La Pietra Wins One, Loses One in West Hollywood

West Hollywood City Council candidate Gene La Pietra is working to regain campaign momentum, encouraged by a state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control decision to dismiss a liquor code violation against his Hollywood discotheque. But a third major political club failed to endorse his candidacy last week, leaving La Pietra without any major political organization’s support as he headed into the final month of the council race.

The ABC decision had loomed as another potential campaign blow to La Pietra, who is trying to dissipate the political fallout from recent revelations about his state and federal obscenity convictions and the loss of support of influential Westside politicians such as state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles).

As owner of the Circus Discotheque, La Pietra and his partner, Ermilo Lemos, had been charged with three counts of serving a drink to an under-age patron on Feb. 5.

A hearing on the case had been set for Sept. 24 before a state administrative law judge, but La Pietra was notified on the day of the hearing that the charges had been dropped.

Counts Dismissed

Graham Archer, the Alcoholic Beverage Control’s district administrator in Hollywood, said the counts were dismissed because the 18-year-old woman who was served the drink, Elizabeth Sanchez, could not be located. “We were unable to find the minor,” Archer said. “Without her testimony, it was impossible to proceed.”

According to La Pietra and his attorney, David Brown, Sanchez showed up for the hearing. But by that point, Archer said, the charges had been dropped.

With the liquor code violations out of the way, La Pietra has spent the last week trying to regain his political stride. He insists that the process has already begun. “This campaign has definitely taken on momentum,” he said.

Added Peter Freed, a West Hollywood businessman who backs La Pietra, “I think the feeling is full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes. We’ve been on the bumpiest stretch of the road and now, hopefully, we’ll deal with some community issues.”

But last week, La Pietra failed to win an endorsement from the West Hollywood Democratic Club, a group that had been expected to back him. According to Steve Weltman, an attorney and La Pietra supporter who is former presiqadent of the club, 21 members voted to endorse La Pietra, 15 voted against him and two abstained. La Pietra ended up two votes short of winning the club’s endorsement.

The club then voted to postpone an endorsement decision until the final week of October, a move that club members say is tantamount to no decision at all. “Even if Gene got our endorsement, it would be too late in the campaign to have any meaningful impact,” one member said.

Two other major political organizations, the gay-oriented Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles and the Stonewall Democratic Club, both of which had been expected to back La Pietra, have also postponed endorsement decisions until later this month. Another gay-oriented club, the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, has backed La Pietra’s major opponent, Abbe Land.

La Pietra said he was not discouraged by the failures of the clubs to endorse him now. “We are working hard to win those endorsements, and we will,” he said.

But Land countered that the lack of any club endorsements for La Pietra shows that he does not have overwhelming support in West Hollywood’s gay community (estimated to be 30% of the city’s 35,000 population). “These were endorsements he would be expected to get, and he didn’t get them,” she said. “People are still trying to figure out whether they want to stay with him or back away. I think it indicates that his support is crumbling.”

La Pietra has recently made shifts in his campaign office, bringing in the political consulting firm of Winner-Taylor to handle more campaign duties and adding Midge Costanza, a prominent feminist and former aide to President Jimmy Carter, to his full-time staff.

The third candidate in the race, furniture dealer Stephen Michael, said he had asked both La Pietra and Land to join in a series of three debates about West Hollywood issues. Paul Fredrix, Michael’s campaign manager, said early this week that he had received a tentative acceptance from Land, but still had not heard from La Pietra.