Garcetti Vows to Take ‘Larger Role’ as D.A. : Politics: Prosecutor pledges to wage tough campaign although Reiner’s concession apparently ensures victory.

District attorney candidate Gilbert Garcetti--appearing stunned and elated at incumbent Ira Reiner’s sudden decision to drop out of the race--turned his attention Friday to becoming the county’s chief law enforcement officer, vowing to bring a “larger role, a larger vision” to the job.

At a packed morning news conference, the 51-year-old career deputy district attorney pledged to increase prosecution of hate crimes, domestic violence and parents who fail to pay child support, while creating programs that will prevent youngsters from joining gangs and dropping out of school.

“It’s no longer enough to have a district attorney who’s going to be that tough person who’s going to put people in prison,” said a smiling Garcetti as he faced a phalanx of reporters and television cameras.

“We need a district attorney who is willing . . . to use the very positive nature of the district attorney’s office to get our society to focus long-term . . . I mean focusing on the very young people who, if we give them a little help, a little assistance, will avoid lives of crime.”

The news conference came a day after Reiner, who was far behind Garcetti in the polls, disclosed to The Times that he was withdrawing from the race--a move that virtually assures Garcetti’s election in November. Garcetti termed the disclosure “a stunning turn of events,” adding that he had been “prepared to go forward with a very forceful, vigorous, assertive campaign.”

Garcetti, the son of immigrants from Mexico, was raised in South Los Angeles and attended USC on an academic scholarship. He has spent 24 years in the district attorney’s office, four of them as Reiner’s chief deputy. But Reiner demoted him in 1988, a move that touched off a bitter feud.

Although Garcetti cannot officially take office until December, Reiner already has begun the transition. In a meeting Friday morning, the district attorney instructed his top deputies to give their full support to Garcetti, whom he once described as having too many “character flaws” to hold the office.

In addition, Reiner said he has asked for Garcetti’s thoughts on the most pressing problem facing the district attorney’s office--a county budget crunch that threatens the jobs of at least 100 prosecutors. Garcetti said he is already thinking about how to cope with the proposed $13.3-million budget cut but nonetheless insisted that the election is not yet won and said he intends to continue his campaign.

“It’s not over yet,” he said. “I still have to be elected, but we’ve just taken a quantum leap.”

The decision to continue campaigning is a smart political move for Garcetti. Although Reiner has suspended his campaign and fund-raising efforts, the eight-year incumbent has been a force in local politics for two decades and his name recognition is much higher than Garcetti’s.

At Friday’s news conference, Garcetti acknowledged that voters do not know much about him and that his victory in the June primary was owed largely to anti-Reiner sentiment. “I didn’t just fall off the back of a turnip truck,” he said. “I understand this.”

Likewise, political analysts said Reiner’s withdrawal was a wise move. In explaining his decision, Reiner said he could not bring himself to conduct the type of negative campaign necessary to win. But observers note that the race might have left Reiner so badly bruised that he could never again run for political office.

“Ira’s a real fighter,” said Sam Singer, a San Francisco political consultant who managed Reiner’s 1990 campaign for attorney general. “It’s not like him to walk away from a fight. But I’m not surprised in that it’s an extremely smart political move and ultimately, Ira is a very smart politician.”

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the Claremont Graduate School’s Center for Politics and Policy said: “The man is just burned out. He saw the futility of the race.”

Meanwhile, there was widespread speculation that the district attorney is angling for a job in the Administration of presidential hopeful Bill Clinton--either at the Justice Department in Washington or in Los Angeles, where the position of U.S. attorney is open. Reiner, who is a close friend of Clinton’s national campaign manager, Mickey Kantor, denied the rumors.

“The answer is no,” he said, adding that he is not interested in the U.S. attorney’s job and has no desire to move to Washington because his children are in school in Los Angeles and his wife, Diane Wayne, is a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.

“I’m not going into public life right now,” he said. “I’m going into private life.”

Reiner spent Friday morning explaining his decision to his top administrative staff in a meeting that members described as both poignant and somber. Aides said Reiner seemed at peace with himself as he thanked them for their service and for the “good times” they had shared.

“He seems to be a man with a great weight off his shoulders,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Murphy, who holds the No. 3 position in the office. “I haven’t seen him that relaxed in a long time.”

Although he has long been known as a master at conducting news conferences, Reiner did not call one Friday. Instead, he greeted reporters one-on-one during a series of interviews in his private office. His 17-year-old daughter, Annie, and 14-year old son, Tommy, were at his side for much of the day. He let the children skip school, he said, so they could provide him “moral support.”

Among rank-and-file deputies, the mood Friday was one of shock--not so much that Reiner had dropped out of the race but that in an office known for its voracious rumor mill, no one knew of his decision until reading about it in the morning newspaper.

“I think most people here think that Ira’s announcement just allows for the inevitable to happen quicker and without a bitter fight . . . , “ veteran prosecutor Lonnie A. Felker said. “But, oh man, it was a shock from the standpoint that it hadn’t leaked out.”

Many prosecutors had spent the last several weeks wondering why, with the November election drawing near, Reiner had not yet gone on the offensive against Garcetti.

“There was a perception that there was not much of a campaign being waged,” said one veteran deputy district attorney, “and I think, more than anything else, people were questioning that fact.”

During the four-way June primary, only 26% of voters cast their ballots for Reiner--meaning 74% of the electorate voted for his challengers. Reiner also is reeling from a string of high-profile courtroom losses--most notably the case of four Los Angeles Police officers tried in the Rodney G. King beating--and has been ensnared in numerous political controversies.

During the primary campaign, Garcetti--who finished first with 34% of the vote--hammered away at Reiner, chastising him for accepting campaign contributions from a commodities broker who was later convicted of defrauding clients and complaining that his decisions were based on political considerations rather than the good of the office.

He repeatedly called Reiner a media hound and took the district attorney to task for running for higher office--which Garcetti pledged Friday not to do.

“I want to be district attorney,” he said. “I do not want to be attorney general. I do not want to be governor. I’m 51 years old. I’m not just starting a political career.”

Although Reiner said Friday that he feels no ill will toward Garcetti, there has been friction between the two men since Reiner removed Garcetti from the chief deputy’s position in 1988. Some Garcetti confidants say he never got over the demotion and was running against Reiner for revenge.

Following his loss to Garcetti in June, Reiner alluded to unspecified flaws in Garcetti’s character and said he was forced to remove Garcetti as chief deputy for “very serious personal reasons.”

But Reiner has never elaborated, and he refused to do so this week. Garcetti, meanwhile, said during the news conference that his life is “an open book.”

He added that he took the advice of a friend who said: “ ‘If you could go into a closet by yourself, close the door, write all the bad things that you know about yourself that maybe no one else knows and then open the door and be prepared to answer every one of those questions, you’re ready to run.’ I did that. I know what my background is.”