Holden, Broome Set Pace in Busy L.A. Council Race

With less than a week remaining before Election Day, the race to fill Los Angeles’ only vacant City Council seat has come down to a battle of pavement-pounding, mailbox campaigns, dueling for endorsements and a scramble for political money.

Among the 13 candidates in the Southwest 10th District, former state Sen. Nate Holden and Homer Broome Jr. are emerging as the leading contenders.

“They probably would have to be considered the front-runners,” said John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League and a 10th District resident. “The question is how far in front are they?”

Broome, who has been endorsed by Mayor Tom Bradley in his former council district, has managed to raise the most money among candidates, listing $148,659 in his last report. Holden, who lost a 1973 race for the same council seat, has employed a mailing blitz aimed at capitalizing on his endorsement by county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, whose supervisorial area includes the 10th District.

Holden is banking on his name recognition, his record as a state senator and his own campaign treasury of $112,830, according to his latest report, to garner enough votes Tuesday to make the June runoff. Striving to become one of the two top vote-getters, Holden’s strategy has included such tactics as a districtwide letter from Hahn and precinct walks by local Baptist ministers.

Raise Funds

Broome, who picked up the endorsements this week of City Council President Pat Russell, school board President Rita Walters and Democratic Reps. Julian Dixon and Edward Roybal of Los Angeles, has intensified his own mail campaign and trumpeted his association with Bradley, relying on the mayor to help him stump at local churches and raise additional funds.

Both Broome and Holden are also employing extensive phone banks and precinct operations. But in what is expected to be a low-turnout race, both will have to hold off some determined challengers who are scraping along with less money but who have stepped up their own mail programs, precinct walks and campaign coffee klatches.

Among the other 10th District candidates:

- Arthur Song Jr., a lawyer who was endorsed last week by City Councilman Michael Woo, tripled the amount of money he had reported in his last filing, listing $110,640 in loans and contributions in his most recent accounting. Song, who is a Korean-American, has received substantial financial support from the Asian-American as well as the black community and has sent out a number of brochures touting himself as the “unbought and unbossed” candidate.

- Kenneth Orduna, a chief deputy for Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton) and backed by such figures as United Farm Workers chief Cesar Chavez, has raised $67,565 for his campaign, including $4,500 in personal loans and contributions, to help him mail tabloids to district voters.

- Myrlie Evers, a corporate executive and widow of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, reported raising $56,293. But some supporters viewed that figure as disappointing, especially for a candidate who has been championed by such notable political figures as state Sen. Diane Watson and Assemblywomen Gwen Moore, Teresa Hughes and Maxine Waters, all Los Angeles Democrats.

At a fund-raising dinner last week, Waters bluntly warned Evers supporters that her campaign was experiencing money problems and urged them to contribute more dollars in order to send out campaign mailers in time for the home stretch of Tuesday’s election.

- Geneva Cox, a longtime field deputy for former Councilman David Cunningham who has reported raising $32,194, is relying on an extensive grass-roots operation.

- Jessie Mae Beavers, an editor with a community newspaper and a large following, reported raising $29,675.

- Jordan Daniels Jr. reported receiving $8,850 in contributions and loans, Grover P. Walker reported $4,420, Ramona Raquel Whitney reported a $1,500 personal loan, William A. Weaver $889.14 in cash contributions and Esther M. Lofton reported receiving $500 in non-monetary contributions. Denise Fairchild’s report was unavailable.