Mayoral Also-Rans Wachs, Katz Weigh Future Challenges : Politics: The veteran L.A. councilman is expected to seek reelection, while the assemblyman may consider a state Senate bid.

With their mayoral quests grounded by voters, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) are now scanning the horizon for new political mountains to climb.

A rested Wachs said Thursday that one of his first post-election moves will be to decide which of the finalists to endorse in the mayor’s race, millionaire businessman Richard Riordan or Councilman Michael Woo.

“It’s my responsibility to endorse. I’m not one to shy away from things,” said the 54-year-old Wachs, who received 11% of the vote, finishing third in the mayor’s race on a $1-million campaign budget.

His further intention, Wachs said, is to run in 1995 for another four-year term on the City Council, the body on which he has served for 22 years, and to seek ways to implement the neighborhood power-sharing plan that was the centerpiece of his mayoral campaign.

“I’m looking for new ways to make a mark on the city,” Wachs said during an interview in his City Hall office, a retreat where stacks of city documents compete for space with Wachs’ private art works.

Corporate political consultant Paul Clarke said he believes Wachs is so “well-entrenched at City Hall” that he can be handily reelected despite the anti-incumbency mood that prompted voter enactment last Tuesday of a term limits measure. Under it, Wachs could serve a maximum of 10 more years in office.

Wachs scored a kind of vote of confidence Tuesday by getting 17.8% of the vote cast in his own east San Fernando Valley 2nd District, coming in second only behind Riordan in the crowded field of mayoral candidates.

Meanwhile, friends predict that the 42-year-old Katz will remain a major player in Sacramento. Katz himself could not be reached for comment.

“He’s still one of the most powerful legislators in the state capital, and as chairman of the transportation committee has enormous control over transportation issues,” said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein.

But some feel his powers were diminished by his surprisingly weak showing in the mayor’s race. With a $2-million campaign budget, Katz got only 9.7% of the vote. He finished fourth.

“On the contrary, I think his position is enhanced,” replied Peter Kelley, a longtime Katz friend and his campaign finance chairman. “Anyone who’s raised $2 million to run for mayor and didn’t disgrace himself is a serious figure. A lot more people know him because he ran too. I don’t think he hurt himself at all.”

Katz’s next likely political stop: running for the seat now held by state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), Lichtenstein added.

Term limits will force Roberti, president pro tempore of the state Senate, to resign in 1994. At that time, Katz would have two years left in his own Assembly seat before term limits forced him to step down.

But political consultant Harvey Englander said that while he, too, foresees Katz running for Roberti’s seat, he also anticipates difficulties.

“He took the wrong stand on the school issue,” Englander said, referring to the proposal that Roberti and Wachs have advocated and Katz opposed for breaking up the city school system into smaller jurisdictions, including one or more located wholly in the Valley.

“It’s an issue that’ll hurt him a great deal,” predicted Englander, who ran Wachs’ mayoral campaign. “It’s become a litmus test in the Valley. If you’re against it, you won’t be considered by many voters.”

It is also likely that Katz would face a few other hungry Democrats with Valley bases and credentials in the primary if he ran for Roberti’s seat. For example, it is believed that Barbara Friedman (D-Van Nuys) or Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) might also be eyeing the Roberti seat, Lichtenstein said.

Finally, according to close associates, Katz is now weighing who to endorse in the final phase of the mayor’s race.

“I can’t imagine that he won’t endorse Woo,” said one of these friends, a Democratic Party veteran who asked that he not be named. “I don’t think Richard can stay out of the race. It’s really going to be an us versus them campaign. It would, in fact, damage Richard if he sat on his hands in a classic Republican versus Democrat race and didn’t endorse the Democrat.”