Galanter, Russell Fine-Tune Strategies

Criticizing Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposed budget, coming out against a ballot measure that would raise taxes in South-Central Los Angeles to pay for more police there, and opposing the planned Lancer trash-burning project, City Council candidate Ruth Galanter is setting out to show that she is more than a single-issue politician.

Galanter, a 46-year-old urban planner who has never held elective office, won the right to face City Council President Pat Russell in a June 2 runoff by finishing first among five challengers. Russell was held to 42% of the votes cast in the 6th District primary last week. She needed more than 50% of the votes to avoid a runoff. Galanter received 29%.

Galanter got where she did largely by portraying Russell, a 17-year council veteran, as a friend of big development in the western Los Angeles district. Now, as she works to establish her own identity, Galanter walks a fine line--attempting to portray herself as a champion of neighborhoods and of the environment, but one who is not a pawn of the hard left.

With the runoff likely to be decided in Westchester, a middle-class community with many Republican voters, anyone bearing a strong resemblance to a Tom Hayden liberal could be in trouble. The Democratic assemblyman is well known in the area, representing Santa Monica as well as parts of the Los Angeles City Council 6th District.

Hayden as Campaign Issue

Marcela Howell, Galanter’s campaign manager, said the Russell camp is “already suggesting that if Ruth wins that it will be Tom Hayden or the Venice Town Council that will control the district.”

Russell could not be reached for a reply to Howell’s comment. However, Alexa Bell, Russell’s press secretary, pointed out that Russell has been quoted as saying that she does not intend to make Hayden an issue in the campaign.

Galanter acknowledges knowing Hayden from the time the two were undergraduates at the University of Michigan in the early 1960s. She also said she received contributions from two people who work for him. But she said she has not accepted any help from Hayden and is not, in any way, a Hayden protege.

“We don’t even go to the same parties,” she said recently.

Meanwhile, Russell has been busy retooling her campaign. Conceding that she was too often on the defensive during the primary, she has made it clear she wants to turn voters’ attention away from growth and development issues that dominated the primary.

She replaced her closest adviser, Curtis Rossiter, whose lobbying on behalf of 6th District developers became an issue during the primary.

In place of Rossiter, Russell hired consultant Richard Lichtenstein to head her runoff campaign. Lichtenstein, who has run campaigns for Councilmen John Ferraro and Richard Alatorre, said he plans to emphasize Russell’s 17 years of council service and not to let development continue to dominate the race.

‘Less Than in Other Districts’

“We’re not going to get trapped in an endless debate over three or four controversial real estate projects when it’s my understanding that development in her district has been far less than in other districts,” Lichtenstein said.

But Lichtenstein’s record, like Rossiter’s, could lead back to the development issue. Besides campaigning for Ferraro and Alatorre, Lichtenstein has worked on behalf of commercial real estate interests in fights against countywide rent control and in the 1984 West Hollywood incorporation.

Russell has also retained Kam Kuwata, a highly valued member of U.S. Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston’s 1986 reelection team, and David Townsend, a Sacramento-based consultant who worked on Bradley’s unsuccessful campaign for governor last year.

While Galanter does not want to look like a radical, she has no qualms about setting herself apart from the City Hall Establishment. If elected tomorrow, Galanter would not be a member of the pro-Bradley council coalition that Russell has guided for several years.

In Washington this week, she is courting the support of Democratic Reps. Mel Levine and Howard L. Berman, prominent members of a Westside political organization that bears Berman’s name and that has been on the opposite side of Bradley on a number of issues.

Galanter has also taken issue with Bradley’s proposed budget, arguing that the city should come up with more money for basic city services, such as police, street repair and tree-trimming.

Under an austere budget unveiled by Bradley on Monday, police personnel would not be increased and the amount of annual street resurfacing and tree-trimming would be reduced.

Concern for Pollution

Galanter’s opposition to the Lancer project, which the mayor supports, is based on concerns that it would aggravate air pollution and produce cancer-causing exhaust.

Russell has voted for Lancer in the past, but Bell said she has not made up her mind how she will vote when the matter comes up for a final approval.

Echoing the sentiments of a number of black groups, Galanter has come out against a June ballot measure that would tax residents of a broad swath of South-Central Los Angeles where crime has reached epidemic proportions in order to add 300 more police officers to the area. The taxed area would also reach into a small section of the 6th District.

Galanter said she agrees with critics of the plan who say that it would put an unfair tax burden on poor neighborhoods that can least afford to pay.

Bradley, who previously endorsed the ballot measure, said Wednesday that he had changed his mind and no longer supported it. Russell voted to put the measure on the ballot and, to date, has not changed her position, according to Bell.

Times staff writer Alan Citron contributed to this article.