ELECTION CITY COUNCIL : Topsy-Elvord Leads Smith by Thin Margin : City Council: About 100 ballots yet to be counted in 6th District runoff. In 4th District, incumbent Clark gets narrow win.

In results that could still change with uncounted votes, Doris Topsy-Elvord appeared to beat Councilman Clarence Smith by the slimmest of margins Tuesday. Meanwhile council veteran Thomas Clark managed to fend off a strong challenge from a political novice.

Topsy-Elvord led Smith by 21 votes after the ballots in their City Council runoff were counted Tuesday night. But the final outcome will not be known until so-called provisional votes are checked and tallied by the county registrar’s office.

“I’m very hopeful. I haven’t given up yet,” said Smith, suddenly cheerful after hours of bad tidings. He trailed Topsy-Elvord by several votes until after midnight, when he squeaked by her with six votes and then fell behind again when the absentee vote was counted.

Still to be tallied are at least 100 votes cast by people who said they were registered--but whose names were not on the polling place roster--and some absentee votes that have to have signatures verified by the county. The ballots will not be counted until they have been certified as legitimate, a process that could take several days.

If Topsy-Elvord, a 60-year-old Civil Service commissioner, retains her lead, she will become the only woman on the City Council and the first African-American woman ever elected to the nine-member board.

“We’re very, very happy we’re ahead. We’ll just wait and see,” said Topsy-Elvord, weary and hoarse after seeing victory slip in and out of her hands.

Election night was also a seesaw for Clark, a 26-year council incumbent who spent the first half of the evening lagging behind Charles G. (Jerry) Westlund, but then managed to overtake him and emerge the victor.

“I’m getting too old for this,” joked Clark, 65, who spent the evening at his home with more than 30 supporters, watching the local cable television station as results trickled in.

Clark’s staying power may leave him the only incumbent out of three who ran for reelection this spring. Longtime Councilman Wallace Edgerton was unexpectedly ousted in the April primary by Alan Lowenthal, whose camp then turned some of its attention to helping Clark.

“It’s certainly a difficult year for incumbents throughout the nation, so I feel we’ve done very well considering the trend,” said Clark, who won nearly 53% of the 4th District vote.

Westlund, a 26-year-old auctioneer in his first political bid, had pounded Clark from the conservative right, accusing him of being too liberal and arguing that it was time for Clark to go.

“We put together quite a campaign,” Westlund said, adding that “everybody had pooh-poohed” him because of his age. “But I think we proved there are a lot of people with concerns in the community.”

Clark, an optometrist, was unimpressed. “I can’t think of one issue (Westlund) raised that had that great validity. I think my positions over the years have been sound positions. I think I’ve always been willing to make changes and promote new ideas.”

In taking the lead in the 6th District with 50.2% of the vote, Topsy-Elvord picked up an impressive 20 points over her showing in the April primary.

“The campaign received a wake-up call in April,” said Jeff Adler, Topsy-Elvord’s political consultant.

In the last six weeks, Topsy-Elvord and her supporters tramped up and down the district, knocking on doors, registering voters and wooing residents of the Wrigley area, which had supported Dan Cangro in the primary. When Cangro failed to make the runoff, he endorsed Smith, but that did not stop Topsy-Elvord, who was campaigning in Wrigley until the polls closed at 8 p.m.

In mailers, Topsy-Elvord attacked Smith as ineffective, claiming he had done little to reverse the crime, graffiti and blight that affect many 6th District neighborhoods.

Fewer in number, Smith’s mailers concentrated on his record and endorsements. “She had no past record to attack,” noted Smith, a retired city recreation administrator seeking his third term.

Though he had walked the district during the primary season, Smith said he did not think it was appropriate to campaign like that after the recent riots. Instead, he said, he concentrated on visiting riot-affected businesses.

“Clarence Smith was complacent. He was overconfident,” Adler asserted.

Topsy-Elvord also pursued the absentee vote, won the backing of real estate interests, and picked up some support from the Asian and Latino communities.

“We worked very, very hard,” said Topsy-Elvord as jubilant supporters roared and clapped with approval at her apparent victory. Though she said being a woman “certainly didn’t hinder” her, she doubted it played much of a role in the vote.

Community correspondent Kirsten Lee Swartz contributed to this report.