Hall Begins Mail Campaign Against Bernardi

With slightly more than three weeks left before the runoff election, Los Angeles City Council candidate Lyle Hall launched the first phase of his mail campaign Friday by sending flyers to two groups of voters.

One went to absentee voters. Another went mostly to people whom polls have identified as being similar to Hall’s supporters in the April 11 election, said Hall’s campaign consultant, Harvey Englander. He declined to describe that group in detail.

Hall’s material is less personal than it was before the April election. Instead of reminding voters that his opponent in the June 6 runoff, Councilman Ernani Bernardi, is 77 years old and has often been absent from council meetings, the latest flyer argues that it is time for a change and criticizes the councilman on issues.

“I have known Ernie Bernardi for 18 years and I know that he is a good family man and that he has tried his best,” Hall says in the mailer. “But Ernie has been on the council since 1961--28 years--and it’s time to bring new ideas and energy to the job.”

Fencing Complexes

Hall--a city fire captain and former president of the firefighters union--attacks the incumbent for suggesting that fences around apartment complexes solve crime and drug problems. The issue surfaced recently over a fence planned for the San Fernando Gardens public housing project in Pacoima, which is opposed by a small group of tenants.

The fences force “many of our neighbors to feel like they are being caged,” Hall proclaims in his mailer. “I believe that we should put criminals behind bars, not innocent people.”

He also blames Bernardi for not attacking problems of San Fernando Valley crime, gridlock and uncontrolled growth.

“The haphazard planning he has permitted has hurt our neighborhoods,” Hall, 49, says. “We have too many mini-malls and not enough single-family homes to move up to.”

Bernardi refused to respond to Hall’s mailers Friday, saying: “There isn’t anything here to react to. I don’t want to react.

“There’ll be plenty of time to put our position out, and it’ll be coming out pretty quickly . . . and we’ll do it in a positive way,” Bernardi said, referring to his own plans for a mail campaign.

Bernardi has hired campaign consultant Allen Hoffenblum to coordinate mailings for the runoff. This is the first time that Bernardi has hired a consultant since the 1960s. Bernardi received 41.5% of the vote in April, forcing him into a runoff with Hall, who was second with 25.7%.

The two campaigns have differed markedly in tone. Hall has relied mostly on news conferences to announce endorsements. Bernardi has mainly shaken hands at ground breakings and community events.

The two have displayed their different styles publicly three times, twice in debates and once in a community forum. Bernardi, his face red and a fist in the air, delivered stentorian defenses of his record. Hall was much quieter and usually didn’t react to Bernardi’s speeches.

Consultants Englander and Hoffenblum were on different sides in a City Council race in 1985. Englander worked for a challenger then too, developing strategy for Michael Woo in a successful campaign against Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson in the 13th District.