New Ads Target Jobs, Crime

Los Angeles mayoral candidates Michael Woo and Joel Wachs aired new TV ads Friday.

THE WOO AD: Featuring pictures of former President Ronald Reagan, a limousine and a boarded-up factory, the Woo ad says: “Dick Riordan: Endorsed by Ronald Reagan, a wheeler-dealer who got rich off Reaganomics, buying and selling junk bonds, closing plants, exporting our jobs abroad.” The ad shows a snapshot of Woo standing with President Clinton. “Dick Riordan will take us back. Mike Woo will move L.A. ahead,” the narrator says. “He’ll work with Bill Clinton to create jobs in L.A. and take on the right wing to ban deadly handguns.”

THE ANALYSIS: The mayoral race is nonpartisan. But Woo wants to take advantage of the city’s predominantly Democratic electorate by playing up Riordan’s GOP ties. Riordan has sent a mailer to Republicans touting his endorsement by Reagan. Riordan has financed leveraged buyouts with high-risk, high-yield junk bonds, some of which were underwritten by junk bond king Michael Milken. Riordan also was part of a corporate restructuring at Mattel that led to closing its last Los Angeles-based production facility, layoffs of 250 workers and transfer of its manufacturing operation to Mexico. As for Woo being pictured with Clinton, the President has not endorsed any mayoral candidate. Although Woo pledges to ban Saturday night specials, city lawyers have said that the city is preempted by the state Legislature from banning handguns.

THE WACHS AD: The ad opens with several men identified as Los Angeles police officers commenting about crime in the city. One unidentified officer suggests that it will take years to implement police plans by candidates Riordan and Richard Katz. “Riordan and Katz have plans, but it will be years before they can put one single officer on the street,” the officer says. Wachs appears in the ad, saying: “We can’t afford to gamble on promises that won’t work.”

THE ANALYSIS: Wachs, a San Fernando Valley councilman, is in a tough fight for Valley votes with the better-funded Riordan and Katz, a state assemblyman from the Valley. Wachs has advocated cutting the city’s sewer system budget to fund 650 more police officers; city officials said they have yet to complete a study of whether that plan would work. Wachs is also among several candidates who support a proposed property tax increase on the April 20 ballot to pay for more police. Katz and Riordan oppose the measure. Riordan has promised to put 3,000 more police on the street by leasing city-owned Los Angeles International Airport to a private operator. Katz has called for selling Ontario Airport to hire more police. Some city budget experts have said that it would probably take a year or longer for the city to negotiate the lease or sale of an airport.