West Hollywood Council Race Winds Up in a Flurry of Mailers

West Hollywood’s third City Council race in two years entered its final week as candidates Gene La Pietra, Abbe Land and Stephen Michael debated and their supporters flooded city mailboxes with last-minute political literature.

Bolstered by a surprise endorsement from West Hollywood Mayor Stephen Schulte, millionaire discotheque owner La Pietra is pinning his hopes on the final flurry of political mailings.

“We have a good direct-mail campaign this week that, I think, will put us over the top,” said Rick Taylor, La Pietra’s campaign manager. “I don’t think we’ll blow them out of the water, but we’ve got the momentum now.”

Tenant activist Land and her backers also predicted victory, insisting that her margin over La Pietra would be substantial. Land’s campaign staffers said her name will appear on a political mailer sent out by Michael Berman and Carl D’Agostino, professional campaign managers whose election-year Democratic slates carry weight in some Westside communities.

“Our polling tells us that more and more people who were undecided are switching to Abbe,” said Barbara Grover, one of Land’s campaign managers. “Gene has had to scramble to hold the small base he has.”

Even furniture dealer Stephen Michael, who is expected to finish third, pulled off a surprise in the final week, distributing a slick political mailer despite being handicapped by meager fund-raising. “Steve’s going to surprise people,” said his campaign manager, Paul Frederix. “The mailer we have going out this week will turn a few heads.”

The three candidates are vying for the council seat held until last May by Valerie Terrigno, who was forced to resign after she was convicted on federal embezzlement charges. The winner will serve the remaining 18 months of Terrigno’s four-year term and will then face reelection.

While the political mail churned on, the candidates appeared at a forum sponsored by the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

La Pietra called for immediate work on new parking structures in the city and said he would best represent the business community.

Rent Control Issue

Land insisted that she is the strongest rent control backer among the three and said she would support parking and development strategies pursued by the present council.

In contrast, Michael called for a softer rent control law and reaffirmed an interest in using poker and bingo clubs to help revitalize the city’s east end.

For once, none of the candidates brought up La Pietra’s past state and federal pornography convictions, which are expected to play a large role in West Hollywood voters’ Election Day decisions.

“Gene’s character, and how people react to it, is still the overriding factor in the race,” said Larry Gross, director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, the strongest and most controversial political organization in the city.

Indeed, Land has used La Pietra’s past as the central element in a mail campaign intended to cast doubt on his credibility and honesty. In addition to making repeated references to La Pietra’s 1971 state and 1974 federal obscenity convictions, Land has also criticized his role as a discotheque owner.

In one circular, Land quoted old letters written by neighbors of La Pietra’s Hollywood nightclub, Circus Discotheque, to suggest that he had poor relations with the community surrounding the club. Such an issue might prove effective among West Hollywood neighborhood activists concerned about the effects of nightclubs near their homes. La Pietra has responded that his troubles with neighbors have long since abated.

Land has not been alone in raising questions about character. La Pietra’s supporters have questioned Land’s acceptance of a $200 check in 1985 from an AIDS benefit marathon race. La Pietra supporters Gerda Spiegler and Budd Kops have repeatedly suggested that Land was paid for her work as “celebrity hostess” while many other race workers performed duties as volunteers. Land has replied that she also was a volunteer and that the money paid to her was for expenses incurred before the race.

Broad-Based Campaigns’

Both Land and La Pietra have said that their campaigns are broad-based and will attract votes from all segments of the community. Yet Land seems strongest among those renters who are elderly and heavily Jewish, while La Pietra’s campaign plays well in the gay community. Each group is estimated to make up about 30% of West Hollywood’s 37,000 population.

Parke Skelton, one of Land’s campaign managers, said Land will be able to depend on a solid base of at least 5,000 voters. “There are at least 3,500 people who would vote for a mosquito abatement initiative if we asked them,” Skelton said, adding that the figure usually swells to 5,000 after heavy precinct walking and telephone work.

In this election, that figure may top 6,000, Skelton said, because a general election brings out more voters. Skelton and co-campaign manager Barbara Grover said La Pietra’s image troubles will only add to that number. “His character is the biggest issue in this election and that hurts him,” Skelton said.

La Pietra, who has raised nearly $280,000 in the race (far surpassing Land’s $20,000 and Michael’s $3,400), expects near-unanimous support from West Hollywood’s gay community. La Pietra has doggedly sought backing from gay-oriented political groups and, this week his efforts netted the Schulte endorsement.

‘Grace Under Pressure’

One of three gays originally elected to the council in 1984 (the others were Terrigno and John Heilman, who was reelected last April), Schulte said he decided to endorse La Pietra because of his “grace under pressure” during the campaign and the balance he would bring to the council.

La Pietra said Schulte’s endorsement constituted one of the decisive moments of the race. “His is the single most important endorsement in the city because he is the mayor,” La Pietra said.

Land’s supporters minimized that importance, noting that the city’s mayor is chosen by other council members on a rotating basis and adding that Schulte’s backing would help only among gay voters. Land has been endorsed by three council members--Heilman, Helen Albert and Alan Viterbi.

La Pietra has also pushed for new voters in the gay community, hoping to capitalize on a large gay turnout expected to vote against Proposition 64, the AIDS quarantine initiative backed by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.

According to city records, 400 new voters have registered in West Hollywood since late September. Registration efforts that have been in progress since late summer are expected to result in about 1,000 new voters, both sides said.

Questionable Addresses

Land supporters have claimed that some of those new voters submitted questionable addresses and telephone numbers when registering (including one whose listed phone number turned out to be the prerecorded National Weather Service information line), and have blamed La Pietra’s voter registration effort.

But Rick Taylor, La Pietra’s campaign manager, scoffed at the charge, saying it was a “typical last-minute cheap shot.” Taylor added that new voters were also registered by campaigns to defeat the LaRouche initiative. “We weren’t the only ones signing up voters,” he said.