LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY ATTORNEY : Challenger Proving to Be a Trial for Hahn : Campaign: Attacks get personal at a forum when the incumbent and Michael Guarino battle over their approaches to the top prosecutor’s job for the city.

Finally they were together, side by side in the community room of a savings and loan in San Pedro.

Until then, incumbent City Atty. James K. Hahn had been ignoring the campaign waged by his sole challenger, Michael Guarino, a deputy in his office.

But when both showed up at a sparsely attended meeting of the Progressive Democratic Club, sparks flew. Hahn called his deputy an “adequate prosecutor” whose first-time candidacy was “one of the great practical jokes of all time.”

Guarino termed Hahn’s candidacy “a joke, based on his record,” and said: “If I’m only adequate, I’d really hate to think what that makes you.”

The race has been a solitary campaign for Guarino, a political neophyte running to shout out his frustration with a bureaucracy that has consumed 15 years of his life. But the man he wants most to listen has not been there to hear.

Hahn, son of retired Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and heir to his political dynasty, had been using a strategy typical of incumbents, bypassing joint public appearances that could serve only to make an unknown challenger better known.

But Hahn lives in San Pedro, and the Progressive Democratic Club had endorsed his sister for City Council. So here he was, in a rare exchange with his deputy. They battled over whether the office had pursued cases against rich and powerful wrongdoers as strongly as it might, and whether Hahn’s management had fostered the best interests of its 358 harried deputies. The lawyers handle 200,000 misdemeanor cases a year and struggle to defend the city against a tide of claims for damages or injuries at the hands of its public servants, such as the police.

Aside from their animosity toward each other, the candidates showed fundamentally different approaches to the city’s $108,816-a-year top prosecutor’s job.

Guarino, 44, was the attacker, vowing to bear down on what he called “downtown interests,” such as politicians with campaign law violations. Hahn, 43, was more cautious and predictable, “someone you can trust,” as he put it.

Once a deputy city attorney, Hahn first ran for office in 1981, when he was elected city controller--a post he held until winning the city attorney’s race in 1985. He had no challenger for reelection in 1989.

Although this was Hahn’s turf, eight Progressive Democratic Club members attending the forum voted to support Guarino, while seven supported Hahn and one took no stand. Hahn was the established figure, but Guarino’s appeal was that of a man willing to “rock the boat,” said club President Julian Burger. “The city is in bad shape and going along, playing along ain’t going to do it anymore.”

Hahn said he has pushed his office into non-traditional areas for a city attorney, such as using public nuisance laws to drive gangs off their turf or drug dealers out of crime-ridden neighborhoods. He also set up a program where two deputy city attorneys work with community groups to target problem areas. He refused to go along with police and others who wanted the homeless prosecuted for sleeping on sidewalks, saying he would not do so if people had no other place to go.

Hahn sees himself as the man who “stands up for the little guy.” But so does Guarino.

At the San Pedro forum, Guarino told the gathering of business owners, office workers and retirees that he is “the candidate of plumbers, electricians, carpenters . . . of everybody except the downtown insiders who support Jim Hahn.”

Guarino accused Hahn of going after “soft targets--the prostitutes, petty thieves and trespassers--while ignoring developers and politicians.” He claimed that Hahn was too easy on Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Richard Alatorre and some contributors, who were allowed to settle civil suits for campaign violations by paying fines.

Alatorre and his campaign committee paid about $142,000 for illegal campaign spending. The mayor paid $20,000 to settle one suit over failure to disclose income. He avoided another by turning over $55,000 in anonymous contributions collected through inner-city carnivals when the limit was $200.

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Yet Hahn calls himself “the most aggressive prosecutor on cases involving political reform of any prosecutor in California. Mayor Bradley had to pay $20,000 out of his own pocket. We’ve had record fines against council members and political committees.”

Guarino believes that Bradley should have faced criminal charges, and maybe jail, after disclosures that a bank paying him as an adviser obtained deposits of city funds. “The voters of the city voted for election reform laws to clean up city government. Jim Hahn will never prosecute these laws criminally,” Guarino said.

But Hahn told the group: “Not everything you read in the papers that looks like a crime ends up being one when you look at the evidence. You don’t file a case to get a headline.” A federal inquiry into Bradley also ended without filing criminal charges, he noted.

The city attorney functions as the city’s lawyer, advising the council and department heads, and defending lawsuits for damages.

The office also prosecutes misdemeanor crimes, which range from drunk driving and shoplifting to assault, carrying a loaded firearm and selling counterfeit goods. Misdemeanors are punishable by six months in jail or a $1,000 fine, in contrast to stiffer penalties imposed for felonies, prosecuted by the district attorney.

“Most of our cases were originally felony-level cases that are district attorney rejects,” Guarino said. “We’re doing assault cases, child molestation and serious child pornography cases that in any other jurisdiction would be felonies.”

Hahn said he was working with new Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti to encourage the county office to keep more cases and prosecute them as felonies. Hahn also took credit for reviving a domestic violence unit that handled 21,000 cases last year, overseeing a gang unit that prosecuted 300 cases, and pursuing a landmark racketeering lawsuit against slumlords and their lenders.

Guarino, who has specialized in wage law violations, said the office should be “opened up.” Instead of waiting for government agencies to present cases for filings, he said labor representatives should also be able to report wage or safety violations.

“Have I ever told you you couldn’t make a direct filing?” Hahn asked his deputy.

“Jim, I never see you. How could anyone ask you anything?” Guarino responded.

“I’m there every day,” the boss said.

“I beg to differ,” Guarino said.

“You’re the guy who never comes to work,” Hahn retorted.

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The two appear to take each other’s statement’s personally. Hahn fretted that his staffer always seemed to like him--”he sent me funny cards and notes”--until the campaign. Guarino was sure Hahn’s statement that he ranked “head and shoulders” above him was a snide reference to being taller.

In this David-versus-Goliath race, Guarino has raised less than $1,000, while Hahn has collected $192,000. But rather than campaign, the city attorney says he has been keeping to a regular routine, “doing the things I do 52 weeks a year.” Guarino has taken a leave of absence from his job to make the rounds of talk shows, political clubs and homeowners groups. For Guarino, the race is an idealistic, onetime effort, and he is scornful of the political system. Hahn was raised in it and has made public office his life.

Responding to a listener’s question in San Pedro about a possible future run for state attorney general, Hahn said he had not made any plans. When Guarino asked for a pledge to serve a full four-year term as city attorney, Hahn replied: “I’m not going to pledge anything to you. It’s my intention to serve out my term. I’m not going to make any ridiculous. . . .”

“Of course it’s ridiculous,” Guarino interrupted. “You’ll be running for attorney general in two years.”

“Would there be something wrong with that?” Hahn asked.