The 15th District Race : Wysocki Hopes Low-Key Bid Produces Upset

The telephone call came about 9:30 a.m. and lasted less than 15 minutes. Jo Ann Wysocki, schoolteacher and candidate for the Los Angeles City Council, could talk only until the bell rang for her next class.

“If I had to do this over again, I would have taken a leave of absence,” said Wysocki, talking to a reporter from a hallway pay phone at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park. “That is one of the lessons I have learned.”

Wysocki answered several questions about her opponent, harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, and then abruptly ended the interview. “About what time is it?” she asked. “I have to go. I have a feeling the bell didn’t ring on time.”

It was the first of three phone interviews Wysocki had scheduled with newspaper reporters one day this week--all brief and all crammed between classes or during her lunch break.

In this era of gimmicks, publicity stunts and press events by City Council candidates seeking media exposure, Wysocki is an oddity. With less than a week to go before the April 11 municipal primary, the 53-year-old first-grade teacher has not even issued a press release.

“I would not deliberately call newspaper reporters and try to get my name in the paper,” Wysocki explained in a recent interview. “Maybe it is a handicap, but that is the way I am.”

Wysocki said she is relying on her widespread name recognition in Wilmington and her personal campaigning to do the job. As a resident of Wilmington since 1942 and vice president of Wilmington Home Owners for the past two years, she has been involved in numerous community causes--most notably her fight against a proposed hazardous-waste treatment plant near the Long Beach border.

Some Flores supporters say privately that they are overjoyed that Wysocki--the only challenger on the ballot--has maintained such a low media profile. As a result, Flores has been able to set her own agenda for the campaign, which has amounted in large part to ceremonial public appearances, speeches to clubs and organizations, and City Hall press conferences on high-visibility citywide issues.

Some Wysocki supporters predict that her strategy will endear her to voters who are turned off by seasoned politicians saying “all the right things” to get their names in the news, as one supporter put it. Others, however, acknowledge that Wysocki may suffer in areas of the 15th District where she is not known.

“Even though a lot of people know her here in our community, she needs to be exposed to people in other communities,” said Sylvia Garibay, secretary of the Wilmington Home Owners. Wysocki’s reluctance to draw media attention to her campaign is particularly striking in light of her past efforts to get publicity for Wilmington. Before she formally announced her bid for City Council in January, Wysocki often called or sent notes to reporters suggesting stories. As vice president of the homeowners group, she also has been responsible for scheduling speakers--and getting the word out to the press about them.

“She certainly is not shy,” one Wilmington homeowner said.

But Wysocki draws a distinction between her campaign for City Council and her work as a community activist.

‘Not My Nature’

“If I have a story about Wilmington, I will share it with everybody, but otherwise it is not my nature to seek publicity,” she said. “If anyone accuses me of unbridled ambition . . . they are off base.”

Even so, Wysocki is serious about winning the election. When school gets out at 3:30 p.m., she launches into her second eight-hour day--this one on the campaign trail. She spends her afternoons, evenings and weekends walking door to door, speaking to community groups and writing personal notes to residents.

In addition, she has established a network of 110 volunteers making phone calls to voters.

“If I had paid for a professional political pundit, maybe he or she would have told me to do it differently,” Wysocki said. “But . . . Flores gets political advice from (consultant) Joyce Valdez to the tune of all the money I have collected so far. . . . I will just continue to do the best I can, and I will realize where I have made my mistakes.”