CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS ATTORNEY GENERAL : Reiner, Smith in Tough, Lively Campaign

For more than a year, Democratic state attorney general hopeful Arlo Smith had been itching for a face-to-face, on-the-air confrontation with his better-known opponent, Ira Reiner.

The opportunity finally arose when the candidates were hustled into a cramped radio booth recently after addressing a large anti-gang rally in Los Angeles.

Trouble was, veteran KABC radio talk show host Michael Jackson failed to recognize Smith’s face.

It was not until Reiner departed after chatting for several minutes to the broadcast audience that the three-term San Francisco district attorney was even given a chance to introduce himself.

“You came in and sat down and I didn’t know who in Hades you were,” an embarrassed Jackson told Smith. “You’ve got that face recognition to get across.”

With less than two months to go before the June Democratic primary, the incident underscores a central question in a race that political insiders once viewed as a cakewalk for Reiner, the two-term district attorney of Los Angeles County.

Smith, aided by an aggressive campaigning style and by the recent acquittals in the McMartin Pre-School child molestation case, has finally managed to hoist himself onto the same playing field as the nationally visible prosecutor of vote-rich Los Angeles.

But the jury is still out on whether Smith can translate his rising standing into the name-, face- and message-recognition necessary to pull off a primary election upset.

The question remained unresolved after the recent state Democratic convention, in which neither candidate came close to garnering the 60% of the delegates’ votes necessary for an endorsement. But Smith made eye-opening inroads by winning more votes than Reiner--47% to 44%.

Smith’s backers are hoping the showing will help him raise money to stage a critical advertising blitz during the final weeks of the campaign. Neither Smith nor Reiner--who have engaged in a combative dialogue--has begun his paid media campaign.

On paper, the two contenders, one of whom will face conservative Republican Dan Lungren in the November general election, have strong resumes to serve as the state’s top law enforcement official.

Reiner, 54, has methodically ascended the rungs of local office in Los Angeles, winning terms as city controller and city attorney before being elected in 1984 to head what is described as the largest local prosecution agency in the world. If elected attorney general, Reiner would follow in the footsteps of former Los Angeles prosecutors John K. Van de Kamp and Evelle Younger--both of whom later ran for governor.

For Smith, 62, a November victory would mean a return home. Before his 1979 election as district attorney, Smith labored for 26 years in the attorney general’s office, serving stints as chief assistant attorney general and as head of the office’s criminal and trials sections.

On key issues, the two Democrats espouse similar views. Both identify drug abuse and crime as the leading social problems facing the state. And both strongly favor the death penalty, abortion rights and environmental protection.

With such similar philosophies, what are Smith and Reiner fighting about? Performance and personality--with a prosecutor’s zeal.

In two debates that have resembled demolition derbies, Smith repeatedly questioned Reiner’s integrity, while Reiner publicly pondered Smith’s backbone. At the Democratic convention, the candidates’ staffs nearly drowned delegates in leaflets containing such vociferous headlines as “Rising Above the Mud” and “A Response to the Hit Piece.”

More often than not, Reiner has been the target of the attacks, as his lesser-known opponent tries to define him in a negative light.

As the prosecutor of one of the nation’s media capitals, the glare of publicity is nothing new to Reiner. In the last six years, his 900-attorney office has handled several of the nation’s most notorious criminal cases and Reiner, for the most part, has been anything but camera shy.

Indeed, with his deep voice, halo of white hair and imposing stage presence, Reiner seems like the D.A. from Central Casting.

“This guy has an incredible ability to get news attention. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen him on ‘Nightline,’ ” says Kam Kuwata, a Democratic campaign consultant who is not involved in the race. “He has the look of a political Dirty Harry.”

During Reiner’s tenure, his deputies have won their share of high-profile cases, most notably the Night Stalker serial murder trial of Richard Ramirez.

But other nationally spotlighted cases have ended in acquittals or dismissal, among them: the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter trial of Hollywood film director John Landis, the campaign violations indictment of former U.S. Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge), and the McMartin case, now six years and running.

Publicity can cut two ways and Reiner, who critics charge is more interested in headlines than results, acknowledges that his popularity slipped after the January acquittals of Ray Buckey and Peggy McMartin Buckey. But Reiner, who has refiled a handful of molestation counts against Ray Buckey, declares that the tumble will prove temporary.

Of overriding importance to voters, Reiner contends, is that he is an innovator while Smith functions, at best, as a lackluster office manager.

Since winning election as district attorney, Reiner takes credit for sponsoring more than 50 anti-crime and pro-environment bills, a majority of which have been enacted by the Legislature. Among them is a law on street terrorism that subjects hard-core gang members to stiffer sentences.

Reiner also established the nation’s first environmental strike force to prosecute toxic polluters and set up a worker safety unit that is on 24-hour call to investigate workplace deaths. His combined environmental/worker safety unit is staffed by 10 lawyers and nine investigators. The unit files about 50 cases a year and sent 18 defendants to jail between 1987 and 1989. In contrast, Smith has one environmental attorney and has filed three cases in 11 years.

Accusing Smith of “prosecuting only the easiest cases,” Reiner also cites 1988 state statistics he says show that Smith filed charges in only 49% of felony arrests, compared to 64% for Reiner.

Smith counters that the prosecution statistics are skewed, in part because San Francisco police, unlike Los Angeles police, do not weed out cases before sending them to him for prosecution. Besides, Smith says, the San Francisco crime rate has dropped 27% during his tenure, compared to an 11% increase in Los Angeles since Reiner took office.

As for his environmental record, Smith maintains that it is much stronger than Reiner would make it appear. While a deputy attorney general, Smith says, he brought the state’s first price-fixing cases against the nation’s major oil companies. His current effort is comparable to Reiner’s, he says, since he has only one-ninth the staff.

Smith also points to several achievements during his tenure as district attorney, including a consumer fraud unit and a family violence project that he says has assisted more than 5,000 families through victim counseling and tough prosecution of offenders.

To Smith, the difference between the candidates is that he is a career prosecutor while Reiner is a “job-hopping politician.”

Unlike Reiner, Smith has maintained a relatively low-key presence while running his 100-attorney office--so low-key that hometown columnists occasionally make fun of him for it. San Francisco Examiner columnist Bill Mandel once asserted that Smith “keeps a low profile that can be mistaken for quiet competence.”

In the current race, Smith has attempted to take advantage of his balding, bespectacled presence--contrasting it to that of the media-savvy Reiner.

“I don’t look like Robert Redford,” he concludes in his stump speech. “And I don’t always have a glib line or a 20-second sound bite to offer.”

At the lectern, Smith often fumbles over his words, gesticulating like a non-swimmer desperately seeking to reach shore--or the next sentence.

But as San Francisco public defender Jeff Brown cautions, appearances can be deceiving. “Arlo Smith is not an articulator, but one thing you should not underestimate is his intelligence. He has as shrewd a political mind as any in the business.”

Smith has already come out of nowhere once--when he won his district attorney’s job in 1979 by attacking the incumbent on his prosecution of Dan White, who received less than eight years in prison for assassinating Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

During this campaign, Smith has again been on the attack. By now, it seems, he has accused Reiner of most everything but dyeing his hair white.

Take their first debate last month. Before Smith had concluded his opening statement, he had already accused Reiner of squandering his integrity on cases ranging from McMartin to the Zsa Zsa Gabor cop-slapping imbroglio.

In the Gabor case, he said, Reiner used the incident to attract publicity by demanding that the pugnacious actress be sentenced to 30 days in jail.

With McMartin, Smith castigated Reiner for his use of a tainted jailhouse informant.

“The New York Times . . . referred to it as being, quote, desperate and sleazy,” Smith said. “Those are not the words of a candidate, those are the words of editorial writers.”

Smith has also repeatedly criticized his opponent for being censured by the State Bar in 1986 for violating conflict-of-interest rules while serving as city attorney. The incident involved Reiner’s speaking out against a secret Los Angeles Police Department intelligence unit while defending the city in a lawsuit alleging illegal spying by the unit. Reiner has defended himself, saying he had a higher duty to the public than to police who participated in wrongful behavior.

Smith himself has come under attack lately for his handling of cases in which he has a peripheral personal interest.

Earlier this month, after an investigation by Smith’s office, a grand jury indicted five men for allegedly hiding the source of donations aimed at defeating a ballot measure to build a baseball stadium in San Francisco. One of the men, political consultant Richard Schlackman, is distantly related to Smith by marriage and last year provided services to Smith’s campaign. Schlackman’s attorney argues that Smith threw the book at his client to make it appear that he’s such a tough D.A. he’d prosecute a family member.

And Smith, while criticizing Reiner on McMartin, has been called to task for a low rate of prosecutions on child molestation cases. In 1985, a coalition of professionals complained that his office won 15 convictions in a year that police received nearly 400 child molestation complaints.

Although they agree outwardly on most issues, Smith and Reiner do have a handful of philosophical differences.

Smith says that most gang members “aren’t bad kids” and predicts that gangs would “ultimately deteriorate” if their leaders were systematically jailed. Reiner says that street gangs are leaderless packs whose individual members must be dealt with severely.

And Reiner, unlike Smith, supports stiff fines for first-time drug offenders. Reiner says the current system of drug diversion constitutes de facto decriminalization.

initial,2

I n early polls, Smith--as in 1979--was virtually unrecognized by voters. But the independent California Poll, released less than two weeks ago, showed Reiner with 28% to Smith’s 24%--a statistically insignificant difference, with 48% of voters yet to make up their minds.

Reiner’s latest campaign finance statement shows that as of mid-March he had $426,000 on hand. Reiner, whose base of supporters includes private law firms, labor groups and the Hollywood entertainment community, has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Chiefs of Police, the Police Protective League of Los Angeles and the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

Smith had $274,000 on hand in mid-March. He has received substantial aid from private attorneys and from deputy district attorneys who work for him. (Reiner refuses money from his subordinates; and Reiner’s campaign manager, Sam Singer, has accused Smith of “twisting the arms of his employees.”) Smith’s main contributions have come from his wife and himself, lending $400,000 to the campaign thus far.

Smith’s endorsements include the Police Officers Research Assn. of California and the state chapter of the National Organization for Women PAC.

With 10 days of broadcast time in the Los Angeles market alone costing upward of $500,000, it appears that both candidates will have to strictly limit their ad campaigns. In the meantime, they are expected to keep flogging away at each other, seeking as much free exposure as possible.

Recently, Smith called a press conference outside the Southern California headquarters of the state Democratic Party--a windowless bunker behind Lucy’s El Adobe restaurant in Hollywood. When Smith’s campaign manager, Marc Dann, was asked if his candidate planned to deliver his statement in front of the uninspiring structure, Dann delivered a succinct reply.

“We’re going to go where the TV cameras tell us to, “ he said. “After all, this is America.”