Different Focus on the City : Council: Runoff candidates in two largely black districts are fiery and vocal and plan to turn their attention to the problems of poverty, crime, homelessness and joblessness.

A new generation of black leaders began to emerge this week from free-for-all elections in two largely black City Council districts, where the stage has been set for runoffs between candidates who are more vocal about minority issues than their predecessors.

For the first time in decades, a political overhaul is under way in the 9th District, where the late Gilbert Lindsay, the council’s first black member, ruled for 27 years and earned a reputation as the champion of a gleaming new downtown, but was criticized for a lack of attention to the rest of his district.

Facing each other in the June 4 runoff for Lindsay’s seat will be Rita Walters, a fiery and vocal member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, and Robert Gay, 38, longtime Lindsay aide who promises a break with the past.

If the candidates are true to their word, the election will bring a dramatic refocusing of attention to the problems of the run-down areas of South-Central Los Angeles that make up most of the 9th District.

While much of the discussion in the 8th and 9th District primary campaigns centered on the Rodney G. King police beating, runoff candidates said Wednesday that they plan to turn their attention to the problems of poverty, crime, homelessness and joblessness.

In the 8th District, civil rights activist Mark Ridley-Thomas, a relative newcomer to politics, and Roderick Wright, a former aide to outspoken U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) will face each other in the runoff for the seat vacated by Councilman Robert Farrell, who is stepping aside, sources said, because of waning support in the black community.

Farrell was defeated in an Assembly race last fall by Marguerite Archie-Hudson, Waters’ hand-picked replacement.

The big winner in Tuesday’s election may have been Waters herself, whose status as a political power broker was underscored by the success of Gay, whom she endorsed, and Wright, whose campaign she virtually ran.

Mayor Tom Bradley also may have demonstrated his continuing influence in black politics with his endorsement of Walters, who won a runoff spot despite a late start and lagging campaign funds.

Whoever wins on June 4, council members predict a livelier debate at City Hall with greater demands for services to neglected areas of the central city.

“Definitely, I think any of the four principals would be considered new Turks,” said City Council President John Ferraro.

Said Waters, “Most of the people who are running are younger, and most of the time younger people are more energetic.”

In the 8th District, Wright, 38, was outspent by his opponents, but ran a street campaign, stressing his ties to the district, where he has lived since 1956.

A Pepperdine University graduate, Wright has focused much of his campaign on the need to improve the district’s business community and encourage young black professionals to “come back home.”

Wright ran Waters’ 1976 campaign for the state Assembly and until 1989 worked as governmental affairs officer for the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

“I plan to go back to the street,” Wright said Wednesday. “I came to the party as a street politician and that is how I’ll leave.

“We want to stabilize the community so that people don’t lose their homes. We want to deal with crime and drugs, (which) contribute to the malaise of people not wanting to be in South Los Angeles.”

Ridley-Thomas, 36, said he will focus his runoff campaign on the key issue of services to the district, including alley cleaning, tree trimming, repair of potholes and law enforcement.

“From here we go into the streets to continue organizing, making appearances at churches and walking precincts,” Ridley-Thomas said.

During the campaign, he has been on leave as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from USC.

Ridley-Thomas had been considering running against Farrell if he had decided to try for another term, but instead was endorsed by Farrell when Farrell decided to step aside.

Ridley-Thomas acknowledged the significance of Waters’ endorsement of his opponent. “Maxine Waters is in a unique position when it comes to endorsements,” he said. “She adds a capital E to endorsements.”

Wright bristles at Ridley-Thomas’ assertion that he owes his victory to Waters. “Maxine’s name wasn’t on the ballot,” Wright said.

Kerman Maddox, who had been considered a front-runner in the race, attributed his loss to a lack of big-name endorsements.

Both Ridley-Thomas and Wright are trying to get the support of Maddox and Billy Mills, another losing candidate, but neither would say on Wednesday whether he plans to make an endorsement.

In the 9th District, Gay based much of his campaign on his deep roots in the central city. He was born in South-Central in 1953 and grew up in a house on an alley off 48th Street.

“I spent my whole life on an alley,” he said. “I still love to walk through alleys because you learn about people.”

He was raised by his mother, a seamstress who became a registered nurse. He still remembers with both nostalgia and respect the poverty of his youth.

In his senior year of college, he walked into Lindsay’s office and asked for a job. Lindsay said he couldn’t pay him, and for four months Gay agreed to work for free in the clerical pool.

“I knew from the day I walked in, I wanted to be a councilman,” he said.

From Lindsay, he said, he learned about the old-style, hardball, “ quid pro quo politics,” but viewed himself as part of the younger generation of black leaders.

Gay’s campaign was bankrolled by contacts made during his years working for Lindsay. He also was endorsed by Willie Brown, the powerful Speaker of the state Assembly.

Gay said that, unlike Lindsay, his focus will be South-Central Los Angeles, not downtown.

He has proposed drafting a specific master plan for all of South-Central, including increasing affordable housing by using fees from downtown construction, and granting tax benefits to employers who hire local residents.

Walters, 60, was born in Chicago and grew up in Kansas, but she moved to Los Angeles in 1955.

She said her involvement in local politics began in the early 1960s during the civil rights movement. After her children grew up, she returned to school and became a teacher.

Walters, an outspoken liberal, has been a forceful voice for the black community since she was elected to the school board in 1979. She has frequently been at odds with her colleagues on the seven-member board.

When anti-busing proponents held a majority on the panel, Walters was a staunch advocate of court-ordered busing to achieve racial desegregation.

Her decision to run for the City Council was made at the urging of Bradley. She moved into the district in January, after Lindsay died, and has been labeled a carpetbagger by Gay and others.

Walters could not match Gay’s campaign spending power, but had far greater name recognition after 12 years in the education spotlight.

“I’m looking forward to bring a different type of leadership,” Walters said Wednesday, “an advocacy kind of leadership.”

“I do stand for change. I think anyone who has observed my tenure on the school board knows that.”

RUNOFFS IN THE 8TH AND 9TH DISTRICTS

Los Angeles city government will get a new generation of black leadership after voters cast ballots in the June 4 runoff elections. Based on Tuesday primary returns, the runoff candidates for the 8th District City Council seat vacated by Robert Farrell are Mark Ridley-Thomas and Roderick Wright. The candidates for the late Gilbert Lindsay’s 9th District seat are Robert Gay and Rita Walters.

Mark Ridley-Thomas

Born: Nov. 6, 1954, in Los Angeles

Residence: 8th District since 1979

Occupation: Executive director, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles

Education: University of Southern California, Ph.D.; Immaculate Heart College, master of arts, bachelor of arts.

Quote: “What I alone can bring . . . is an 11-year track record of leadership and commitment.”

Roderick D. Wright

Born: July 3, 1952, in Chicago

Residence: 8th District since 1956

Occupation: Political consultant

Education: Pepperdine University, bachelor’s degree.

Quote: “I’m the person who will get the job done. . . . Everybody knows we need safe streets, jobs and economic development, but the question is how do we get it.”

Robert Gay

Born: March 14, 1953, in Los Angeles.

Residence: 9th District since birth.

Occupation: Chief deputy to former City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Long Beach State.

Quote: “Downtown is going to grow. You can’t stop that. What we want to talk about is what resources from that growth is going to go to South-Central.”

Rita Walters

Born: Aug. 14, 1930, in Chicago

Residence: 9th District for three months.

Occupation: Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Shaw University; MBA from UCLA.

Quote: “I do stand for change. . . . I want to encourage the feeling that this is one district and not a tale of two cities.”