Local Races : Antonovich Faces Stiffest Test in Supervisor, D.A., Judge Races

Three supervisors’ jobs, the district attorney’s office and 11 contested judgeships are before Los Angeles County voters in the primary election Tuesday. The hottest race is in the huge 5th Supervisorial District, where nine challengers are trying to unseat incumbent Mike Antonovich in a campaign largely centered on the growth issue.

Supervisors Deane Dana, who represents the coastal 4th District, and Kenneth Hahn, from the 2nd District covering South-Central and the Westside, face little organized opposition and expect easy victories.

Thus if there is a change on the powerful board, which controls law enforcement and development policy in much of the county, along with health and welfare services, it will come in Antonovich’s 5th District, which runs from the Santa Monica Mountains through the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley.

Third Term

With no polls available to the press and public, it is difficult to determine how the anti-Antonovich coalition will fare. But the well-financed, well-known Antonovich expects to take more than 50% of the vote, which would reelect him to a third four-year term.

If he fails to exceed 50%, the election will be decided in November, with Antonovich facing the second-place finisher. In that kind of head-to-head battle, Democratic and labor funds would flow to the Antonovich challenger, who would also benefit from the support of groups opposing what they consider too much development.

Best known of the challengers is former Supervisor Baxter Ward, a former television news anchor who lost to Antonovich in 1980. Ward, who likes the role of the political outsider, is accepting no campaign contributions. He is banking on voters remembering favorably his eight years on the board, where he regularly attacked the county bureaucracy.

Important Support

Another candidate to watch in the big field is Don Wallace, a Los Angeles city fire captain who has political support from three important sources. His years as a leader of the city firefighters’ union has brought him union backing. His efforts with groups fighting for protection of the Santa Monica Mountains has won him friends among mountain-area homeowners and environmentalists. And he has been endorsed by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), a leader of the Berman-Waxman political organization, which distributes often-effective political mailers just before Election Day.

Other candidates are Glenn Bailey of Encino; attorney Robert N. Benjamin of Glendale who, like Antonovich, is a Republican; Sally Chase Clark of Canyon Country, an anti-development activist; Jose Galvan of Sylmar, a former Los Angeles school board and City Council candidate; Jules Kimmett of Burbank, who has run for the Burbank City Council; M. Enriquez Marquez, a former county Republican Central Committee member, and Peter O’Neil, a broadcast firm manager.

Supervisor Hahn is opposed by Roye Love, a county welfare administrator; Gil Smith, former mayor of Compton; Richard Atkins, an Inglewood businessman; Joseph Gardner, a retired county employee; Yancy Rosborough, a county Department of Health Services custodial unit administrator; Al Cunningham, a trucking firm manager, and Rayne R. Baughman, a valet parking firm owner and the only Republican in the race.

Suffered Stroke

Opponents are arguing that Hahn’s health is not good enough to warrant another term in the job he has held for almost 36 years. Hahn suffered a serious stroke 18 months ago and most of the time is confined to a wheelchair.

But his rivals are up against a legend in local politics, a liberal, white lawmaker who has been elected overwhelmingly each time he has run in the predominantly black district, which extends from Lynwood to Culver City. Typically, supporters answer the health question as one black minister did at a prayer rally for Hahn: “Some people ask about Kenny Hahn’s health. Well, let me tell you, he can do more from his wheelchair than other politicians can do from a limousine.”

Dana, who was elected in 1980, faces two opponents in his reelection bid in his district, which stretches from Long Beach to Malibu.

‘Twilight Zone’ Prosecutor

Best known of Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s challengers is Lea Purwin D’Agostino, one of his deputies who prosecuted director John Landis for the fatal crash that occurred during the filming of the “Twilight Zone: The Movie.” Landis was acquitted.

Also running is Alfred A. Calabro, brother of a court commissioner Reiner attacked for what the district attorney considered racist remarks, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Iver Bye.

There is little competition in the judicial races. Opponents have challenged three incumbent Superior Court judges--out of 110 that could have been challenged--and eight Municipal Court judges out of the 91 up for election.