No Clear Choice to Take Place on Council

The death on Friday of Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay has set the stage for a special election with no clear front-runner to replace a man who ruled as “Emperor of the 9th District” for 27 years.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro said Friday he will request a special election to coincide with the regular city election on April 9. The council must move quickly to approve the request in order to meet ballot deadlines, but Ferraro said there is still sufficient time. Filing for the April election opens Jan. 9 and closes Jan. 14.

Mayor Tom Bradley and other city officials predicted that residents of Lindsay’s district will elect another black candidate, keeping at three the number of blacks on the 15-member council.

“I don’t see any change in that regard,” Bradley said.

Under pressure from community leaders who complained they lacked representation, the council had been struggling for weeks with the question of whether and how to replace Lindsay.

The 9th District encompasses the extremes of the city, from the glass-and-steel skyscrapers of a revitalized downtown to the impoverished neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles. The district was 48.7% black and 40.4% Latino, according to 1980 census figures, but 1990 figures, which are expected in the coming months, could shift the balance.

Potential candidates were silent Friday on their aspirations. Among the likely contenders are: Bob Gay, Lindsay’s deputy and a “born-again” Christian minister; Brad Pye, a longtime aide to county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and Woody Fleming, a labor activist working for state Sen. Art Torres’ campaign for the county’s 1st Supervisorial District.

Lindsay relied heavily on Gay but never publicly picked him as his successor. Nor did Lindsay select anyone else for the job.

“I tried to get from him his choice,” Bradley said Friday, “and he didn’t have anyone he wanted to nominate.” Bradley said he last discussed the matter with Lindsay in mid-1990.

Bradley has not endorsed a candidate and is said by associates to dislike Gay.

Gay, 37, worked for Lindsay for more than 15 years and has been laying the groundwork for a run at the office. Early this year, he moved into the 9th District so he would be eligible to run.

Gay did not return phone calls, but last spring he said he intended to run for the seat with an agenda markedly different from Lindsay’s. Gay said that Lindsay’s legacy would be the dramatic revitalization of downtown, whereas his own would he the renewal of hard-pressed South-Central.

But City Hall officials said Gay may have stiff competition.

‘He’s been around for a while, but that doesn’t guarantee him the seat,” Councilman Nate Holden said. “Lots of people are going to run.”

Woody Fleming, 44, political director of the Service Employees Union, said Friday he is “thinking about” running, but did not want to discuss it. The union represents state, county and municipal employees.

“I’m just very saddened and shocked about this whole thing,” Fleming said of Lindsay’s death.

Pye, 59, has been a deputy to County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn since 1978, when he left the Sentinel, a black-oriented newspaper where he was managing editor. Pye also was appointed by Bradley to the Recreation and Parks Commission for more than a decade.

“It’s inappropriate for me to even think about the election today,” Pye said. “I’m saddened by his (Lindsay’s) passing. He was a trailblazer and role model for all African-Americans everywhere.”

Mark Ridley-Thomas, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, predicted “a rush of candidates.”

“It’s a more level playing field than some would like to suggest because none of their names has ever been on the ballot,” he said.

Some candidates, he speculated, may attempt to cut deals with council members to exchange endorsements for pledges to give up pieces of the district if they are elected.

The election in April of a vigorous voice to replace Lindsay, who had been in failing health for years, will probably diminish the chance that the district will be sliced up when the city is reapportioned later this year. Several council members in adjoining districts have been eyeing pieces of the wealthy downtown area.

Bradley said his office will fight “with all the power and will we can muster” to keep the district boundaries unchanged.