LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. MAYOR : Holden Goes on Offensive Over Charges : Allegations: After laying low for months, councilman takes to the airwaves to deny sexual harassment accusations. The latest swirl of controversy could quash his chances for office--or clear the air.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden wants to tell the world why he should be mayor, but sometimes it seems the world just wants to talk about sex.

Sexual harassment, to be specific.

“Clarence Thomas was a goddamned liar and so are you!” one woman railed at Holden on a radio talk show this week. “We don’t want you in charge,” fumed a male caller.

Holden’s campaign for mayor has been clouded for months by accusations that he sexually harassed three former aides. But in the last week the conflict has exploded in a series of made-for-media conflicts--a feminist angrily demanding Holden’s resignation in front of a clutch of his screaming supporters; Holden barging into a lawyer’s office to obtain a copy of a harassment suit and radio callers taking turns alternately bashing Holden’s character and defending his right to a fair hearing.

The 64-year-old bachelor said that after laying low for months on the advice of his lawyer, he has launched an aggressive counterattack in the hope of putting the charges behind him. The effort will culminate this morning when 100 women are expected to rally in Holden’s support at his Wilshire Boulevard campaign office.

“I don’t want to look like a victim any more than I already am,” Holden said, explaining his stepped-up media war. “I’m saying, ‘Go ahead, hit me. Beat me up.’ Let’s get it over with and then talk about the issues.”

It is unclear whether the week’s confrontations will clear the air for Holden--who nearly forced Mayor Tom Bradley into a runoff four years ago--or drag him deeper into an issue that has mired his campaign.

In a highly fragmented field, the Times Poll this month found that Holden ranked third, with 6% of registered voters saying they support him. But he carried a higher negative rating than any other candidate. And of the four-fifths of voters who had heard of the sex harassment charges, 41% said they would be less likely to vote for Holden.

The crush of events surrounding the sex harassment case began Monday morning when 32-year-old Carla Cavalier, the first of Holden’s three accusers, formalized complaints she made last year by announcing the filing of a $2.5-million lawsuit against Holden and the city.

A few hours later Holden was scheduled to talk about issues confronting the city on the public radio program “Which Way L.A.” But first he had to wade through a series of hostile calls and questions about Cavalier’s lawsuit.

Two days later, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women arrived at Holden’s Wilshire Boulevard campaign office to present a letter demanding that Holden withdraw from the mayor’s race and step down from the council.

NOW official Tammy Bruce had notified the press, unleashing a crush of television cameras and placard-toting Holden supporters. “We are extremely concerned that a man in your position has chosen to send a message to this city that women are not to be taken seriously,” Bruce read from her letter. Holden’s female supporters lined up behind Bruce and chanted: “Holden for Mayor!”

Later that afternoon, Holden went on KABC radio to dispute the charges and counteract an appearance by Cavalier. That night, he found a safe harbor in the storm while addressing a San Fernando Valley anti-crime group. When one man raised the sex harassment charges, it was only to tell Holden to fight back harder.

“They are tearing you apart out there,” he said. “Go out there and get aggressive!”

Holden made good on that demand the next day when he marched on the offices of lawyer Melanie Lomax--camera crews in tow--to demand that he be served immediately with Cavalier’s lawsuit. Holden claimed that Lomax, an ally of his archrival Bradley, had waited to serve the document to delay his response.

“It was very desperate and in keeping with this sideshow atmosphere he has used,” Lomax later said. “He is not going to be able to talk this thing down no matter how much he hits the talk-show circuit.”

On Thursday evening, Bruce and Holden agreed to face off on KFI radio, in what became the most incendiary of the week’s events. Before the pair could even get on the air, they began screaming at each other--with Bruce demanding that Holden drop out of the race and objecting to his attempt to bring a female aide on the air.

When Holden then refused to appear with Bruce, onetime aide Roberta Goldstone was left to argue that Holden was a good employer and fair to women.

The councilman apparently took round one, as callers blistered Bruce for judging the politician without a fair hearing. One man called NOW members “fruitcakes” and another “femi-Nazis.”

“It’s a witch hunt. She just wants men to be guilty,” said another. “It has nothing to do with whether he is (guilty) or not.”

A woman saying she represented another NOW chapter called to say she supports Holden, but was drowned out by Bruce’s rebuttals.

But when the NOW leader left the studio and Holden took the microphone, callers turned on him--particularly for refusing to debate Bruce and for saying he did not want to argue with a woman.

“When you say you would not argue with a woman, that is the most sexist thing I have ever heard,” said one woman caller, who went on to compare Holden to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and said, “Men like you always try to weasel your way out of these things! It makes me sick.”

Other callers asked how Holden could run a city if he could not face one angry detractor.

Holden had earlier built his defense around accusations that his accusers or Lomax were politically motivated. Lately, he has suggested that race may have played a part.

“Word is out on the street that they don’t want another black man to be mayor,” Holden said, although he was vague on who “they” were, saying only that “political pundits” had notified him of the effort.

Despite the furor, Holden said that at most forums he has been able to return to his campaign themes and that voters are tired of hearing about the harassment allegations.

But when confronted with the charges, Holden said he is not backing down.

“I’m not taking it anymore. Now it’s time to fight back.”