Bradley Has Safe Issue in Washington: Drugs

There he was, looking like the Tom Bradley of old: the rangy, blue-suited mayor of the second-largest city in the nation, confidently treading the discreet marble corridors of the Capitol on Thursday and hobnobbing with the nation’s premier Democrats like one of the club.

And best of all, to his mind, talking about issues outside the political mine field he has treaded for months. Safe issues: Drugs. Clean air. Affordable housing.

For a day anyway, Bradley and his ever-present shadow--controversy--parted company. A week after the city attorney slapped him with a scathing investigative report and a six-count civil lawsuit--and polls showed his legendary popularity slumping grievously--Bradley escaped here and initiated what appeared to be a publicity offensive against knocks on his effectiveness.

Under the hot lights of television cameras before a Senate committee probing President Bush’s drug plan, Bradley beseeched the federal government to help Los Angeles and other cities in the battle against drugs and gangs.

“I come today from the front lines of this war against drugs,” Bradley declared, reading from a prepared text.

‘Crime Cartels’

“The unprecedented flood of drugs into our region has transformed traditional youth gangs into hugely profitable, heavily armed organized crime cartels. Yet despite this hard fact, Southern California continues to get the short end of the stick in the struggle for more federal law enforcement resources.”

Bradley, normally a low-key speaker, put a lot more zip into his rhetoric than usual.

“At a time when billions are to be spent on weapons of sometimes questionable merit, are we willing to spend just a fraction of that to educate our children against the evil forces that would destroy this nation from within?” he asked the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

His address bore the cadences of a campaign speech. And it is a campaign of sorts, Bradley’s attempt to return to business-as-usual despite ongoing investigations into his actions.

For months, through his April election and July inauguration--each overshadowed by conflict-of-interest probes--Bradley has pronounced his interest in stamping out drug use. In a televised, 40-minute speech last week, in which he defended his behavior, Bradley insisted that the city must move forward. Drugs and gangs were chief among his listed priorities.

But Bradley on Thursday was vague about key points in his approach to stemming drug use.

Bradley repeatedly balked, for example, at discussing which weapon against drug abuse--law enforcement or rehabilitation--should be stressed. At one point, Sen. John Glenn, the Ohio Democrat who invited Bradley to testify before the Senate committee, appeared irked at his lack of response.

Wish List

In an interview as he flew home, the mayor also was uncertain whether he would use his position to rally public opinion behind a war against drugs. While advocating more arrests and prosecutions, he said he had no opinion as yet whether the County Jail should be expanded, as police have argued is necessary to contain drug felons. And he refused to say how much money Los Angeles would need to adequately perform in the drug war.

“That’s what’s called a wish list and that’s not the way to get money,” he said, adding that it was “premature” to set a figure until Congress and the Bush Administration come to terms on a drug-fighting budget.

Political analysts have suggested that Bradley’s only chance to repair the image damage that has accrued during the still-running financial controversy is to assertively step out with a domestic quality-of-life agenda.

They have said in interviews that, since polls indicate that most voters do not want Bradley to resign, the mayor has a window of opportunity to build on what remains of his popularity. And issues like drug abuse fit the bill.

So it was that Bradley came to Washington on short notice. He departed Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon, flashing a quick and somber wave as he scurried past passengers standing in line for the same flight.

Early Thursday, he met for breakfast with other officials appearing before the Senate committee. Later, he met privately with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine, with whom Bradley discussed clean air legislation; Senate Judiciary Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.), with whom he discussed drug bills; and California’s Sen. Alan Cranston, with whom he spoke about drugs and affordable housing.

Throughout, no one publicly mentioned the mayor’s travails at home.

In his Senate testimony, Bradley called for more federal investigators and prosecutors, a computerized system to chart the movements of drug gangs, and a ban on the sale and possession of semiautomatic weapons, which the city outlawed earlier this year.

He also asked that assets seized by local police agencies be more quickly turned back to those agencies by the federal government. Seized drug money has become a crucial tool in financing drug-fighting efforts, and Los Angeles is currently owed more than $21 million in assets seized by the Police Department, mayoral aides said.

The mayor also lobbied for better controls to ensure that federal anti-drug money gets to the cities with the biggest problems.

“Los Angeles has received less than 6% of the federal anti-drug grants allocated to California,” Bradley said. “Our police arrest 20% of all drug offenders in the state.”

In a partisan slap, he criticized the Reagan Administration for failing to send enough Drug Enforcement Administration agents to Los Angeles. But in doing so, Bradley may have opened himself up to criticism that he, too, was a late convert to the anti-drug crusade.

During the same years in which he said DEA help was necessary to stem a burgeoning drug problem, Bradley frequently submitted budgets that called for no increases in the number of sworn police officers. In most years, increases were later approved by the City Council and acceded to by the mayor.

Indeed, Bradley’s emphasis on fighting drugs and gangs--and its timing, coming as he tries to retake the offensive after months spent concerned with the controversy over his finances--has raised eyebrows among some veteran police officials.

While saying that Bradley has been “tremendously supportive” in the last few years, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Bradley’s support earlier had been lacking.

“We have not gotten the kind of support we’ve needed over the years and as a result we are seeing what that lack of support has really brought about,” Gates said. “We have a serious problem in the city.”

Although Gates and Bradley have been political enemies--Gates at times has coveted Bradley’s job--another high-ranking police veteran with closer ties to the mayor seconded the chief’s criticism.

“We’ve gotten good support the last three years,” said the official, who refused to speak unless promised anonymity. “The problem is it’s too little, too late.”