ELECTION SECRETARY OF STATE : Councilwoman Flores Pledges to Campaign for Political Reform

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who recently helped sink a key provision in the city’s proposed ethics-in-government code, said Wednesday that she is running for secretary of state to promote election and political reform.

“The secretary of state is our state’s chief elections officer, and because of a lack of state leadership, California has the most confusing patchwork of campaign election laws anywhere in the nation,” Flores said at a news conference outside City Hall. The three-term councilwoman repeated the message later in Sacramento.

Flores, a Republican who represents the city’s 15th Council District extending from Watts to the Port of Los Angeles, said she decided early this week to run after receiving phone calls of encouragement from various supporters, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Pete Wilson. She accused Secretary of State March Fong Eu, a four-term Democratic incumbent, of having created “a vacuum of leadership in this office.”

Flores, 53, helped bring cable television coverage of council meetings to Los Angeles and was the author of legislation requiring objective titles and summaries on city ballot initiatives. But she lost favor among some reformers last month when she led a successful assault on a proposal designed to reduce the influence of campaign contributors by providing taxpayer-financed campaigns in city elections.

The proposal was part of a broad ethics-in-government package drafted by a citizens commission that was appointed last year amid revelations about Mayor Tom Bradley’s financial affairs. The City Council has debated, amended and revised the package several times, and it is expected to vote next week to place a hybrid version on the June ballot.

Flores defended her stance on the ethics reforms Wednesday, saying that she voted for most of the commission’s recommendations and actually strengthened them by adding restrictions on city commissioners. She said she voted against public financing of campaigns because voters have never given “a clear signal” that they want to pay for it.

But Flores indicated for the first time that she may be willing to compromise. She said that she would support the placing of a public financing proposal on the ballot if it were separated from the rest of the ethics package so that voters could reject one without rejecting the other.

Supporters of the ethics reforms said next week’s council vote on the package will be a test of Flores’ commitment.

“It is a terrific chance to demonstrate leadership on these issues,” said Geoffrey Cowan, who heads the citizens commission.

Flores will face Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gordon Levy in the June primary. The winner will run against Peace and Freedom candidate Julie Fausto and the winner of the Democratic primary, which pits incumbent Eu against South Los Angeles business consult Mervin Evans.

Evans, 36, said he will focus his campaign in black and Latino neighborhoods, stressing economic development issues and the preservation of social services. He has previously run unsuccessfully for Congress three times and Los Angeles City Council twice.

A spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office said officials will not know until today whether other candidates filed before Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline.