Reiner Battles Himself, Challengers in Tight Race : Politics: District attorney is reeling from high-profile court losses. Pundits wonder if he will make it to a runoff.

There was a time not long ago when Ira Reiner had seemingly limitless political potential. Photogenic and articulate, with his familiar mop of white hair and trademark baritone voice, the district attorney of Los Angeles County appeared destined for the attorney general’s chair, maybe even the governor’s mansion.

Today, as he approaches the Tuesday primary election in his quest for a third term, the head of the nation’s largest office of prosecutors is running harder than ever against his most formidable opponent: Himself.

He is reeling from a string of high-profile courtroom losses, most notably the case of four Los Angeles police officers charged in the Rodney G. King beating--a case in which Reiner personally directed the legal strategy. A much-heralded report on gangs that could have given him a pre-election boost instead blew up in his face when critics assailed its findings about young black men.

He is having a difficult time getting people to give him money; two of his key opponents have outstripped him in fund raising. Last week, his own deputies staged a mock election and Reiner came in a dismal third. And voters have not forgotten his embarrassing loss to San Francisco Dist. Atty. Arlo Smith in the 1990 Democratic primary for attorney general--a loss that came on the heels of politically damaging acquittals in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case.

To be certain, Reiner’s political obituary has been written before, and he has often proved himself resilient. But pundits say this campaign is such an uphill battle that the eight-year veteran, who has been elected twice without a runoff, may have trouble squeaking into a runoff this year.

“He’s in deep, deep trouble,” said Dick Rosengarten, publisher of the California Political Week newsletter. “He started to peak out after the McMartin verdict came down and he’s been on a downhill slide ever since. . . . Somebody’s going to eat his lunch.”

Sam Singer, who managed Reiner’s 1990 campaign and has high praise for him as a prosecutor, said: “He is sort of repeating a pattern that cost him the attorney general’s race. He hasn’t raised a lot of money, he lost a major case right before the election. . . . I would consider it great fortune for Ira if he makes it in a runoff.”

In an interview Thursday, Reiner said the heavy workload he faced during the recent Los Angeles riots has prevented him from vigorously campaigning and raising money. Although he refused to speculate on his political future, he sounded less the brash, confident Reiner of years gone by and more like a man who is preparing himself for the possibility that he might be out of a job.

“Nobody is entitled to an office,” he said. “When you are elected you have an opportunity. . . . I have had great opportunities, most recently twice to be district attorney. I have enjoyed it immensely. I think that I have served very well. I have not always been right but I have always done what I thought was right, and more often than not as I look back, it was right.

”. . . Anytime you do something in public life, you always have to have the mind-set that any time, you can empty your pockets and walk out the door because the time is up.”

Reiner is up against three major challengers: Deputy Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, a veteran prosecutor who was once Reiner’s second-in-command; Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris, another experienced prosecutor who is best known as an advocate of victims’ rights, and Beverly Hills Mayor Bob Tanenbaum, a former New York City prosecutor who also writes crime novels. Also running, although not considered a strong contender, is Howard Johnson, an immigration rights lawyer.

The campaign has touched on a wide range of topics: the prosecution of police officers accused of misconduct, the use of jailhouse informants, investigation of auto insurance and workers’ compensation fraud, plea bargaining and the district attorney’s highly publicized program to collect child support payments from “deadbeat dads.”

But always, the political discourse seems to come back to Reiner.

He is a media hound, opponents and other critics complain. He has never tried a felony case, they protest. He is a politician, they say, not a real prosecutor.

The election has been so down and dirty that Garcetti has asked voters to contribute to his campaign by calling 1 (900) DUMP-IRA. Tanenbaum once referred to Reiner as “the Genghis Khan of the criminal justice system.” Reiner says his challengers have accused him of “everything but having carnal knowledge with a barnyard animal” because they have nothing substantive to discuss.

Reiner’s supporters say he is misunderstood, that his sincerity is obscured by his enigmatic nature. In many ways, Reiner is difficult to decipher, so detached and private that even his closest aides say they barely know him. He is sometimes uneasy in one-on-one conversation, but comes alive on television.

“The man looks too good,” said Reiner supporter Curt Livesay, who until recently held the No. 3 post in the district attorney’s office. “This is a formidable man on television. He’s got white hair, he’s got a square jaw and a steady gaze. When he says something, he’s got a nice voice. He’s packaged too well. I think he might be better off if he looked like a wimp.”

He also looks good on paper. His more than 950 deputies are prosecuting more cases than ever and they are winning more convictions.

When Reiner took office in 1984, statistics from the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning show, the district attorney’s office filed felony charges in 34% of all cases presented to it by law enforcement agencies, and won convictions in 75% of those cases. In 1990, the most recent year for which figures are available, the office filed felony charges in 53% of all cases presented and obtained convictions in 85%. By comparison, the conviction rate was 74% in Orange County, 79% in San Diego County and 77% in Alameda County.

Reiner has also scored successes in other areas.

Two innovative special units he created--one to prosecute environmental crimes, the other to investigate workplace deaths--have drawn nationwide praise. He has been a leader in pushing for legislation to assist in the prosecution of environmental crimes and also sponsored legislation that provides tougher penalties for gang members who commit crimes.

Despite Reiner’s reputation for losing high-profile cases, his deputies recently scored one of their biggest victories: the successful prosecution of Charles H. Keating Jr., former chief of the defunct Lincoln Savings and Loan, who is serving a 10-year sentence in prison for securities fraud. The complex prosecution could have been left to federal authorities, who were pursuing their own investigation.

Yet Reiner has drawn criticism on other fronts, from his opponents and those in the legal community.

Civil liberties advocates complain that he has not been doing enough to prosecute police officers accused of using excessive force--a charge Reiner denies. Statistics provided by his office show that deputy district attorneys reviewed 210 cases presented by law enforcement agencies since 1986, and filed charges in 22, or about 10%, of those cases.

Reiner has also angered a group of women prosecutors over his recent handling of a sexual harassment complaint against the chief prosecutor in his Beverly Hills office. The complaint came from a Beverly Hills police officer who said the deputy had made sexual remarks and shown her lewd pictures. Reiner said he found that the complaint was valid, quickly transferred the deputy and took away his status as a supervisor. But in a letter to Reiner’s top deputy, the women’s group complained that the transfer--which did not involve a pay cut and is technically a lateral move--was not penalty enough.

Judges have also grumbled about Reiner, especially his policy of no plea bargains announced in November amid much fanfare. “I don’t understand the policy except as a political posture,” said one judge, who like others said the move would clog the courts.

To such criticism, the district attorney has a standard reply: “I’m very proud of the district attorney’s office these last eight years,” he says frequently during debates, “and I’m very proud of my contribution to it.”

Although each of Reiner’s three major challengers has waged tough attacks on Reiner, each has critics of his own.

Norris, a former Marine, stresses his experience as the only “real prosecutor” among the candidates. He has obtained convictions in several high-profile cases, including that of the “Skid Row Stabber,” Bobby Joe Maxwell. He is the author of the “speedy trial initiative,” and was deeply involved in the successful campaign by death penalty proponents to oust the former chief justice of California, Rose Elizabeth Bird, from office in 1986. He is also the only Republican on the ballot in the nonpartisan race.

Norris’ chief critics are defense lawyers, who have complained about his use of jailhouse informants. Deputy State Public Defender Verna Wefald, who is representing Maxwell on appeal, alleges that Norris concealed information about jailhouse informants who testified in the case--a charge Norris denies.

In addition, Norris was tangentially involved in a case that was overturned by the California Supreme Court on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. Although Norris was not the prosecutor in the case, he arranged testimony from a witness in exchange for a lenient sentence for the witness’s wife. The arrangement drew a sharp rebuke from the high court because the prosecutor failed to disclose it. Norris maintains that he urged the prosecutor to do so.

Like Norris, Garcetti has spent 23 years in the district attorney’s office, although for much of that time he has been an administrator. He served for four years as Reiner’s chief deputy before the two had a falling out, and likes to say that he has never before run for office--and never would have--had it not been for his dissatisfaction with Reiner.

During the campaign, Garcetti has hit hard on Reiner, attacking him for failing to return a 1984 campaign contribution of $206,000 from Mark Weinberg, a Beverly Hills commodities broker who was convicted of defrauding clients.

Reiner has hit back by accusing Garcetti of authorizing a total $62,000 in overtime for himself and the former director of management and budget--who wrote the checks--at a time when Garcetti was refusing overtime payments to other deputies. Garcetti acknowledges taking $18,000 in overtime, but says office policy permitted him to do so.

Tanenbaum, the tough talking former New Yorker who is mayor of Beverly Hills, is portraying himself as an outsider--the only candidate who can reform the system--by lumping Garcetti and Norris with Reiner.

“Twenty-three years,” he said, referring to the time that Garcetti and Norris have spent in the district attorney’s office. “It’s an admission of being an accomplice to failure. They’ve had their chance.”

Tanenbaum’s foes, including Reiner, say his proposals for reform--such as keeping arraignment courts open seven days a week and using empty downtown commercial space to ease jail crowding--are unrealistic. In addition, he has been the subject of criticism by the Beverly Hills Police Officers Assn. for allegedly meddling in an April, 1991, police investigation involving actor Sylvester Stallone.

At the time, Tanenbaum was the attorney representing Stallone, who had been accused--and was cleared--of assaulting a photographer. The police officers group complained that Tanenbaum phoned a deputy chief and arranged for witness interviews to be conducted at Stallone’s home--an arrangement the group deemed inappropriate and said could only have occurred because Tanenbaum, as a city official, had access to high-ranking police officers.

Tanenbaum denies any impropriety and says before representing Stallone, he obtained an opinion from the Beverly Hills city attorney assuring him that it would not be a conflict of interest. As for calling the deputy chief, he said: “Any lawyer would have done the same thing.”

With such a strong field of opponents, it is difficult to tell who is ahead. Norris, who earlier had been perceived as the weakest of the three main challengers, recently got a considerable boost when The Times endorsed him. Garcetti has raised the most money and has been able to do the most advertising on television. Tanenbaum is also running a tough race, and has been on television as well.

Of all the candidates--with the exception of immigration rights lawyer Johnson--Reiner has run the lowest-profile campaign, leading one pundit to dub him the “stealth candidate.”

Most analysts predict that no one will win outright. If no candidate garners more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in November.

“I think everyone agrees that there will be a runoff,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the Claremont Graduate School’s Center for Politics and Policy. “The question I have is: ‘Who will be in the runoff?’ ”

Challengers in D.A.’s Race

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner faces his toughest race ever on Tuesday. His four challengers are:

Gil Garcetti

Biography: Los Angeles native. Graduate of UCLA School of Law. Married, two children, lives in Brentwood. Age: 50.

Professional: Has spent 23 years in the district attorney’s office. Formerly chief deputy to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, currently heads the D.A.’s Torrance office, where he has drawn accolades for prosecuting some tough cases himself. Came in first in a straw poll taken by county prosecutors.

Platform: No plea bargaining on cases involving crimes of violence. Would pay greater attention to hate crimes and domestic violence, as well as to child abuse. Calls for creation of programs to prevent crime, focusing on children as young as 3.

Quote: “I believe that we must take the politics and the politician out of the district attorney’s office.”

Howard Johnson

Biography: Chicago native. Graduate of Citrus Belt Law School in Riverside. Married, four children. Lives in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles. Age: 52.

Professional: Works as an immigration rights attorney, mostly on cases involving political asylum. Became a lawyer in 1979. Before that, he worked as an accountant, a substitute elementary school teacher, a court clerk with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago and a legal aide.

Platform: Opposes the death penalty. Would vigorously prosecute career criminals but would work to provide social services to those who commit crimes because of drug abuse or mental illness. Favors amnesty for looters arrested during the recent riots.

Quote: “I can’t see putting a woman in jail on a felony burglary charge for stealing a bag of Pampers.”

Sterling Norris

Biography: A native of Newcastle, Wyo., and a Marine Corps veteran. Graduate of UCLA School of Law. Married, four children, lives in Northridge. Age: 53.

Professional: Has spent 23 years in the district attorney’s office, all of them as a trial prosecutor. Has obtained convictions in several high-profile trials, including the so-called “Freeway Killer” and “Skid Row Stabber” cases. Known as an advocate of victims’ rights. Named Prosecutor of the Year in 1986 by the California District Attorneys Assn.

Platform: Would use only the most experienced prosecutors on high-profile cases. Would vigorously prosecute looters and rioters and stop “lenient sentencing and plea bargaining.” Would devote increased attention to auto insurance fraud and workers’ compensation fraud.

Quote: “I’m the only real prosecutor among the candidates.”

Robert Tanenbaum

Biography: New York native. Graduate of UC Berkeley Law School. Married, three children, lives in Beverly Hills. Age: 49.

Professional: Mayor of Beverly Hills, works as a lawyer. Prosecutor in New York City for eight years. Was deputy chief counsel to the special congressional committee that investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. In 1981, served as a special consultant for the prosecution in the “Hillside Strangler” case.

Platform: Calls for keeping courts open 16 hours a day, every day, to handle arraignments. Would prosecute high-profile cases himself, and establish a special bureau to handle organized crime. Would create a homicide bureau in which prosecutors would be on call to investigate murders. Calls for an end to “mindless plea bargaining.”

Quote: “There is no political way to deal with the criminal justice system.”