ELECTIONS CITY COUNCIL : 2 Challengers Get Little Help in Runoffs for Districts 4, 6 : Politics: Both City Council campaigns have become more aggressive since the primary, with accusations of lies, distortions and claims of a political payoff for support.

Some political contestants give away potholders to catch voters’ attention. Doris Topsy-Elvord prefers brooms--a token of the anti-incumbent sweep she hopes to be part of Tuesday in the Long Beach City Council runoff election.

But Topsy-Elvord and Charles G. (Jerry) Westlund are facing tough odds in their challenges of Councilmen Clarence Smith and Thomas Clark, respectively, who both easily led a field of opponents in the April primary.

Westlund, who is running against Clark in District 4, and Topsy-Elvord, who is opposing Smith in District 6, have been working hard to woo voters whose candidates were knocked out in the primary. Yet neither has gotten key help from defeated contestants.

In the 6th District race, Dan Cangro, who picked up nearly 17% of the primary vote, has thrown his support behind Smith. In the 4th, Sharon Lee Douglass, who collected 12% of the primary vote, has refused to endorse either Clark or Westlund, saying she does not like either of them.

Clark, in the meantime, has gone on the offensive. Abandoning the generally mild-mannered mailers he sent out in the primary, the council veteran has blasted away at Westlund in recent weeks. Both men have accused the other of lying and have dismissed each other’s mailers as a mass of distortions.

The 6th District race, while somewhat tamer, has hardly been a love fest.

Cangro declared immediately after the primary that neither runoff candidate was worth his support. He referred to “Mr. Smith’s abysmal record and Mrs. Elvord’s self-serving interests, underhanded tactics and negativism.” But early this month he endorsed Smith, prompting allegations that Smith had promised him a seat on the Planning Commission.

“(Cangro) did it because he wants a seat on the Planning Commission and because he was very angry I got in the runoff and he didn’t,” said Topsy-Elvord, who has to pick up votes from Cangro’s supporters to have any chance of winning.

Smith and Cangro deny any deal. “I made no promises,” Smith said, although both concede that they discussed Cangro’s interest in the Planning Commission, and Smith said he would support Cangro’s application.

“Why not?” asked Smith, 61, a retired city recreation administrator who is running for his third term. “He’s from the district and he’s shown he has an active interest in the community.”

Cangro said he decided to endorse Smith because the incumbent vowed to pay more attention to the Wrigley District. “He’s still got an abysmal record because he spent all his time in the central area,” Cangro said. “But we’ve gotten commitments from him.”

At the same time, Topsy-Elvord, a Civil Service commissioner and retired deputy probation officer for the county, has picked up some endorsements from the Latino community. Tonia Reyes Uranga, Ray Rodriguez, Manny Perez and several other members of a loose-knit coalition of community and business leaders complain that Smith has appointed virtually no Latinos to boards or commissions, despite the district’s sizable Latino population.

Smith, in response, says two of his staff members have been Latino and that he named a Latino to two commissions. He said it was difficult to find Latino candidates for boards because “a lot of them are not active in the community, nor are they registered to vote.”

Topsy-Elvord, 60, has tried to pin Smith with the urban ills of District 6. One of her mailers, headlined “Welcome to the Sixth District,” features a photograph of a wall smothered with graffiti and accuses Smith of letting the area decline under an onslaught of drugs and crime.

Smith continues to emphasize his record and his support by the Long Beach Minister’s Alliance and a number of local unions, including the firefighters, police and teachers.

Smith points to redevelopment efforts, his support of affordable housing and recreation programs, and the adoption of an ordinance that allows the city to force landlords to evict tenants who persistently sell drugs in their buildings. He also has said he would like to see some of the riot-damaged liquor stores move elsewhere or turn to other business. But he failed last week to win council support for his motion to have city management examine the issue.

The Clark-Westlund contest has seemed at times more like a partisan legislative race than a nonpartisan council election. The campaign has become a competition of “Who Is the Real Republican?,” as both try to appeal to the district’s large GOP bloc.

Westlund, a 26-year-old auctioneer, has branded Clark as a tax-and-spend liberal Democrat in disguise. Westlund has highlighted Clark’s support from unions, gay groups and Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a liberal citywide watchdog organization, and condemned him for supporting tax increases.

Clark, a 65-year-old optometrist and the council’s senior member, has in turn accused Westlund of peddling homophobic, right-wing extremism and of spewing out a barrage of misinformation.

Clark has fumed over several recent Westlund mailers, while Westlund is complaining about Clark’s counterattacks.

In one, Clark cites the financial support Westlund’s campaign is getting from the real estate and development industries and asks, “Who owns Jerry Westlund?”

Westlund has promoted himself as a pro-business candidate and has collected substantial checks from real estate and property management concerns, as well as the use of an office for his campaign headquarters. Still, he pointed out that during Clark’s many campaigns over the years, Clark also has accepted extensive donations from developers and real estate companies.

In another black-and-yellow mailer that refers to a proposal to abolish the Long Beach Police Department and replace it with citywide sheriff’s patrols, Clark warns that Westlund “wants to close down our Police Department and rent our police services.”

Westlund, who did not have a position on the sheriff’s proposal during the primary but was viewed by many as pro-sheriff, says he now believes the savings from contracting with the Sheriff’s Department are not enough to justify disbanding the local police force.

“We now have numbers that are dipping down,” Westlund said. The city auditor has estimated the city would save between $11 million and $14 million annually if it replaced the local force with sheriff’s patrols, compared to a $29-million annual savings estimated by the Sheriff’s Department.

Clark, who is endorsed by the police union, says the city should keep its own department.

Hitting the partisan theme in another leaflet that features the word “guilty” slapped across a photograph of Westlund, Clark cites a Republican group’s “reprimand” of Westlund for his aggressive pursuit of their endorsement.

According to the mailer, the Long Beach Young Republicans found Westlund’s “conduct unbecoming a Republican.”

Westlund, who persuaded the group to withdraw its endorsement of Clark, dismissed the scolding as the work of Clark supporters.