Korenstein Is Endorsed by Ex-Candidate : Election: Walter Prince, who came in third in the primary after Councilman Hal Bernson and the school board member, will not be a write-in choice.

Businessman Walter Prince, who finished third in last month’s primary election for Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson’s seat, gave a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement Monday to challenger Julie Korenstein, reversing his prior adamant refusals to support her in the June 4 runoff against Bernson.

Prince, the wealthy owner of a Northridge janitorial firm, said he has abandoned the idea of running as a write-in candidate in the runoff. That prospect had alarmed Korenstein campaign strategists, who worried that his presence on the June ballot might split the anti-Bernson vote in the election for the seat representing the northwestern San Fernando Valley.

Prince said he intends to actively aid her by urging his supporters to vote for her, subleasing her his old campaign headquarters, donating $500 to her campaign and voting for her himself. But the blunt-spoken Price hedged the endorsement by adding that “I can’t honestly say I’m 100% for her.”

“I still have political differences with her, and I probably always will. . . . I don’t think I’d say she’s a good candidate. I’d say she’s a better candidate than Bernson.”

Korenstein, a Los Angeles school board member, was among five candidates who opposed Bernson in the April 9 primary. Bernson, a 12-year incumbent, was forced into the runoff after winning only 34.7% of the vote, the lowest percentage for a sitting council member in 20 years.

With Prince supporting her, Korenstein now has the backing of three of the other four anti-Bernson candidates in the primary. The lone holdout, printer Allen Hecht, reiterated Monday that he will not endorse her.

Korenstein campaign manager Parke Skelton welcomed Prince’s support, saying the businessman will help her attract votes among those who cast ballots for candidates other than Bernson or Korenstein during the primary.

“I think the race is going to be very close and every factor is going to be important,” he said.

Bernson, who sought Prince’s endorsement, said he regretted Prince’s decision to back Korenstein. But he questioned how many Prince voters will swing to Korenstein, a liberal Democrat, in June.

“I don’t know that people who supported Mr. Prince in the primary are going to be so quick to support someone . . . who is an ultra-liberal, you might even say a radical,” he said.

“The only thing we disagreed on was Porter Ranch,” said the councilman, referring to the massive development project north of Chatsworth, which Bernson backs and Prince opposes.

“Other than that, he professed to agree with me on all the other issues,” said Bernson, adding that he believes that Prince is waging a “blood vendetta against me.”

In recent weeks, Prince had vehemently refused to endorse Korenstein, saying he had too many political differences with her. Among other things, he criticized her for refusing to sign an ethics pledge that he drew up barring candidates from spending more than $1 per registered voter in the primary.

“I wouldn’t endorse her, I wouldn’t vote for her, I wouldn’t do” anything for her, Prince said in a March 28 interview with The Times.

He said he changed his mind after a poll he conducted indicated that he could not win as a write-in candidate against Korenstein and Bernson. He said he considered running only because he was worried that Korenstein would be easily defeated by Bernson, who Prince has clashed with often over local land-use matters.

Prince said his survey results, however, showed that Korenstein was leading the councilman by a small margin in a very close race. He said he thought if he ran, he might succeed only in taking votes away from her and giving the election to Bernson.

“If Bernson won, I’d go out and shoot myself,” he said. “I want to make very sure that he doesn’t get a chance to continue what he’s been doing to this district for the past 12 years.”