ELECTIONS: CITY COUNCIL : Galanter Appears Headed for a Runoff : Politics: Mary Lee Gray received the most votes in the field of five challengers who sought to replace the incumbent.

Mary Lee Gray has turned the tables on Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, apparently forcing the incumbent into a runoff election with the same type of grass-roots’ campaign that brought down veteran 6th District lawmaker Pat Russell four years ago.

With only scattered absentee ballots remaining to be counted, Gray and five other challengers appeared on Wednesday to have deprived Galanter of the majority vote she needed to win reelection outright.

Nearly final, unofficial totals from the precincts showed Galanter’s opponents with slightly less than 51% of Tuesday’s vote, with Gray leading them with 20.3%. Galanter, with just over 49%, was about 250 votes shy of a majority.

Galanter campaign consultant Steve Glazer acknowledged Wednesday that a runoff was nearly certain. Although the precise number of uncounted absentee ballots was not known, he said Galanter would need a huge percentage of them to claim a primary victory. The runoff would take place June 4.

Gray was elated on Wednesday morning, as she likened her primary showing to Galanter’s upset of Russell four years ago.

“Pat lost touch, Ruth lost touch,” said Gray, who is on leave as senior deputy to County Supervisor Deane Dana. “You gotta keep in contact and listen to constituents and provide services.”

Galanter saw the vote differently. “I think, in a crowded field of purposeful people with different agendas, that coming within a few hundred votes of avoiding a runoff is pretty good,” she said on Wednesday.

A strong third place showing by slow-growth activist Salvatore Grammatico, with 15.4% of the vote, was ample evidence that anti-development sentiment continues to run high in portions of the diverse district.

“Ruth Galanter is not exactly up on what’s going on (in the district),” Grammatico said on Wednesday. “Ruth Galanter can run but she can’t hide now,” he said referring to Galanter’s primary strategy to avoid debates with her opponents.

Indeed, on Wednesday Galanter said she relished the opportunity for one-on-one debates with Gray.

“Oh, I can’t wait to debate anywhere she wants--any street corner,” Galanter said. She predicted the “dramatic differences” on the issues would quickly come to light, revealing her as the true choice for managed growth, public safety and the environment.

In addition to development, voter polarization over the Rodney King beating was also at play in the race, with both poles amply represented in the district, which stretches from Venice to Crenshaw, Playa del Rey to Mar Vista, with Westchester and city neighborhoods near Marina del Rey also included.

Galanter’s refusal to call for Police Chief Daryl Gates’ resignation became a significant issue toward the close of the campaign, particularly in the predominantly black Crenshaw District. Then, late last week, Galanter was on the losing end of a City Council vote that lifted Gates’ suspension. In response to criticism, Galanter contended that her vote was misperceived as anti-Gates, when in fact it was intended as a vote against the City Council’s attempt to undermine the authority of the Police Commission.

Opponent Tavis Smiley, a former aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, concentrated his efforts in Crenshaw and ended up in fourth place with 9% of the vote. He said that Galanter’s strategy was to “hope that Crenshaw slept,” an unlikely scenario in light of the King issue.

Galanter’s five black opponents shared 35.5% of the vote. But on Wednesday, it was difficult to predict how the losers votes’ might be distributed in the runoff between Gray, a black Republican and Galanter, a white Democrat. Nor was it easy to forecast who would benefit from Grammatico’s nearly 4,000 votes. He endorsed Galanter four years ago, but said on Wednesday he has not decided whether to endorse anyone.

Galanter said she is confident that a victory can easily be obtained when voters who selected the other candidates choose between Gray and her.

Carrying the slow-growth, environmentalist banner four years ago, Galanter emerged from a pack of challengers to defeat then-Council President Pat Russell. Since then, the former professional planner has been criticized by some constituents who believe she has dropped the neighborhood activist mantle and become a City Hall insider, with substantial support from the downtown development crowd.

The Gray and Galanter primary campaigns were a study in contrasts.

Gray, strapped for funds, was unable to afford a districtwide mailer, while Galanter mounted a sophisticated targeted-mail campaign. Galanter avoided most debates. Gray kept an exhaustive schedule, going wherever she could find voters, seeing to the large and small campaign details herself.

On election morning, Gray joined supporters at the corner of Venice Boulevard and Centinela Avenue in a “human sign,” to urge commuters to vote for her. At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, with a runoff virtually certain, Gray telephoned the city every few minutes to find out about the last several uncounted precincts, as more than 20 supporters looked on. On Tuesday afternoon, she had visited a Crenshaw polling place near a senior citizens’ center, arranging for a poll worker to facilitate voting by a woman who could not use the stairs.

Galanter relied heavily on professional consultants, who received voter returns on a mobile phone outside an election night party of about 125 people at a restaurant in Westchester.

The other Westside council races were straightforward by comparison to the volatile 6th District. City Council President John Ferraro was unopposed in the 4th District, and Councilman Nate Holden easily defeated one challenger to win reelection.

COUNCIL RETURNS

District 4

139 of 139 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % John Ferraro* 10,115 100

District 6

189 of 189 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % J. Wilson Bowman 847 3.5 Tavis Smiley 2,189 9.0 Charles Albert Mattison 380 1.6 Ruth Galanter* 11,904 49.0 Salvatore Grammatico 3,746 15.4 Mary Lee Gray 4,929 20.3 Mervin Evans 283 1.2

District 10

142 of 142 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Nate Holden* 9,255 72.0 Esther M. Lofton 3,602 28.0

* Incumbents