Setting Up a Dry Run for 1993

Councilman Mike Woo is known as a cautious man.

He didn’t always have that reputation. His political campaign managers had advertised him, ambitiously enough, as the ‘80s JFK, raising expectations that he’d sweep into the council with some of the daring of the man who handled the Cuban missile crisis. But once elected, Woo carefully avoided hot citywide issues. He immersed himself in his 13th District, which extends from the Hollywood flatlands over the Santa Monica Mountains to the San Fernando Valley.

The nature of the district added to his caution. Whether the cause is the Laurel Canyon dog park or opposition to Hollywood redevelopment, citizen groups in the 13th fight with the ferocity of urban guerrillas. Woo tried to walk a line between the raging forces.

That’s why it’s a shock that Woo has volunteered for the city’s most dangerous election year mission--leader of the campaign to give council members a pay raise.

The amendment does much more. It imposes strong, new conflict-of-interest laws on city officials and creates a strong enforcement mechanism. And it initiates public financing of city political campaigns. But if calls to talk shows are a barometer of public opinion, what people remember most is the pay raise.

“Possible, but not easy” is how Woo describes his campaign’s chances.

Woo and other supporters are beginning to raise money for the charter amendment campaign. They expect help from Mayor Tom Bradley, an ironic touch considering how Bradley elevated ethics into a citywide issue by his own outside business activities. In an attempt to cool off the scandal, Bradley created the citizens ethics commission, with Cowan at the head. He embraced the commission’s ethics package, and stuck with it through a City Council fight.

The council refused to approve the ethics proposals and public financing of campaigns unless they got a pay raise out of it. Council President John Ferraro and Councilman Richard Alatorre insisted on that. Bradley said he’ll refuse the raise, but other elected officials said they will take it.

The pay raise could be a chief target of the package’s opposition, but so far there has been no organized anti-campaign.

Enter Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is emerging as Woo’s chief opponent in this fight. Yaroslavsky seems to think that an organized campaign against the package is not necessary. Because of the pay raise, he says, the package will sink itself.

But with Woo moving into prominence, this is a fight Yaroslavsky can’t afford to miss: The charter amendment campaign could well serve as a dry run for the 1993 mayoral race.

That far-off mayoral race is expected to be the first in more than a quarter of a century in which Bradley, at last overtaken by age and scandal, won’t be on the ballot. His departure would clear the way for Woo, Yaroslavsky and others.

Woo and Yaroslovsky have much in common. Both are liberals. Both were active in the council’s polite investigation of the Bradley affair. In fact, they fought each other for public attention during one period, each chairing heavily covered committee hearings.

And like Woo, Yaroslavsky loves to avoid a good fight. The most famous example of that is when he collected large amounts of money for a challenge to Bradley in 1989, then pulled out when a public opinion poll showed him far behind. Given Bradley’s troubles, and his drop in the polls at the end of the race, Yaroslovsky’s decision turned out to be a historic missed opportunity.

Both have similar political bases.

Yaroslavsky’s Jewish community roots give him a strong ethnic financial and voter base. His own Westside-San Fernando Valley 5th District and the neighboring 11th District are composed of voters with the highest turnouts in the city.

Woo’s district also has high turnout areas in the Hollywood Hills and in the Valley. And he, too, has an affluent and loyal ethnic base. The Asian community has provided him with votes and big contributions. He and Yaroslavsky may be the two best-financed candidates for mayor.

“We’ve clearly chosen sides on this issue,” said Woo. For once, he has abandoned caution. Who knows what will actually happen if Woo can play the kind of daring politics that we expected from him at the beginning. Who knows if Yaroslavsky will see this fight through.