O’Leary Abandons Bid to Regain Council Seat : Politics: Only one of the four City Council members recalled in December is still running in Tuesday’s election.

The City Council race took another unexpected turn this week when recalled Councilman Douglas O’Leary decided to drop his campaign to regain his seat.

In announcing that he was withdrawing a week before the election, O’Leary said he will be more effective on the sidelines. He also vowed to launch a recall effort of his own if his political foes are reelected next Tuesday.

“Now that I am not campaigning, I feel a lot freer to help prove all the fraud and electioneering that went on during the (March 10) election,” O’Leary said, referring to a special election held to replace four council members who were recalled in December. “And when the current council is brought up on corruption charges, the citizens of Bell Gardens will turn to me for true leadership.”

O’Leary, 33, who had been a top vote-getter when he was first elected to the council in 1990, was one of four Anglo council members thrown out of office last December in an emotional recall campaign. In last month’s special election, voters elected a Latino majority to the council for the first time.

The district attorney’s office, however, is investigating alleged ballot irregularities in the special election, which was won by George T. Deitch, Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia, Frank B. Duran and Josefina (Josie) Macias. The new council members, who helped lead the successful recall effort in December, have denied the charges. All are among the 13 candidates vying next Tuesday for three council seats on the ballot.

O’Leary’s name will remain on the ballot, but he said he plans to send a letter to voters telling them that he has withdrawn and promising a recall campaign should Deitch, Garcia and Duran be reelected. Macias is also on the ballot Tuesday but will retain her council seat regardless of the outcome. She won a two-year term in the special election last month but was unable to have her name removed from the Tuesday ballot.

O’Leary also admitted that chances were slim that he could win back his council seat. “The momentum they carried through the recall process would be hard to beat, and I honestly didn’t think I could win,” O’Leary said. “But the voters will eventually discover they have been lied to and duped by these people. I want to help get the truth out.”

Deitch said the charges of ballot tampering and intimidation of voters “are just plain wrong. Whether it’s a basketball game or an election, the losers will always say the winners cheated. I expect it.” Macias previously called the allegations sour grapes.

Deitch also said he was surprised by O’Leary’s decision to withdraw.

“A chess match involves a lot of moves, and you always wonder why they do these things,” he said after learning of O’Leary’s plans. “They are tricky people and you never know what the motive is.” Deitch agreed, however, that O’Leary “didn’t stand a chance of winning. He saw the handwriting on the wall; he knew he would lose.”

O’Leary’s decision leaves only one recalled council member--Allen Shelby--in the race. Former Councilwoman Letha Viles was ruled ineligible to run in February when she failed to produce enough valid signatures on her nominating petition. The fourth recalled council member, former Mayor Robert Cunningham, decided after the recall that he would not try to regain his seat.

Shelby, who had been a councilman for 10 years, said he will remain in the race.

“Well, maybe with (O’Leary) out, I’ll get more votes,” said Shelby, who had been a councilman for 10 years. “Somebody’s got to keep the battle going, and there is no way I’m going to just say, ‘I’m whipped’ and quit. No way.”