Picus, Wachs Have Eye on Mayor’s Job : Campaigns: The Valley council members are not yet official candidates. But their region carries a strong political punch.

Councilwoman Joy Picus sees something wrong with a mayor’s race picture that has half a dozen male candidates in it and no females.

“I just can’t imagine it after California’s 1992-93 year of the women,” Picus said, referring to California’s U.S. Senate races with two women candidates.

While not officially declaring herself a candidate, Picus is one of the two women--Supervisor Gloria Molina being the other-- often mentioned as 1993 mayoral aspirants.

“I’m giving it a lot of hard thought,” Picus said.

She also is one of two San Fernando Valley council members seriously considering a mayoral candidacy. The other is Councilman Joel Wachs. “I’m very seriously considering running,” Wachs said Tuesday.

Nor are Picus and Wachs the only Valley-based politicians with an eye fixed on living at Getty House, the city’s official residence for its mayor.

Two weeks ago, state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) officially declared his intent to raise money to finance his own mayoral bid. Neither Picus nor Wachs has gone as far as Katz in seeking the mayor’s seat.

No one doubts the Valley’s political significance in a mayor’s race.

“There’s an enormous bloc of votes out there in the Valley,” political consultant Richard Lichtenstein said. “People in the Valley vote.” Slightly more than one-third of the city’s population lives in the Valley.

And there are ready-made Valley issues, Lichtenstein said. “It’s not hard to see that the San Fernando Valley has expressed disappointment with what it’s getting out of City Hall,” he said.

Picus, for one, has been trying “to position herself as Mrs. Valley,” presumably to advance her political career, said lobbyist and political fund-raiser Steve Afriat.

Her pro-Valley stances have included her recent vocal opposition to a school redistricting plan that traditional Valley groups, including the United Chambers of Commerce and the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., have said would undercut the Valley’s voice on educational issues.

Picus has also complained that the Valley does not get its fair share of cultural grants from the city’s arts bureaucracy and that its residents are not appointed frequently enough by Mayor Tom Bradley to city boards and commissions.

But several political insiders said they doubted that Picus can count on die-hard, pro-Valley voters in a clinch. “She’s too liberal for them,” said one observer.

If she were the only woman running, Picus also could expect to compete for a sizable share of the female vote, said several women activists.

“But I don’t think she would be a cause celebre with women,” said one of these activists, who asked that she not be identified.

“Sometimes it’s not enough to be a woman candidate to get the woman’s vote,” said another woman activist who predicted a Picus-for-mayor candidacy would not ignite a passionate response among female voters.

Both agree that while Picus has labored long and hard for the women’s movement, she lacks the charisma to excite voters.

A decision to run for mayor also would be tough for the 61-year-old Picus, who would have to give up her council seat to embark on a mayoral quest. City law bars her from seeking both seats because they are both up for grabs in the same election.

“I’ll have to decide if I can be more effective for the city as a mayor or as a council member,” said Picus, who has been a council member since 1977.

Meanwhile, Wachs does not have the same liability as Picus. He can run for the mayor’s post without giving up the council seat he has held since 1971 and which won’t be up for grabs again until 1995.

Wachs, 52, has been talking to several major fund-raisers about whether to run, according to sources familiar with his activities.

And in recent months he has been sounding like a candidate.

The first indication came during the emotional battle earlier this year over a proposed contract to buy fully automated rail cars from a Japanese firm. Wachs grabbed the issue and became quickly identified as the champion of a clamorous buy-America constituency.

Wachs aides had also quietly tried to put a pro-Wachs spin on the controversial fight to force Police Chief Daryl F. Gates out of office.

Although Councilman Michael Woo has claimed credit for being the first lawmaker to call for Gates’ resignation in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating, it was only after Wachs and Council President John Ferraro, who had long been Gates’ allies, urged Gates to retire that the chief agreed to do so.

“Gates didn’t go because of Mike Woo, but because of Joel and John Ferraro,” Greg Nelson, Wachs’ chief deputy, said recently.

And most recently, Wachs has tried to get on board the term-limits bandwagon, pushing for a ballot measure to limit city elected officials to two terms and to strip all city department chiefs of their civil service protections. The proposal was defeated by the City Council.

“Joel has been getting a lot of free media coverage recently,” observed political consultant Rick Taylor.

Wachs said he plans to make a decision “very shortly” about whether to run.

“My decision will not be based on what the mayor decides to do or what anybody else is doing,” Wachs said. “Nor if I run will I be running against anyone. I’ll run a campaign presenting myself as a positive alternative.”

Nor does Wachs see himself appealing to a limited Valley constituency. “I’m not going to say who I think my bases of support will be except to say that it will be extremely broad,” he said.

Over the years, he has been popular among renters and senior citizens as author of the city’s rent control law, and he has been active in supporting the arts.

Although both Picus and Wachs are viewed as probable candidates by many, some in the professional political community seriously doubt that either has the horsepower needed to win the mayor’s job. “Having a Valley base gives Joy a good starting point, but that does not give her the election,” Lichtenstein said.

“I don’t think Joel has a solid constituency base on which he can run,” Taylor said. “If he runs, he won’t be in the top tier of candidates.”