Lindsay Casts a Long Shadow : 9th District: Voters show little enthusiasm for candidates to replace the late councilman. They recall fondly how he got services for his constituents for 27 years.

Tuesday was supposed to mark the first City Council election in the 9th District in 27 years without Gilbert W. Lindsay in it.

But six months after Lindsay died at 90, voters in what he liked to call “the Great 9th” were still measuring Lindsay’s potential successors by the long shadow cast by the 5-foot, 3-inch totem of South-Central Los Angeles.

Voter turnout, several poll-watchers commented, seemed low because voters felt little loyalty to either of his would-be successors--Bob Gay, his longtime aide and a native of the district, and Rita Walters, a veteran member of the Los Angeles Unified School District board. Gay raised more money ($375,922 to Walters’ $252,520 as of May 25), but had less name recognition.

“Just 53 came in so far,” poll official Marie Christian, 65, said at mid-afternoon. “Should’ve been over 100 by now.”

She and a handful of other workers said voters used to go to the polls to support Lindsay as a thank you.

“Many folk feel like they might as well stay at home,” said Johnnie Neely, owner of a school supply store and an occasional candidate for the Assembly. “The question is, how are we going to know there’s a change?”

Saying that Lindsay indulged downtown developers to the occasional detriment of poorer residents in his district, Neely had put up a sign in her window supporting Walters.

There was very little talk in the 9th District about the issues that roused emotions at City Hall--Mayor Tom Bradley’s staff making illegal use of city computers to help Walters, Gay accepting a controversial free trip in 1987 from a Hong Kong developer.

Instead, over and over again, voters invoked Lindsay’s name and seemed unclear not only on whom to vote for with him gone, but also on what standards to use in evaluating the candidates.

When in doubt, many of the two dozen voters and poll workers who were interviewed said they opted for Gay because of his ties to the district.

“Oh, we miss him (Lindsay),” sighed Beatrice Goodwin, 90, who has been a poll-watcher for 30 years. “If you wanted something done, you called him and he got it done. He knew how to move. “

In this district where storefront churches occupy many corners, a handful of undecided voters said they opted for Gay because he is a self-proclaimed “born-again” Christian endorsed by several local pastors. Goodwin, who belongs to Lindsay’s old Victory Baptist Church, said she hoped that Gay would win because he visited many of the local churches.

Darlene Hunter, 27, was one of the few young people seen at the polls on a two-hour tour Tuesday. Born the year Lindsay took office, she has never known the 9th District without the man.

Asked whom she was voting for, she closed her eyes and pretended to pick a candidate blindfolded. Asked to choose among Gay, Walters and Lindsay, she said: “Lindsay!”

Call Lindsay, voters said Tuesday, and he would get that fallen tree removed, that pothole filled, that crossing guard at the grade school.

In an area whose mean household income was $12,219 in 1988, being able to call City Hall is important. The district is 61% Latino, but only an estimated 4,000 of 57,354 registered voters are Latino. Many of the Spanish-speakers in the area are recent immigrants. Half a block down the street from Walters’ headquarters on South Broadway, two clerks at a large grocery store advertising “Frutas Frescas” did not know an election was going on.

In the Gilbert Lindsay Community Center, a handful of Spanish-speaking parents who played with their children on the swings did not recognize Lindsay’s name. One, from Mexico, said she is not eligible to vote because she is not a citizen.