For Yaroslavsky, City Council Is Enough, for Now

Zev Yaroslavsky sat inside a Studio City coffee shop not long ago, sipping a diet soft drink and reflecting on a decision he had made two months earlier.

“I would love to be mayor someday,” the Los Angeles city councilman confessed to a reporter. “I’m just not sure I’m willing to do what I have to do to get there.”

It was a startling admission from a hard-driving politician who has spent much of his career preparing himself to be mayor. After deciding that 1985 was not the year to challenge Tom Bradley, Yaroslavsky worked methodically toward this year’s race, amassing more than $1.5 million for his campaign and cultivating a broader constituency before pulling out January, only a week before the filing period ended.

A poll by his advisers had indicated that it would be very tough to beat Bradley. And, faced with a choice between taking on the mayor and running for reelection, Yaroslavsky retreated to the safety of own council seat.

Nothing Seems Certain

These days nothing seems quite as certain as it once did for Yaroslavsky, the one-time boy wonder of city politics.

Friends say the man who could have been a contender is greatly relieved to be out of what would have been a grueling race. One adviser even called him a “happy cowboy” now, saying Yaroslavsky had secretly dreaded the fight.

But others are saying Yaroslavsky sealed his political fate in backing away. They say he’ll never be mayor now.

After openly lusting after the mayor’s post for so long, Yaroslavsky now seems incapable of extricating himself from its web.

At 40, he has already been written off as a has-been by some political insiders who say his decision was cowardly. And rarely does he make it through an hour of campaigning for reelection to his sprawling 5th District council seat without someone saying, “Hey, Zev, you shoulda run for mayor.”

Some of his advisers even insist that he could have won the race. But Yaroslavsky is unwavering in his view that his mayoral candidacy was doomed. He speaks reverently of Bradley, as if the 71-year-old mayor possessed some mystical power over the electorate that the councilman has yet to attain.

“Bradley’s personal popularity transcends his positions on the issues,” Yaroslavsky said. “I could have made a good race out of it. But that’s not what I wanted out of this exercise. Being mayor is what I wanted out of it.”

Now Yaroslavsky says he just wants to return to the council. He denies that he is bored there, as he once implied, and ticks off a list of goals: increasing the size of the police force, reforming the city’s planning process to ensure that communities are better protected from commercial development, and improving public transportation .

Yaroslavsky is also determinedly campaigning for reelection against three lesser-known challengers, even though he is expected to easily retain control over the district that includes Westwood, Century City, West Los Angeles, Bel-Air, the Beverly-Fairfax area and parts of the southern San Fernando Valley.

Comments About Weight

Along the way, he endures comments about his recent weight gain, which started after he injured himself while running, meekly asks people if they mind posting his lawn signs and listens to his opponents complain that he allowed the district to go to pot while he was out prepping for the mayor’s race.

Yaroslavsky seems to accept his fate as if it is something beyond his control. After a period of searching reevaluation, he claims to be happy. He is spending more time with his family, and is trying to get back into shape by taking long early morning walks through his Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood.

People close to Yaroslavsky say he also is freer to be himself now--a product of the ethnic Jewish side of West Los Angeles who often trades greetings in Hebrew and who still seems most comfortable within the confines of that community.

Unlike the time leading up to his withdrawal from the race, when friends likened him to a walking powder keg, Yaroslavsky now seems at ease with himself and with the decision he made.

“The thing about Zev is that he’s never enjoyed the fight of a campaign,” said one consultant, who asked not to be named. “So he’s mostly relieved. He’s also back among the people he knows, and that makes him happy.”

Usual Pattern

Rick Taylor, another political consultant who is close to Yaroslavsky, said the council reelection campaign has been good for his spirits. “When you leave a race, you usually go into a very deep depression,” Taylor said. “You second-guess yourself and you kind of get into a funk. But because of his reelection campaign, Zev has never been able to do that.”

Those who have followed Yaroslavsky’s 14-year sojourn from frumpy Jewish activist to buttoned-down City Hall insider, however, say his political status will never be quite the same.

A Times poll taken after Yaroslavsky’s withdrawal showed that he lags behind other young politicians such as City Atty. James K. Hahn and City Councilman Michael Woo in favorable ratings from voters.

However prudent it may have been, Yaroslavsky’s last-minute decision not to run is likely to cost him in any future bid for the job, advisers and political strategists agree.

“He’s going to have a hard time lining up (support) in advance next time,” said one adviser, who asked not to be named. “It essentially has to be a sure thing.”

Yaroslavsky, who spent the first two months of this year returning his mayoral contributions, as required by law, said he hasn’t given any thought to how future campaign efforts might be affected.

Wife Thinks of Future

In fact, Yaroslavsky claims that he rarely thinks about his political future these days. But his wife, Barbara, who is one of his closest political advisers, apparently does. She says her husband is usually happiest when he is challenged. But she has no idea where he will find the challenges, whether in his council duties or in another political office.

“Who knows whether Zev will run for mayor in four years? “ she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Bradley ran again.”

She simply shrugged when asked about speculation that her husband might consider a run for Congress or county supervisor.

Steve Afriat, a former Yaroslavsky aide who now works as a political consultant, said the councilman rarely reveals himself, even to close friends. Yet Afriat contends that Yaroslavsky may really have no idea what his future holds.

“I’m not sure if Zev’s master plan is to run for mayor again,” Afriat said. “He needs time to take a look at his options. . . . Zev has dealt with these questions in his usual way, very privately. . . . “

Willingness to Risk

Yaroslavsky’s political future may well hinge on his willingness to take risks, several political consultants said.

Unlike some career politicians, he is not financially independent. He and his wife live in a modest, two-bedroom house in which his young son and daughter share a bedroom. Si Frumkin, a close friend, said Yaroslavsky had a real fear of losing his $58,000-a-year salary if he did not become mayor.

People who are close to the councilman also say that he dreads the idea of returning to the private sector. After devoting most of his life to politics, they say, he is ill-equipped to handle many other jobs if he lost a race.

Yaroslavsky rejects those views, saying that he would gladly accept the challenge of another campaign if the odds were more favorable. But he will not second-guess himself.

Just recently, he stood almost unnoticed at the back of a crowded room and watched silently as a man who did take up the challenge, Councilman Nate Holden, lambasted the mayor and stumped for votes before Sherman Oaks community leaders.

There was no talk of what might have been.