The Elections : Neighborhood Issues Came Close to Forcing Picus Into a Runoff

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who barely avoided a runoff for the west San Fernando Valley’s 3rd District seat she has held since 1977, appears to have been hampered by a series of neighborhood-based controversies that aided her five opponents.

In a campaign dominated by no single issue, voters rallied against Picus at the neighborhood level on several issues, including her support of several large-scale developments and her vote to study building a rail transit line in residential areas.

Picus, reelected with 52% of the vote, attributed her narrow victory to Tuesday’s extremely low voter turnout--the smallest in 30 years. She said the turnout indicated widespread voter satisfaction with elected officials, including herself.

She said the district has “never had a trend of overwhelming approval for anybody.” In 1985, Picus won a third term with 56% of the vote.

In Tuesday’s election, the 58-year-old Picus faced five opponents, two of whom--Republican activist Jeanne Nemo and Peter Ireland, a deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana--had at least some voter recognition and campaigned vigorously.

Ireland, 42, who attacked Picus for her support of proposed rail routes that would pass through the 3rd District, won 17% of the vote, while the 60-year-old Nemo, who had the backing of County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, garnered 15%.

Valley-based political consultant Arnold Steinberg said Picus has “obviously alienated some groups in her district.”

With a normal turnout, “such groups wouldn’t amount to much,” he said. “But with lots of voters staying home, these kinds of groups become magnified. A couple of hundred angry voters here, a couple of hundred there, and pretty soon these people add up.”

Ireland strove to win over these voters.

As an alternative to the two Picus-endorsed cross-Valley rail routes--along the Ventura Freeway and along a freight right-of-way that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards--Ireland campaigned for revival of a plan to build a mass-transit line alongside the Southern Pacific railroad Coast Main Line. That line crosses the Valley diagonally from Burbank Airport to Chatsworth, largely avoiding residential areas.

Ireland and several other opponents sought to convince voters that Picus’ support for rail routes that traverse single-family areas and her endorsement of a controversial arts park in the Sepulveda Basin demonstrate her insensitivity to neighborhood preservation.

Throughout the campaign, Picus maintained that rail opponents were “very loud but limited in number” to those immediately next to the proposed routes. Most voters, she said, strongly support a rail line as a means to relieve freeway congestion.

Reflecting the concentration of rail opposition, Picus trailed Ireland badly in a section of Reseda near the proposed line, according to an analysis of the vote by precincts.

In a precinct west of Tampa Avenue and north of Topham Street, Ireland got 130 votes to Picus’ 43. Another 55 votes went to other candidates.

Opponents also criticized Picus for vacillating on whether portions of Canoga Park should be renamed West Hills. As an apparent result, Picus got less than half of the votes cast in several West Hills precincts, although in each case she was the top vote-getter.

She also was criticized sharply for permitting high-rises to mushroom in Warner Center in the past decade and for accepting large campaign contributions from developers.

But Ireland and Nemo were poorly positioned to capitalize on any anti-development sentiment. Both are associated with county supervisors widely viewed as pro-development.

Moreover, Picus, in a dramatic demonstration of the power of incumbency, announced several months ago that she planned to block a controversial $150-million Warner Center office project.

Before the announcement, Picus had remained tantalizingly neutral about the massive project.

Both foes and proponents acknowledge that her opposition effectively blocks the so-called Warner Ridge project.

After the election, a Picus aide who asked not to be identified said: “They were waiting for her to come out in favor of it. But when she opposed it, they were caught flat-footed.”

Away from neighborhoods embroiled in local controversies, Picus fared well, according to the precinct analysis.

In one Woodland Hills neighborhood, she got 329 of 414 votes cast. Nemo finished second with just 17.

And in a Reseda precinct, where the Jewish Home for the Aged is located, Picus demonstrated her traditionally strong support among both seniors and members of the Jewish community. She got 137 votes while Ireland, whose base of support was Reseda, came in second with 18.

Times staff writers Richard Simon and Gabe Fuentes contributed to this story.