Bradley Barely Wins Fifth Term : Mayor Gets 51.8% in Primary; Turnout 20%; Bernardi in Runoff

Mayor Tom Bradley narrowly won reelection to an unprecedented fifth term Tuesday in a surprisingly close primary election.

Bradley’s leading opponent, Councilman Nate Holden, conceded defeat at 12:20 a.m. today with most of the vote counted.

Tarnished by news stories about his personal finances and mismanagement in his Housing Authority, and confidently refusing to dip into a big campaign treasury to advertise, Bradley barely won the majority he needed for election in the primary. With 96% of the vote counted, Bradley was clinging to a 51.8% margin, just above the 50% he needed for election.

Trailing him were Holden, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Baxter Ward and eight other candidates.

Low Voter Response

Just about two out of 10 registered voters cast ballots in a mayoral election that had the lowest turnout in at least 30 years.

As the vote count dribbled in at Bradley’s headquarters at the Biltmore, early glee turned to late evening nervousness. Staff members and supporters shook their heads in shock at the result.

At Holden headquarters in West Los Angeles, early gloom turned to glee for a couple of hours. “It looks like a runoff, it looks like a runoff,” chanted the crowd.

Bradley’s drive was hampered by the low turnout. Only about 400,000 voters went to the polls to select the man who will shepherd the city of 3.3 million through four years of what is expected to be continued traumatic change: more growth, more traffic, more ethnic diversity, along with intense struggles to beat air pollution, gangs, drugs and a shortage of low-priced housing.

In another race, City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, the longest-serving council member, fell well short of the 50% mark and faced a runoff with a former firefighter’s union official in his 7th District in the eastern San Fernando Valley.

“We’re in a runoff, we’re in runoff,” said Harvey Englander, campaign manager for Lyle Hall, who was running second to Bernardi in early returns.

In another San Fernando Valley race, Councilwoman Joy Picus won another term. On the Westside, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky also appeared to be a winner, as did Councilman Michael Woo in the Hollywood-Hollywood Hills area, South-Central veteran Councilman Gilbert Lindsay and Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, whose district extends from South-Central Los Angeles to the harbor. Councilman Marvin Braude of Brentwood and Pacific Palisades and Councilwoman Gloria Molina of Central Los Angeles were unopposed.

Proposed bond issues to finance construction of new libraries and police facilities and to pay for sprinklers in city buildings were approved. But a measure to rebuild earthquake-damaged housing fell short of the two-thirds vote needed.

Bradley sought the voters’ permission to extend his long-running tenure in the mayor’s office to 20 years. But the turnout of just 20% seemed to signal an apparent failure of the mayor’s get-out-the-vote drive, and even Bradley loyalist Braude said the showing could hurt the mayor in the next four years. Bradley’s total was far short of earlier mayor elections. He won reelection in primaries with 63.8% of the vote in 1981 and with 68% in 1985.

The slim turnout was not what the Bradley team had expected in January, when Yaroslavsky, a well financed challenger, dropped out of the race.

On Tuesday night, watching the mayor struggle to avoid a runoff, Yaroslavsky said he still had no doubt that his decision to drop out was the right one. “I made the right decision because I made it.” he said. “I would rather have been there, everyone knows that, but I can make a difference as a councilman.”

In the last two weeks of the campaign, Bradley was hit hard by newspaper disclosures that he had served as a paid board member of a savings and loan and a paid consultant to a bank. Both institutions do business with the city.

Deputy Mayor Mike Gage predicted victory despite the early returns. “All you need to do is win,” he said. “Two years ago, the mayor was lower in the polls than he is today. The council doesn’t go by what kind of polls he has. It is the force of his programs and his ability to work with people that will get the job done, just as it always had. Anytime you win, you win, that’s all that counts,” he said.

But campaign spokeswoman DeeDee Myers said, “Sure we’re disappointed. I don’t think people felt there was a real compelling reason to go out. It’s always disappointing in a democracy when only 20% turn out.”

Bradley, in remarks prepared for his victory party at the Biltmore, said, “I believe we won this campaign because of a determination to address the unfinished business of Los Angeles.”

Then he spelled out some of the unfinished business he had in mind: a new literacy education program; hiring of poor young people to maintain city facilities and creation of a recreational open space along the Los Angeles River.

“The next four years will be a time of ideas in Los Angeles, ideas that can change our city for the better,” he said.

City Clerk Elias Martinez said that the turnout was worse than 1985’s 34.7%. And that was the lowest since 1959. Martinez said he thought Tuesday’s election set a record, but would not be sure until he checked records today.

Bradley was elected mayor in 1973. He quickly laid the foundation for one of the achievements of which he is most proud--high-rise downtown Los Angeles. A 1975 redevelopment plan the mayor pushed through the council made land in much of downtown available to developers at relatively low prices.

His commitment to downtown growth--which he said translated into citywide jobs--continued over the years, most notably in Bradley’s participation in the successful effort to finance the start of construction of the Metro Rail subway, which eventually will connect downtown to the San Fernando Valley.

All that was part of the record he cited in this campaign which, in fact, opened on a day that included a visit to a downtown subway station under construction. He talked of efforts, by his Administration and by the council, to increase the size of the Police Department. He boasted of an after-school care program for youngsters. He recalled the successful 1984 Olympics.

For the future, Bradley pledged an increased effort against drugs and gangs; increasing the amount of housing available for the poor, and reducing traffic congestion.

But he never went beyond the broad promises of his campaign’s opening day, apparently confident of his ability to coast in on the polling lead that had frightened Yaroslavsky out of the race.

In the campaign’s final weeks, the unexpected happened--newspaper stories that told of how the mayor had served on the board of directors of Valley Federal Savings and Loan, at pay of up to $24,000 a year, and as a consultant to Far East National Bank, for which he received $18,000. Both financial institutions do business with the city.

Both Holden and Ward sought to capitalize on the news, although they were handicapped by their lack of funds. That made it difficult to spread word of Bradley’s involvement through television advertising.

Ward accepted no campaign contributions. He appeared in candidates’ forums before neighborhood groups, often with no more than 35 or 50 in the room. And he wrote letters to the newspapers and to City Council members expressing his ideas.

In one such letter to City Council President John Ferraro, he said: “ I would make an issue of special interest campaign contributions, which are running and ruining Los Angeles . . . I would do all that I could to make city government responsive to the people, instead of the contributors.”

Ward also relied on his widely known name. He had been a Los Angeles county supervisor from 1972 to 1980 and before that a television news anchor. In addition, Ward had run for mayor in 1973 and just last year forced County Supervisor Mike Antonovich into a runoff in the 5th District, which includes the San Fernando Valley. He was overwhelmingly defeated by Antonovich in the runoff.

Holden used his limited campaign funds for radio commercials and for mailing 500,000 pamphlets in the campaign’s final days. And, in a move that gave him brief nationwide publicity, he spent $34,800 to buy 116 assault rifles from people who turned them in to the Police Department.

Holden also pledged to increase the Police Department’s capability to fight drugs and gangs. And he strongly criticized the mayor for what he considered a decline in city services, particularly in South-Central Los Angeles.

Before his election to the council in 1987, Holden had served as a state senator for four years and had run unsuccessfully for Congress and the State Board of Equalization. Before joining the council, he was an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

Bernardi found himself battling a strong field that included one candidate strongly backed by organized labor, Hall, and another, Irene Tovar, who had strong roots and political connections in the Latino community.

Unions had been fighting him for years because of policies he pursued on the council. And the Latino community suddenly became more important to his political future because of a reapportionment that changed the boundaries of his old district and gave him many more Latino constituents.

On the other side of the Valley, Picus had to contend with a series of complaints rooted in neighborhood concerns over growth and the quality of life.

Flores, Woo, Lindsay and Yaroslavsky all had it easier in the campaign. But none had it as easy as Molina and Braude.