LOCAL ELECTIONS : Long Race to Replace Hahn Starts With Candidates’ Forum

To call it a political race is something of an understatement.

The campaign for county supervisor in the 2nd District promises to be nothing less than a marathon; a long, expensive war of attrition.

It will be the first contest in 40 years in which retiring Supervisor Kenneth Hahn will not dominate the field, and so the candidates are turning out early and in large numbers.

On Monday--more than four months before the June 2 primary election and 10 days before filing for candidacy even opens--seven of 10 announced challengers gathered for their first debate.

“Everyone’s going to be tired by the time we get to the campaign,” quipped candidate Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, former supervisor and congresswoman, at the conclusion of the 1 1/2-hour debate hosted by the Los Angeles County Black Employees Assn.

Between 20 and 30 association members and others from the community dropped in for the debate at the association’s headquarters on Crenshaw Boulevard after the King Day Parade on nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Some activists see the campaign as an opportunity to elect a black to the Board of Supervisors for the first time. Burke was appointed to the board in 1979, but lost to Supervisor Deane Dana the next year.

William Ruffin, director of labor relations for the Black Employees Assn., said the possibility that a black could be elected persuaded him to hold the candidates’ forum--the first in his organization’s history.

“We wanted to be the first to do it because of the importance of black candidates,” said Ruffin. “And we wanted it on King Day, out of respect for his efforts.”

Indeed, King’s legacy was remembered by most of the candidates, black and white, as they addressed the crowd.

“King would turn over in his grave if he could see what is happening today,” said Louis Chitty, a former teacher who ran for the county board in the neighboring 1st District last year.

On some topics everyone had plenty to say.

Chitty, like most of the candidates, chastised the board for allowing county services to deteriorate and the local economy to worsen. But the candidates differed on how to cure the problems of unemployment in the community and overcrowding at county health facilities.

Clinton Simmons, who is running in his first political race, said that as an engineer he is better able to evaluate government regulations that he said are driving business out of the county.

Howard Sands, an actor, complained that illegal immigrants are taking jobs that should go to citizens.

Dean Wetmore, who operates a small importing business, said local companies should be given preferential treatment for county contracts.

Eli Green, a pipe fitter, said the Metro Green Line should be built at the General Motors Van Nuys plant, which is being shut down. “The need for jobs is here, the need for trains is here and the Van Nuys plant is here,” he said.

Roye Love, a county welfare administrator, promised that if he is elected, the percentage of black employees at the county will not change even in the face of work force cutbacks.

But on other topics, candidates were less sure of their positions. Burke, Chitty and Sands had no position on questions about whether the county should permit non-union employees in its work force.

Three candidates--state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), Richard Atkins and Rudolf Thomas--did not attend the debate.