First Challenger in D.A.’s Race Blasts Reiner as ‘Pretender’ : Elections: Beverly Hills Councilman Tanenbaum announces his candidacy. Four others may make a run at the incumbent.

Next year’s election for Los Angeles County district attorney got off to an early start Thursday as the first of a number of challengers expected to run against incumbent Ira Reiner formally entered the race.

Beverly Hills City Councilman Robert Tanenbaum, a 48-year-old former New York City prosecutor, launched his campaign with a stinging attack on the eight-year incumbent, declaring that Reiner is a “plea-bargaining addict,” who has politicized the criminal courts by playing to the media.

“He is a pretender,” Tanenbaum said, “one who has perverted and frustrated our system of justice and frustrated and demoralized the district attorney’s staff. He has let us all down and betrayed the courts and, worst of all, the very people who elected him.”

Tanenbaum made his announcement before a crowd of about 60 supporters--including actor Ed Asner and philanthropist Sybil Brand--at the Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles. His declaration comes as Reiner faces mounting criticism for his handling of the controversial case involving a Korean-born grocer who killed a 15-year-old black girl.

On Monday, after Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin sentenced the grocer to probation, Reiner vowed to prevent Karlin from hearing any other criminal matters--a move that has drawn criticism from judges and community activists. A Tanenbaum spokesman, however, said the candidate was not trying to capitalize on the controversy by announcing for office in the same week.

Reiner could not be reached for comment on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office referred media inquiries to campaign official William Wardlaw, who did not return a reporter’s telephone calls.

Political observers say Reiner, who has been elected twice without a runoff, may be vulnerable this time. Although Reiner has high name recognition, he suffered an embarrassing defeat last year when he ran against San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith in the race for the Democratic Party’s attorney general nomination.

Moreover, a recent poll commissioned by Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert Garcetti, who has said he intends to run, found that only 19% of those responding thought Reiner should be reelected. More than half the respondents--52%--said they would vote for someone else.

“It is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, reelection response that we have seen for an incumbent and we have done a lot of surveys for different people,” said pollster Richard Maullin, who said he surveyed 500 people over a three-day period during the first week in September. “It is an indication that the voters seem inclined not to elect him if there is a viable or acceptable alternative.”

The results, according to Garcetti, suggest that Reiner could be forced into a runoff after the primary election in June. The primary is nonpartisan; if a candidate wins with more than 50% of the vote, he is elected. If no candidate gets more than 50%, the two highest vote-getters run in a nonpartisan general election in November.

Garcetti, meanwhile, criticized Reiner for instructing prosecutors to file an “affidavit of removal” against Judge Karlin each time she is assigned a criminal case.

“I think it shows how he has used and abused the authority and the power of the district attorney for what I perceive to be strictly a political opportunity case . . . It is just cruel, almost, of the district attorney to have done this.”

Garcetti, 50, heads the district attorney’s Torrance office. He once served as Reiner’s chief deputy, but was removed from that spot by Reiner more than a year ago. Reiner never publicly explained the demotion, but at the time office insiders speculated that Garcetti’s high-profile personality may have overshadowed his boss.

Other potential challengers include Superior Court Judge J. D. Smith, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn and Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris, a 23-year veteran prosecutor.

Smith, a 55-year-old former police officer who served as a top deputy to former Los Angeles Police Chief Ed Davis, said he has been asked by labor leaders, by the Police Protective League, by Davis and by “a lot of politicians” to run, but that he has not yet made a decision.

Hahn said through a spokesman that he has not ruled out running for district attorney but that his “prime option” is running for reelection to the city attorney’s position in 1993.

Norris said he expects to announce his candidacy in January. The 52-year-old prosecutor headed the special trials unit until several months ago; like Garcetti, he accuses Reiner of demoting him for political reasons. “He removed me,” Norris said. “They don’t want me on the ballot as head deputy of special trials.”

In his announcement Thursday, Tanenbaum hammered away at Reiner for “playing politics.” He also charged that, until the Rodney G. King beating brought nationwide attention to Los Angeles law enforcement, Reiner failed to prosecute police officers engaged in brutality. He also called Reiner’s recent announcement that he will no longer plea-bargain violent-crime cases a “mindless approach.” He said cases should be evaluated individually, rather than be subjected to a blanket policy.

Tanenbaum pledged to create a special homicide bureau with prosecutors on call around the clock; to personally prosecute high-profile cases; to develop an “early case assessment bureau” that would determine which cases should be plea-bargained, and to establish a “rackets bureau” to prosecute organized crime and political corruption.

He also said he would conduct arraignments seven days a week, 16 hours a day--a move that might not sit well with judges, who this week voted to abolish night court, saying it is inefficient.

Tanenbaum currently practices civil law in Beverly Hills and was formerly the city’s mayor. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native moved to California in 1978, after serving nine years as prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. In 1981, then-Atty. Gen. George Deukmejian appointed him to serve as a special consultant to the prosecution in the Hillside Strangler case.

He is also the co-author of two nonfiction books, and three novels, all based on his experiences as a prosecutor.