Valley Shapes Up as Fitness Test in Mayor’s Race

If you’re feeling mentally shaky in L.A., you go to a shrink or join a 12-step group.

If you’re fat or just plain flabby, you hire a personal trainer.

Mayoral candidate Michael Woo has always seemed among the most emotionally stable of men, immune from the highs and lows that grip most residents of this hyperactive place. After the customary introduction (“Hi, I’m Mike, I’m a compulsive politician.”) I don’t think he’d have much to contribute to a 12-step group.

He’s also thin and appears fit. But in the mayoral primary, Woo’s campaign in the San Fernando Valley turned out to be surprisingly flabby. The Valley constitutes at least 40% of the L.A. vote, and Richard Riordan finished far ahead of Woo there, even though Woo had represented part of the area. If he gets beaten in the Valley, Woo most likely will lose the election.

So, being a child of L.A., Woo hired a personal trainer.

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Actually, the fact that Valley campaign manager Michael Arnold, 35, is a health and fitness consultant, certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, has nothing to do with his role in Woo’s campaign.

Arnold, an energetic man whose recently acquired glasses gives him a scholarly appearance, was hired because he knows the Valley. He was raised and educated there. More important, he was a political volunteer in the Valley for Woo in the primary and for Bill Clinton in the presidential election.

“We’ve got a very tough fight here in the Valley,” he said when we talked Monday in Woo’s new Valley campaign headquarters. “But we will fight for every vote and every precinct.”

The primary election results show the immensity of the task.

Riordan overwhelmed Woo in the Valley’s heaviest voting areas. In the West Valley City Council district represented by Joy Picus, Riordan polled 18,215 to 5,691 for Valley Democratic Assemblyman Richard Katz and 5,086 for Woo. In the northwest Valley’s 12th District, Riordan received 23,490 to 7,237 for Katz and 5,373 for Woo.

Woo could write off the 12th District, a conservative area represented by Republican Hal Bernson that should be a lock for Republican Riordan. What Woo needs, however, is the Picus district and the neighborhoods around it--a vast area ranging from Van Nuys Boulevard west to De Soto Avenue and from Burbank Boulevard Avenue north to Devonshire Street.

“This is the bellwether,” said Republican tactician Paul Clarke, a corporate political consultant who isn’t involved in the mayoral campaign.

Democrats are the majority in the area. On the surface, this should be good for Democrat Woo, who hopes to ride to victory on the strength of his party registration. “I think his plus is that he happens to be a Democrat in a Democratic city and that will put him in good stead,” said Carol Blad of Van Nuys, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley.

But these Valleyites are Reagan Democrats, with little party loyalty. Only the worst economic slump since the Great Depression drove them into Democrat Clinton’s arms last year.

So when Woo attacks Riordan as a Reagan Republican, a lot of people might say: “I didn’t know that. I think I’ll vote for Riordan.”

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Woo even faces obstacles in more loyal Democratic areas.

A prime target is the East Valley, a broad stretch of many working-class neighborhoods with an ethnically diverse population of Anglos, Latinos and African-Americans. But the problem in this area is the voter turnout, which is among the Valley’s lowest.

The second target for Woo is the high turnout section of the Valley that extends from around Ventura Boulevard up into the Santa Monica Mountains to Mulholland Drive. Included among the residents are many Jewish voters with strong Democratic loyalty. Unfortunately for Woo, Riordan finished first there, helped by the law and order issue.

This doesn’t mean the Valley is a hopeless cause for Woo. Woo supporters are aiming for an endorsement from Katz, whose mayoral defeat hasn’t ended his political career. Failure to back Woo would make him a traitor in the eyes of many Democratic activists. And he’ll need their support if he runs for the Valley state Senate seat to be vacated by David Roberti, a term limit victim.

Meanwhile, Woo is centering his campaign on the hot issue of crime. His soft “Bring Us Together” theme of the primary has given way to a promise of putting more cops on the street.

He has five weeks to build a better campaign. In the next few days, the headquarters on Van Nuys Boulevard will be filling with volunteers to help Valley campaign manager Mike Arnold.

As a personal trainer, Arnold knows how hard it is to build a better body in five weeks. He’s finding out that politics is a much more difficult undertaking.