West Hollywood : CES Endorses Koretz

City Councilman Paul Koretz has won the endorsement of the Coalition for Economic Survival, the influential tenant-rights group.

CES has already endorsed Abbe Land, the other incumbent in the race for two available council seats. In the 1988 campaign, CES also endorsed Land and then backed Koretz late in the race.

Koretz is a CES member and Land is on the group’s steering committee. Since cityhood in 1984, only one council candidate has been elected without CES support. All three members of the council majority--Land, John Heilman and Babette Lang--are on the CES steering committee.

Candidate Robert J. Pierson complained that he was not invited for a pre-endorsement interview by the group, but CES Executive Director Larry Gross said Pierson never formally sought the group’s backing. Gross said the group interviewed Land, Koretz and John A. Altshul, who later dropped out of the campaign, citing among other reasons his failure to get a CES endorsement.

Challenger Rachelle Sommers Smith was on the CES steering committee until she took part in an unsuccessful drive to recall Heilman last year.