8 Mayoral Hopefuls Lay Out Similar Plans

Vying for one of the most important constituencies in city politics, eight candidates for mayor Thursday laid out strikingly similar approaches to solving the major problems facing the city, including racial tension, crime and the recession.

The forum, which was sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and drew about 100 people, was only the second one of the campaign. But it was the first opportunity that candidates had as a group to present their views before a Westside Jewish audience, an invaluable constituency to Mayor Tom Bradley and one that is up for grabs.

Clearly courting votes, the candidates responded to the concerns of their audience in various ways.

Nate Holden, a black city councilman, said that Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been denounced by Jewish organizations as anti-Semitic, has had a negative impact on race relations in Los Angeles. Councilman Joel Wachs reminded the audience that he is a Jew.

City Councilman Michael Woo praised the Jewish community for the peacemaking role it has played in racial politics.

“I think the Jewish community has shown great leadership in the past and is in a great position to help build bridges between the many different groups,” Woo said. “Because of the history of the Jewish community here in this country and elsewhere, it is very clear that it is important to build bridges to other groups before trouble breaks out.”

Evident in some candidates’ responses is the sense in political circles that in some ways Jewish voters have grown more conservative in recent years.

Lawyer Tom Houston, businessman Nick Patsaouras and Woo, among others, denounced the use of racial quotas in mayoral appointments. Julian Nava, a college professor and the only Latino among the eight candidates, said he had “serious questions about affirmative action.”

Turning to the subject of crime, two candidates suggested that there is a climate of permissiveness that has condoned illegal acts, which must be changed by the next mayor. “I think the mayor has to speak out more clearly than Mayor Bradley has for 20 years that poverty does not by itself justify displaying lawlessness,” Nava said. “There are too many people in our country who are poor or who are unemployed but who are not lawbreakers.”

Houston said: “We need an attitude adjustment. What you do in this life . . . is what you work for and we have got to get that message out to people--that you are not entitled to welfare fraud, that you are not entitled to workmen’s comp fraud.”

In response to a question on freedom of choice, asked only of him, businessman Richard Riordan replied that he believes in a woman’s right to choose even though he is opposed to abortion.

“I am morally against abortion, but I don’t believe it is fair to impose my beliefs on another human being,” he said.

The question was directed at Riordan, presumably, because he is a Catholic and a close friend of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, one of the church’s staunchest anti-abortion advocates.

After the event, several in the audience complained that the forum had not made it easier for them to distinguish one candidate from another.

As one observer put it, it might have been simpler to hold a debate with all the people in the city who are not running for mayor.

Although it seemed like a crowded stage, less than half of the 20 candidates who are running for mayor were invited to speak at the event.

Two other candidates, deemed minor contenders, were not invited but showed up at the debate and were given three minutes to voice their views at the conclusion.

Dr. Vicki Hufnagel, a Beverly Hills gynecologist, called for mandatory classes on parenthood, food co-ops and “culturalization” lessons to make schools and health facilities more sensitive to the city’s ethnic diversity.

“We need to teach kids what it is like to be Korean, what it is like to be black,” she said, drawing rare applause in a debate that evoked little audience response.

Brette X. New, a legal secretary scheduled to formally announce his candidacy today, spoke out for more job opportunities for minorities in South-Central and “more police, more police, more police.”

A third candidate, Larry Green, spent the afternoon on the sidewalk protesting his exclusion from the debate by the Anti-Defamation League, which refused to allow him to participate after he allegedly threatened to be disruptive.

Times staff writer Faye Fiore contributed to this story.