Dark-Horse Lynch Shocks Better-Known Foes, Forces Assessor Runoff

One of the bigger surprises in Tuesday’s Los Angeles County voting was the race for assessor, where John J. Lynch, a little-known candidate, topped a field of contenders that include two former assemblymen.

“It was a surprise,” said Lynch, a 49-year-old deputy assessor from Northridge who was making his first attempt at elective office.

Lynch, an attorney and Republican Party activist, received 21% of the vote in the 12-candidate nonpartisan contest, meaning he will face a November runoff with former Democratic Assemblyman Jim Keysor of Los Angeles, the second-place finisher with 16.4% of the vote.

More Competition

That could be a far tougher race for Lynch, since labor, minority and other traditionally Democratic voters and contributors who were divided among Keysor, former Assemblyman Gordon Hahn and other candidates are likely to rally behind Keysor.

Lynch, who said he only spent a few thousand dollars on his campaign, was predicted to be an also-ran in the contest to fill the seat left open by Assessor Alexander Pope, who failed Tuesday in a bid for the Democratic nomination for the state Board of Equalization.

Hahn, the brother of longtime county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and uncle of City Atty. James Hahn, ran a highly visible campaign, including freeway billboards, that cost close to $100,000. Largely on the basis of his familiar name, Hahn was considered the front-runner. But in Tuesday’s balloting Hahn trailed Keysor, a business executive who spent $185,000--most of it his own money--on a barrage of slate mailers. Altogether, Keysor estimated he was included on 3 million to 4 million pieces of campaign mail in the county.

Out of Nowhere

“I cannot figure where John Lynch came from,” Keysor said Wednesday.

Lynch himself said “I don’t know” when asked how he did it. “I was not on any mass mailings,” he said.

He said a central strategy of his long-shot campaign was visiting GOP women’s clubs around the county.

Bill Homer, a spokesman for Hahn, said Wednesday, “We were somewhat amazed” by Lynch’s showing.

Lynch did have some things going for him, including the endorsement of tax crusader Howard Jarvis and being one of only two candidates with his own campaign statement published in the county’s official sample ballot mailed to all voters.

Politically Impoverished

To get the statement in the sample ballot, Lynch filed a statement of indigence, claiming he could not afford to pay the $52,000 cost. Now, however, Lynch has acknowledged that he might be able to pay the fee, and he said Wednesday he is trying to “come to an agreement” with the county on how to pay it.

The split of Democratic voters between Keysor and Hahn helped Lynch. For example, in Compton, a heavily minority and Democratic city, both Hahn and Keysor had more votes than Lynch. But in Republican areas like Agoura and La Canada Flintridge, with relatively high voter turnout Tuesday, Lynch was far ahead.

In the runoff campaign, both Keysor, a mainline Democrat, and Lynch, a “fairly conservative” Republican, agreed that voters will have a clear philosophical choice. Lynch, saying he will stress his experience in the assessor’s office and his support for Proposition 13, hopes he now will be able to attract funds from GOP contributors.

Keysor said he will stress his government and business background and emphasize that Lynch is a “technocrat” with little management experience.