CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS / 12TH DISTRICT RUNOFF : Bernson, Korenstein Courting Votes They Missed in Primary

Less than 48 hours after losing his first bid for public office in last month’s city primary election, Northridge print shop owner Allen Hecht found himself lunching on veal Dijon with the man he tried to unseat, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson.

As they ate, Bernson asked Hecht if he would back him in his June 4 runoff election against Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein. Bernson and Korenstein entered the runoff after defeating Hecht and three other challengers in the April 9 primary race for Bernson’s northwest San Fernando Valley seat.

Just two hours after seeing Bernson, Hecht--who finished fourth in the primary--was at a different restaurant, sipping herbal tea across from Korenstein. She, too, wanted his endorsement in the 12th Council District race.

“It only cost me $30,000 to get two free lunches,” quipped Hecht, referring to the amount of money spent in his campaign.

As they crank up their campaign organizations for June, Bernson and Korenstein are formulating strategies for what is likely to be a key battleground in the runoff: winning over voters who backed the four candidates defeated in April.

Those candidates--Hecht, businessman Walter Prince, police detective Arthur Kagele and newsletter publisher Leonard Shapiro--ran up a larger share of the vote than Bernson or Korenstein. The four had 36.2%, compared with 34.7% for Bernson and 29% for Korenstein.

Meanwhile, Bernson and Korenstein are waiting to see if Prince, who was third in the primary, will enter the runoff. Prince, the wealthy owner of a Northridge janitorial service, is considering a write-in candidacy; he plans to make up his mind in the next week.

A bid by Prince could dramatically reshape the runoff. Korenstein’s campaign manager, Parke Skelton, has warned that if Prince runs, she will concentrate her attacks on him in an effort to damage his ability to lure anti-Bernson voters. During the primary, Korenstein repeatedly criticized Bernson for his support of the mammoth Porter Ranch development north of Chatsworth.

Since the primary, Korenstein, a liberal Democrat, has contacted all four of the losers, but to date has secured the backing only of Shapiro and Kagele, who together garnered 7% of the vote. Bernson, a conservative Republican, spoke with Hecht, Prince and Kagele but failed to win any endorsements.

Political observers believe it is Korenstein who most needs the backing of the losers, who all shared her opposition to Porter Ranch. Her campaign strategy is based on the idea that she can attract enough supporters of the other anti-Bernson candidates to beat him in June.

“I think she really needs these folks on board,” said Rick Taylor, a political consultant who managed Prince’s campaign. “Not because they have any great followings, but because . . . Prince and Hecht voters are truly anti-Bernson voters.”

Skelton responded that the support of defeated candidates would help Korenstein but is not necessary for her to win.

During the primary, Bernson largely refrained from attacking his opponents, despite the barrage of criticism they aimed at him. But since then, Bernson has hired a new political consultant, vowing to campaign more aggressively against Korenstein in the runoff.

The councilman said he intends to question Korenstein’s school board record. He also plans to remind voters in the moderate-to-conservative district that she has called for the resignation of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and that she had a “connection” to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist. Korenstein said she worked as a campaign volunteer for Jackson’s 1984 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Skelton said Korenstein will continue to attack Bernson for leading council approval last year of Porter Ranch, a 1,300-acre commercial and residential development that will house 11,000 people. But she also intends to open another line of attack by accusing Bernson of lying about working to preserve nearby Oat Mountain while accepting money from developers who own land there.

Bernson said he believes that despite his position on Porter Ranch, he can lure Prince and Hecht voters by portraying Korenstein as philosophically out of step with the district, where Republicans hold a small registration edge over Democrats.

But Skelton said those who voted against Bernson in the primary are unlikely to vote for him in the runoff.

“People have already decided they don’t want the incumbent,” he said. “They are more disposed to vote for a challenger. . . . We need to get about 60% of them to win.”

Last week, Bernson also challenged Korenstein to twice-weekly debates during the last month of the campaign, an unusual move since incumbents usually avoid such forums in an effort to deny challengers public exposure. During the primary, Bernson appeared just once in a candidates forum with his opponents.

“I think it’s time to really discuss the issues . . . I don’t think she can win the election by hiding behind Porter Ranch,” he said.

Skelton responded that Bernson “is just grandstanding” and that Korenstein probably will not agree to the debate series. But he noted that she is already scheduled to appear with Bernson in a television interview May 29 and a radio interview May 30 and is considering a second TV appearance.

Despite Bernson’s fund-raising edge in the primary, city campaign rules have placed the two candidates on virtually equal financial footing at the start of the runoff. Under city law, candidates may not carry any primary campaign funds into the runoff. Korenstein expects to raise about $80,000 for the runoff race; Bernson will raise $100,000 to $150,000, spokesmen said.

Skelton said the question of whether Korenstein will conduct polling and other activities depends on how much money she can raise. He said that in addition to fund-raisers and other typical money-generating tactics, she plans to make telephone appeals to 12th Council District residents for cash.

A Bernson spokesman said the councilman plans to send out more campaign mailers in the runoff than the 12 mailings he made in the primary. He also intends to add more phone bank operations to help boost voter turnout.