LOCAL ELECTIONS: L.A. MAYOR : Griego Puts Abortion in Forefront in Ad Barrage : Campaigns: The former deputy mayor plans to spend about $300,000 in a media push stressing the right to choose and aimed at women. Other candidates also step up their advertising.

Moving briskly to position herself as an up-and-coming alternative to the male front-runners in the Los Angeles mayor’s race, Linda Griego on Monday aired a new TV spot on an unlikely but provocative topic: abortion rights.

In the ad, the former deputy mayor promises she would “make sure the Police Department stands with the women of Los Angeles to protect and defend our right to choose.”

With two weeks left before the April 20 primary, Griego, the only politically prominent woman among the 24 mayoral candidates, plans to spend about $300,000 on a strong media push aimed at women.

But Griego must overcome not only a low standing in a recent poll but also a larger media budget by some of her rivals, most notably Richard Katz, Michael Woo and Richard Riordan.

Griego’s campaign manager, Roy Behr, said he expects Griego’s standing to change dramatically once voters see her attention-getting commercials. Her first spot, which began running last week, showed Griego standing in a bright red suit in front of black-and-white cardboard cutouts of her male rivals.

“Before she went on the air, she was at single digits . . . somewhere between 2% and 7% depending on the poll,” said Behr. “What you have to look at is the power of the message. . . . And Linda’s campaign is unique because it has a huge potential base of support that is larger than anyone else’s. We feel confident the numbers will be a lot better in the next poll.”

Standing in front of a family planning clinic, Griego says in the ad, “Radical anti-abortion groups are using violence to prevent women from exercising their right to choose. As mayor, I’ll treat this as the criminal conduct it is.”

It is not within the mayor’s power to establish laws on abortion; however, the mayor appoints the Police Commission, which sets policy for the Police Department, and thus has an indirect influence on enforcement.

Griego is the first major candidate to make abortion rights part of her ad campaign. It is an indication of her reliance on a primary funding source: the Washington-based EMILY’s List, which raises money for women candidates. Griego has raised about $500,000--including hundreds of contributions from women across the country as a result of a fund-raising appeal on her behalf by the group.

Most of the front-running candidates say they support a woman’s right to choose abortion. However, one of them, Riordan, supported abortion rights at the same time he contributed $10,000 in 1991 to Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group.

The Griego ad comes as rival Nate Holden has joined the ad war and two other contenders, Riordan and Katz, have begun running new commercials of their own.

In other campaign developments Monday:

* In an appearance at Hollywood High School, Woo was asked by a student how to deal with those with weapons in school. He mentioned alternatives such as warnings or counseling, which appeared to be at odds with his earlier call for immediate expulsion of students who bring guns on campus.

Riordan promptly criticized Woo, claiming that he is soft on crime. “In a city where parents are afraid of their children walking to school,” Riordan said, “it is an outrageous position for any public official to take.”

But Woo’s City Hall spokeswoman said he has not changed his position, and still believes in expulsion. Spokeswoman Julie Jaskol said Woo’s comments were merely part of a “Socratic discussion” with the student.

* There was some criticism of a mailer sent out by Joel Wachs posing the questions: “Is Los Angeles ready for a Jewish mayor? Is it good for the Jews?”

The mailer--a letter signed by Joel Wachs’ mother, Hannah-- appeared to be aimed at Jewish voters, who make up about 18% of the city’s most likely voters.

In the letter, Hannah Wachs refers to her son as a “mensch”--Yiddish for a sensible, mature person. She says that she is not asking for voter support for her son because he is Jewish. “But I want you to think about our shared heritage. . . . Mayor Joel Wachs is good for the Jews. It’s good for everyone in Los Angeles.”

Some members of the Jewish community, however, said that Wachs has a lot of chutzpah for sending out the letter.

“I think it was politically probably very foolish,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has not endorsed a mayoral candidate. “A lot of people will be offended by it. . . . In this city at this particular time, while we all are proud of who we are . . . we’re also part of a city that is divided enough as it is.”

With the election just two weeks away, the 11 major candidates are planning to send out as many as a dozen mailings apiece.

Republicans recently received a Riordan mailer highlighting his support from Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Riordan earlier sent to GOP voters a mailer featuring his support from former President Ronald Reagan and Gov. Pete Wilson.

* Candidate and educator Julian Nava met with about a dozen members of two East Los Angeles gangs Monday to discuss ways they can ease hostilities and work on community projects together.

Times staff writer Jack Cheevers contributed to this story.