CITY COUNCIL RUNOFF ELECTIONS / 6TH DISTRICT : Candidates Not Alone in Debate on Growth

The runoff election for Los Angeles’ 6th District City Council seat is a contest between two women, but at the moment attention is focused on three men and what role they might play.

Two of them are former candidates eliminated in the April 9 primary, who have thus far declined to endorse either incumbent Ruth Galanter or challenger Mary Lee Gray. The third is Gray’s boss, County Supervisor Deane Dana, whose pro-development reputation has already been the target of Galanter’s attacks.

Galanter, who came within 300 votes of winning the election outright last month, has made clear that her strategy is to portray Dana and Gray as one voice for development in a district where many constituents would prefer never to see a backhoe again. Galanter, 50, said she favors managed growth.

Gray, also 50, insists she also favors managed growth and is her own person, a public servant who has served three supervisors over 18 years with the county.

Given her lead of 49% to 20% over Gray in the primary and the incumbent’s advantage at raising campaign funds, Galanter is the early favorite in a district that includes Venice, Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills, Westchester, Playa del Rey and Mar Vista.

It is a district divided--racially, politically and philosophically. The West Side of the district is a hotbed of slow-growth sentiment, a factor that enabled Galanter four years ago to unseat then-council President Pat Russell. Development is also an issue with Crenshaw voters--they need it to bolster a struggling local economy.

Residents of predominantly black Crenshaw have been galvanized by the beating of Rodney G. King and are clamoring for Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ resignation. Westchester, conservative and mostly white, is pro-Gates territory.

Voters expressed these sentiments at the polls in the primary, especially in Westchester, where community activist Salvatore Grammatico, with a staunch slow-growth, environmental platform and virtually no money, drew an impressive 15.4% of the vote to finish third. Tavis Smiley, former aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, came in fourth with 9.1% of the vote after calling for Gates’ ouster.

Grammatico’s stronghold was Westchester, which is under development pressure from all sides. The proposed Playa Vista development would place a city-within-a-city between Westchester and Marina del Rey, land that is now open fields. A proposed expansion of Loyola Marymount University and UCLA faculty housing would gobble up portions of the Westchester bluffs. And LAX Northside, a vast office and commercial project planned on city-owned land next to the airport, would add to the area’s congestion.

Grammatico’s supporters are encouraging him to wage a write-in campaign, which Grammatico said he is considering.

At the least, Grammatico said, his continued presence could put pressure on Galanter and Gray to take definite positions during community debates. After eschewing most community forums in the primary, Galanter has said she will take part this time, though dates have not been set.

Grammatico, 38, said his showing means that Galanter has not delivered on her slow-growth promises of four years ago, when she swept Westchester. But he also said he thinks that enough of his supporters will choose Galanter that she will defeat Gray and win a second term.

Gray insists that Grammatico’s Westchester supporters will be hers if the conservative community learns that she is a registered Republican. In her effort to demonstrate her independence from Dana, Gray said, she played down her party affiliation in Westchester during the primary. “I will not make that mistake again,” she said.

Gray begins the runoff with a new campaign staff, headed by Wendy Warfield. Her former consultant, Harvey Englander, moved on to San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson’s campaign.

Galanter, meanwhile, is likely to make sure that Gray’s party affiliation is well known in largely Democratic Crenshaw, where Gray made a respectable showing--attributed in part to her inclusion on slate mailers controlled by two influential black Democrats.

Gray paid to be included in the mailers, put out by state Assemblyman Willard Murray and Rep. Mervyn Dymally.

Gray says Crenshaw represents half of the coalition she must build to win. It is where most of the black voters, who make up one-third of the 6th District electorate, are found, and she says she is confident they will help her become Los Angeles’ first black councilwoman. (Rita Walters is also seeking that distinction in the 9th District runoff election.)

In Gray’s scenario, the other half of her coalition will be the district’s registered Republicans, also about one-third of the electorate.

Fourth-place finisher Smiley, 26, who concentrated his campaign in Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills, said he is remaining neutral in the general election.

Smiley is the only one of the top four candidates who called for Gates’ resignation. Gray and Galanter condemn the beating but favor waiting for results of formal inquiries to determine Gates’ fate. Galanter complicated her position by voting early this month to keep the chief on suspension, but she characterized that vote as being in support of the Police Commission, not a judgment of Gates.

At a campaign kickoff news conference last week, Galanter said she is unconcerned about obtaining the support of former rivals Grammatico and Smiley and instead will appeal directly to voters. Galanter is sticking with her primary political consultants, Marc Litchman and Steven Glazer.

Standing at the end of Falmouth Avenue in Playa del Rey, Galanter said she was there to demonstrate the clear distinction between herself and Gray, based on their positions on extending the road through the Ballona Wetlands. Galanter has taken steps to block the road’s extension as disruptive to the wetlands and the neighborhood.

Galanter stressed that Gray’s boss, Dana, favors the road as an artery to Marina del Rey, which the county wants to continue developing. Gray has said she favored the Falmouth extension as needed to move traffic, but is not wedded to that position if it can be shown that there are better alternatives.