LOCAL ELECTIONS / 2ND SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT : Victor to Become Top Black Leader

With the retirement of Mayor Tom Bradley, the winner of the 2nd District county supervisor’s race Nov. 3 will become Southern California’s most powerful black local official.

Whether Yvonne Brathwaite Burke or Diane Watson is elected, the new supervisor should--by becoming the first African-American elected to help govern the nation’s most populous county--join Latino Supervisor Gloria Molina in the national spotlight.

Moreover, political consultant Kerman Maddox said, “whoever is elected probably will be the most visible African-American official in Southern California.”

With a population of 1.8 million, the new supervisor’s district has more people than 17 states. No black politician in California, except Bradley, represents an area with a larger population.

Burke or Watson will inherit from retiring Supervisor Kenneth Hahn an ethnically diverse, Koreatown-to-Watts district that bore the brunt of the devastation from last spring’s riots. The new supervisor also will arrive as county government faces massive budget cuts and with high tensions among ethnic groups competing for jobs and political power.

No matter who wins, the historic election is certain to further shake up the previously all-white, all-male board. Burke, the only black to serve on the board, was appointed in 1979 but failed to win election in 1980 in the more conservative 4th District.

“Kenny always did what he felt was best for us,” Watson said of Hahn, who has represented the district since Los Angeles was a one-freeway town. “Now it’s time for us to do for ourselves. . . . What Hahn will tell you is: ‘Didn’t I fill your pothole?’ But he didn’t fill pockets.”

Watson said the county has not steered more of its $1 billion a year in contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities, especially those in the inner city.

Burke and Watson are pioneering black women with similar liberal views but sharply different political styles. Each has pledged to seek changes in county policies.

Both support creating a citizens panel to review allegations of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies and advocate placing more African-Americans in top county jobs. Now, there is only one black county department head.

Both candidates have pledged to put creation of jobs at the top of their agenda in the district, which has the highest welfare caseload in the county, with one of four residents on public assistance. And Burke and Watson support increased county funding to fight AIDS, identified as the leading cause of death among black males ages 35 to 44 in California.

Until now, the candidates have been busy dialing for dollars and maintaining a frenetic speaking schedule. But with the campaign entering the final stretch, the first in a wave of political mailers will begin arriving at homes next week.

Watson, a streetwise state senator, finished ahead of Burke, a conciliatory Tom Bradley-style former congresswoman, in the 12-candidate June primary by a vote of 44.7% to 40.5%.

The district includes Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights, the Crenshaw district, View Park, Windsor Hills and Westchester and the cities of Carson, Compton, Culver City, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale and Lynwood.

The district is 40% Latino, 35% African-American, 15% Anglo and 9% Asian-American. But Latinos have accounted for only 8% of voters who regularly turn out for elections. Blacks account for 58% of likely voters and whites account for 31%, political experts say.

“Kenny Hahn has been a real champion of the poor and underprivileged,” said Cynthia McClain-Hill, publisher of a political newsletter targeted at the black community, “but there is some belief that having an African-American supervisor will result in more focus on deeper problems.”

Hahn was criticized by black leaders for defending Sheriff Sherman Block and then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, whose departments have been accused of using excessive force against minorities.

Nonetheless, many blacks revere the 72-year-old Hahn, who was the only white politician to greet slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at the airport in 1961. In 1985, Hahn sought to rid county pension funds of investments in firms doing business in South Africa, but he failed to win the support of the board’s then-conservative majority.

But black leaders say they hope that Hahn’s retirement from the seat he has held since 1952 will pave the way for “greater sensitivity” to issues of concern to the African-American community.

Such issues are not all that is on the minds of voters.

At a candidates forum in upper-middle-income Ladera Heights on Thursday night, both candidates pledged to a capacity crowd that they would carry on the Hahn tradition of dutifully tending to constituent services, such as filling potholes and keeping streets clean.

Watson, sounding a recurring theme of her campaign, told the crowd: “I am community bred. That seat needs somebody from this community.” Watson repeatedly has called attention to Burke’s move into the district to run for the seat, calling her “Yvonne Brentwood Burke” in campaign literature.

Burke, trying to make a comeback after more than a decade out of elective office, called attention to her efforts on behalf of the neighborhood as an assemblywoman in the 1960s and congresswoman in the early 1970s.

“I don’t know whether anyone here remembers the fight to eliminate the Slauson Freeway,” she said, referring to a project that she helped kill.

“I believe the big problems are important, but the potholes are important too,” Burke added.

Raul Nunez, head of the Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Assn., said that the new supervisor had better not ignore the district’s emerging Latino majority.

“Whoever wins, we will be monitoring what they do with regard to Martin Luther King hospital,” he said.

The county hospital, built after the Watts riots, is heavily staffed by blacks but serves a community that has become increasingly Latino.

The candidates have similar backgrounds and views.

Both received bachelor’s degrees from UCLA. Burke, a janitor’s daughter, graduated from USC Law School. In 1966, she became the first black women to be elected to the Assembly, and in 1972 she was the first black woman from California elected to Congress. She also has the distinction of being the first House member to receive maternity leave. She ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 1978.

Appointed to the county board in 1979 by then-Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., she served 18 months before she was ousted by Supervisor Deane Dana in the general election. Since then she has practiced law and now serves on the UC Board of Regents.

Watson, a policeman’s daughter, is a former schoolteacher who received her Ph.D. in educational administration from Claremont Graduate School. She was elected to the Los Angeles Board of Education in 1975. In 1978 she became the first black woman elected to the state Senate.

Burke and Watson sometimes even sound alike.

“Much of the county’s budget and programs are set by the state Legislature, and my expertise in government human service program makes me the most qualified to hit the county running,” Watson said.

Burke said: “I want to use my experience both in the private and public sector to bring about real change. . . . The 2nd District needs a supervisor with vision, not rhetoric. The next supervisor must be able to hit the ground running.”

Because of their similar views, the campaign has come down to contrasting styles.

Though she is seen as more conciliatory, Burke, 60, insists that she can be a tough politician, scrappy and not afraid of a fight. “I’m not going to sit around and let anybody use me as a punching bag,” said Burke, who recently filed a libel suit accusing Watson of making false statements about her in campaign literature.

Although Watson, 58, is regarded as being more contentious, the state senator says she has worked with fellow legislators to accomplish much, such as sponsoring legislation allocating more tobacco tax funds for health care and requiring law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes.

“Diane is more likely to shake up the status quo at the Hall of Administration,” said Melanie Lomax, a civil rights attorney who is a Watson supporter. “It’s going to take forceful personalities . . . to help people like Molina change things around there.”

McClain-Hill, who is backing Burke, said: “Watson can reflect the anger of the African-American community and communicate that to the broader community in a very effective manner. . . . However. . . , we’re now six months post-civil unrest, (and) I would be surprised if she has personally introduced one single bill to address the problems she articulated so eloquently in the midst of the civil unrest. Conversely, I believe that Burke is effective at building coalitions and putting together the votes to put into place legislation that will resolve problems.”

Watson said that considering the state’s fiscal problems, “putting in a bill that would increase the monies going into Los Angeles (would have been) really fruitless. What I did was to come back and form a foundation” that raised private contributions for community projects.

Burke, who has been endorsed by Hahn and many others in the county political Establishment, has pledged to serve no more than two terms (Watson opposes term limits) and called for the county to sue the federal government for the cost of housing illegal immigrants in county jails, to give preference to Los Angeles County-based companies that bid on county contracts and to tap county pension funds to make low-interest loans for low-income housing and small businesses.

Watson, who has strong backing from unions, has called for establishment of neighborhood development corporations that would sell shares in businesses at $1 apiece to give people a stake in the community. She also has advocated a massive program to hire the unemployed, patterned after the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.

She has pledged to get the county to play a greater role in education, an area that traditionally has received little attention from the supervisors because school districts have their own elected boards. But Watson has noted that the county Office of Education has the power to oversee school district budgets.

Neither candidate has offered many specifics about how to deal with the county’s budget problems.