Atlanta Mayor Joins Bradley in Appeal for Black Support

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, aided by Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, made a vigorous bid Saturday for support from black Los Angeles-area voters.

In a round of joint and separate appearances throughout the black community that started Friday night with a rally in Compton and a fund-raiser at the home of UCLA basketball coach Walt Hazzard, Young and Bradley appealed to ethnic pride among blacks in an effort to encourage them to vote in large numbers Nov. 4.

With less than a month left before Election Day, campaign officials say they hope to “light a fire” under black voters who may assume that popularity polls have all but declared the gubernatorial race over for Bradley.

The most recent California Field Poll showed Bradley 15 percentage points behind his opponent, Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, although another recent poll by Steven Teichner places Deukmejian’s lead at 6 points.

Young’s four-day California visit on behalf of Bradley--which the Los Angeles mayor called “a real lift” for his campaign--will take Young around Los Angeles and to Oakland and San Diego.

After Bradley’s narrow loss to Deukmejian in 1982, many black leaders contended that Bradley had been so intent in that race on playing down the fact that he is black that he avoided campaigning in heavily black areas--and cost himself some votes.

This year, in contrast, Bradley is campaigning hard in black neighborhoods. His campaign has established four headquarters located in South-Central Los Angeles, with two others planned, said Kerman Maddox, deputy campaign manager.

The Bradley campaign is severely strapped for money, and does not appear to be in a position to spend anywhere near as much as Deukmejian’s campaign for a final advertising blitz. Deukmejian has $3.8 million in the bank, compared to Bradley’s cash-on-hand of $633,885.

Final Strategy

As a result, an effective grass-roots effort has now become crucial to any hopes for success in the final weeks of the Bradley campaign.

Saturday, Bradley appeared with Young at an anti-drug rally in Inglewood, urging several hundred teen-agers and adults to “just say no” to drugs.

Bradley also appeared at the Crenshaw area’s Leimert Park for an anti-apartheid rally, headlined by Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Friday evening, speaking at a $50-a-person fund-raiser that drew about 200 black supporters to Hazzard’s LaFayette Square home, Young appealed to the business instincts of the middle-class crowd.

A Bradley governorship, Young said, would mean “an opportunity to see to it that wealth is really available to everybody’s access. Not that there will be favoritism, but at least you’ll know what’s going on. . . . If we don’t get our politics together we’re going to be poor again. What you’re doing tonight is investing in your own future.”

Message to Churches

Today, Bradley and Young will take much the same message to black church congregations in Oakland. In another development Saturday, Bradley contended that Deukmejian’s “lack of integrity” had become a top issue in the campaign because of “false claims and outright fabrications” by the governor.

Bradley denied Deukmejian’s assertion made last week that Bradley has a secret plan to raise taxes.