will have 6,000 supporters at the polls on Tuesday. There are 19,000 registered voters in West Hollywood.

“Rent control is still the major issue,” Heilman said before the forum. “No matter what the other candidates say, it is the top priority on peoples’ minds.”

Coalition fund-raisers have collected more than $27,600 for a joint campaign on behalf of Heilman and Albert. Heilman has raised an additional $8,500 on his own, while Albert has raised $850.

Campaign financing has been Schulte’s strong suit. In the past year, he has raised more than $67,800 and spent $85,500. Although many of his expenses were related to his 1984 council race (when he spent more than $60,000), Schulte expects to spend in excess of $50,000 in this race.

As an incumbent, Schulte has had another major advantage: He is not running against the tenant coalition. Although the coalition’s steering committee declined to back Schulte earlier in the campaign, it agreed not to work against him.

Schulte has been backed by the Good Government group, which provides him with support in the city’s business community. But he has had to fend off attacks from several opponents who accused him of conflicts of interest.

Challengers Mark Werksman and Ron Stone have both criticized Schulte for voting to allow a Sunset Boulevard building project soon after receiving a political contribution from the project’s developers. And Schulte was also accused of not listing recent campaign contributions from another firm that has also done business with the city.

Schulte has agreed to give future support to some form of conflict-of-interest code. But he said he had committed no errors and accused both challengers of political grandstanding. “These people are simply after my job and they haven’t come up with any new issues,” Schulte said.

Also endorsed by the Good Government group is Ruth Williams, a city rent stabilization commissioner. Williams has raised more than $20,000, far more than she did in her unsuccessful attempt to gain a council seat in 1984. Despite favoring the preservation of the city’s rent law, Williams wants to see changes in provisions governing the maintenance of condominium common areas.

Under Attack

Like Schulte, Williams found herself under attack in recent days. Her critics were Coalition for Economic Survival activists, who questioned her support of strong rent laws by noting her previous employment as an apartment manager. Williams angrily replied that coalition officials were aware that she had that job while she was a coalition member in the early 1980s. Williams is no longer a coalition member.

A third candidate backed by the Good Government group is Tom Larkin, a real estate agent who has raised $26,400 and spent much of the campaign trying to lure John Heilman into a debate. Larkin has criticized Heilman’s role as mayor and his financial expertise, but Heilman has refused to rise to the bait.

Although the five remaining candidates lack the financial backing of the Coalition for Economic Survival and Good Government candidates, several have run strong campaigns.

Ron Stone, who founded the city’s incorporation movement, has managed a well-financed campaign, raising $19,300--giving him far more visibility than he had in his failed attempt to win a council seat in 1984. Aligning himself with a strong rent law, Stone has also tried to make the city’s future development an issue. But he may have lost a valuable voter base when he was unable to persuade the tenant coalition to endorse him.

Some Inroads

And Mark Werksman, an attorney, has made some inroads among Jewish and elderly voters, raising $22,800 and depending on a high-profile canvassing operation. But beyond his attacks on Schulte, his most significant impact on the campaign has been his call for a voter initiative on rent control.

The other independents--Alan R. Mulquinn, a computer software consultant; Stephen D. Michael, an auto salesman; and Jeffrey Wayne Cole, a former adult film actor--have had trouble raising funds and maintaining a presence in the race. Of the three, however, Mulquinn is expected to find some support among homeowners on West Hollywood’s west side.

While the candidates busied themselves in their final week, West Hollywood’s two prominent political factions squared off. This week, Coalition for Economic Survival leaders pointed to the Good Government group’s most recent financial statements as new evidence of links to landlords.

According to recent campaign financial statements, at least 48 out of 90 contributors to Good Government are property owners. And they contributed more than $17,500 of the Good Government group’s $34,300 receipts in recent months.

“We’ve said all along that Good Government is a front for landlords and the figures prove it,” said coalition campaign manager Parke Skelton.

Skelton also criticized Good Government for not identifying any of the 48 property owners as landlords. “They’re afraid that the truth will be known about them,” Skelton said.

In earlier contributions to West Hollywood Concerned Citizens, an apartment owners group, the 48 landlords were identified as “property owners.” But in the Good Government filings, not one of the 48 was described as such.

Instead, landlord spokesman Grafton Tanquary is called an “investor.” Apartment owner and West Hollywood Concerned Citizens official Al Korgute is listed as “retired.” And former Apartment Assn. spokesman Sol Genuth is given no occupation. His “occupation” listing states: “Efforts are being made to obtain this information.”

Uninvolved in Listings

Tanquary said neither he nor other property owners played any role in the listing of their occupations. “That’s CES’s only song,” he said. “They’re coming after the landlords again.”

Tony Melia, an insurance agent and co-chairman of the Good Government group, said the large number of landlord contributors does not alter his group’s stance as a broad-based organized alternative to the Coalition for Economic Survival.

“We’re willing to take contribution from all concerns,” Melia said. “We’re not dependent on landlords, but we’re grateful to anyone who contributes.”

Adding that he expects contributions from other groups in the final days of the campaign to reduce the large percentage of landlord donations, Melia said there was “no conscious attempt” to hide the identities of landlords.

The Good Government group spent much of its final week embroiled in a dispute with West Hollywood city officials over the fate of 600 absentee ballot applications. Last week, city officials said the applications--sent out earlier by the Good Government group--were flawed and would not be accepted unless they met city standards.

The major objection by city officials was that the Good Government ballot applications asked absentee voters to provide their “registered” addresses, while similar city ballot applications require voters to report their current residences.

On Tuesday, Good Government officials asked Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to investigate the city’s refusal to accept its ballot applications. “We think this is part of a pattern and a practice by the city (to discourage voters),” Melia said.

Melia also accused the city of delaying its mailing of sample ballots, hiring inexperienced polling workers and placing some polling booths in a building that also houses Coalition for Economic Survival headquarters.

West Hollywood City Atty. Michael Jenkins called the charges “absurd” and replied that the group’s call for a district attorney’s probe “is somewhat irresponsible, considering the rather vague allegations of criminality.”

City officials are accepting the flawed ballot applications, but are asking those voters to provide their correct addresses, Jenkins said.