L.A. Council Candidate Attacked in Home : Galanter Savagely Stabbed, in Critical Condition After Surgery

Los Angeles City Council candidate Ruth Galanter, who achieved overnight prominence in her bid to unseat Council President Pat Russell, was savagely assaulted in her Venice home early Wednesday.

After five hours of surgery at UCLA Medical Center, Galanter was reported to be in critical but stable condition late Wednesday afternoon. She had received two stab wounds in the neck and was in surgery under the direction of a medical team consisting of vascular, trauma, head and neck surgeons, according to hospital spokesmen. An angiogram was performed before surgery to evaluate damage to blood vessels.

Lt. Ed Henderson, head of the major crimes unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, said officers found Galanter in a pool of blood amid signs of a struggle in her bedroom.

“It appears that the attack took place on the bed. . . . She was still in her nightclothes when officers found her,” Henderson said. ‘There was a lot of blood on the bed.”

Police said they saw no connection between the political contest and the crime.

Investigators credited Galanter’s triggering of a burglar alarm near her bed with driving off her attacker and alerting neighbors.

Police said late Wednesday that they did not have a suspect in the assault. But they said they were looking for similarities between it and a series of crimes in the Westside area in which women were attacked, sometimes sexually, in their homes. Police and medical officials said tests were being conducted to determine whether Galanter had been sexually assaulted.

Police said they attempted to talk to Galanter at the hospital before she went into surgery, but she was slipping in and out of consciousness and they were able to learn only that her attacker was a man.

Galanter, 46, had risen from relative obscurity to successfully challenge Russell in the April 14 City Council primary election. The two women face each other in a June 2 runoff for the 6th Council District seat, a position Russell has held for 17 years.

An urban planning consultant and a newcomer to politics, Galanter had recently emerged as a champion of the city’s burgeoning anti-growth movement.

A low-keyed, matter-of-fact speaker and at her best in front of small groups, Galanter and her campaign had become a rallying point for neighborhood groups angry about the pace of commercial growth. Although the race is confined to the 6th District in western Los Angeles, it is widely viewed as a referendum on citywide issues of growth, congestion and pollution that have come to dominate local politics.

“This is a movement that is about to change the direction of city government,” Galanter said recently of her campaign.

Galanter is the second Los Angeles political figure to be attacked in recent months by an intruder in her home. Last November, Secretary of State March Fong Eu was beaten and robbed in her Hancock Park home. A 27-year-old prison parolee was later arrested and charged with the crime.

Screen Tampered With

Henderson said Galanter’s assailant entered the two-bedroom house in the 2200 block of Louella Avenue through a screened window in a back door. It was the same screen that had been tampered with in an attempted burglary on Monday, he said.

Neighbors of Galanter called police after hearing her screams and the burglar alarm.

Henderson said there were no signs that the house had been ransacked or that anything had been taken.

Belinda Horne, a neighbor who lives on the same block of Louella Avenue, said that neighbors nearer Galanter’s home heard screams about 4:45 a.m. Wednesday and went to the house to see if Galanter was all right. Horne said that as the neighbors knocked on the front door, they heard Galanter’s cries for help.

Bob Harkey, who runs an advertising business from his house on the block, said he was working through the night and heard a burglar alarm.

No Serious Problems

Harkey said that the well-kept neighborhood of modest single-family homes has been a quiet place with no serious crime problems during the five years he has known it.

But other neighbors said there had been signs of gang activity in the neighborhood, including graffiti on a wall bordering Galanter’s property and on her garage.

Horne said a number of homes had been burglarized, and that a neighborhood watch had been organized recently to focus on the crime problem. She said that Galanter had been the most vocal organizer of the watch and that a meeting of concerned neighbors had been scheduled for Thursday at her house.

Jim Bickhart, Galanter’s press secretary, said he had accompanied Galanter to her house about 10 p.m. Tuesday after attending a fund-raising event with her. Bickhart said he stayed at her home until about 11 p.m.

Reports Earlier Attempt

Earlier this week, Galanter told a Times reporter that an attempt had been made to break into her house on Monday. Bickhart said that a window in his car was smashed while it was parked in front of Galanter’s house about two weeks ago.

Galanter was one of five candidates who challenged Russell in the 6th District primary, a contest that focused on Russell’s record of supporting massive commercial development. The challengers held Russell to 42% of the votes cast. She needed more than 50% to win outright. Galanter received 29% of the votes, more than any of the other contenders. She outpolled Russell, who had the support of Mayor Tom Bradley, in 111 of the 210 precincts in the district.

In a statement issued Wednesday from Europe where he is traveling, Bradley said: “I am shocked and saddened by the brutal and senseless act of violence against 6th District candidate Ruth Galanter. Our hearts go out to Ruth, to members of her family, her friends and supporters. On behalf of the people of Los Angeles, I send our prayers and best wishes for her swift recovery. The City of Los Angeles will do everything within its power to see that her attacker is apprehended and brought to justice.”

Reached Wednesday morning at her home, Russell said “God, how shocking!”

‘My Heart Goes Out’

In a statement released later, Russell said: “I pray for her full recovery. My heart goes out to her family, and I offer my services in any way that may be helpful.”

Russell also said she has asked for police protection for Galanter while she is in the hospital because “it is an unknown assailant and she’s in the hospital and she is vulnerable.”

Russell said she is suspending her campaign activity.