L.A. MAYOR’S RACE : Clinton Hails Woo for Putting ‘People First’ : Politics: President’s endorsement says the councilman has consistently fought for the middle class. Riordan responds that his opponent stands for the status quo.

President Clinton gave Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo a boost in the tight mayoral race Saturday, praising him in an official endorsement as a candidate committed to racial harmony, economic development and public safety.

In a statement clearly aimed at the moderate middle-class voters likely to decide the officially nonpartisan race, Clinton said Woo has “put people first, consistently fighting for the middle class, appealing to our hopes, not to our fears.” He cited Woo’s work on programs to create small businesses, to reform the city’s ethics laws, to “bring people together” and to “get criminals and their guns off the street.”

Clinton said that in the June 8 election Los Angeles voters will select a mayor who must “reinvigorate the economy, and assure the safety of all communities. I endorse Michael Woo because I believe he is the best person to meet these challenges.”

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Clinton will underscore his endorsement Tuesday when he appears with Woo during a swing through California to drum up public support for his own agenda. The White House is also laying plans for Administration officials, including Cabinet members, to campaign and raise money for Woo.

Clinton’s gesture represented a much-needed tonic for Woo at a moment when polls have shown him lagging behind his opponent, businessman Richard Riordan, among likely voters. But the value of the endorsement is not yet clear, considering that the election is still more than three weeks off, and--as Clinton noted Friday--the benefits of outsiders’ endorsements are arguable.

If Woo were to lose the election, it could be seen in some quarters as a sign of weakness for Clinton in a state whose political support he will badly need in 1996.

Woo, who endorsed Clinton when his presidential campaign was in trouble last February, hailed the endorsement as a “major boost to my campaign.” He noted that Clinton had won 400,000 votes in Los Angeles and asserted that it was highly unusual for a President to make such an endorsement.

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It demonstrated, he said, that national concern about the area’s economy, race relations and crime were important enough that the “President of the United States is putting his prestige on the line to get the right person elected.”

Woo termed the endorsement a major blow to Riordan’s efforts to make himself attractive to Democrats by “moderating his message, highlighting his charitable contributions and taking away the ‘tough enough’ slogan” he used to rally conservatives during the primary campaign.

Woo said his campaign will try to make the most of the endorsement by using it in the weeks ahead in an effort to reach uncommitted voters.

Campaigning Saturday, Riordan said the endorsement was “disingenuous and puzzling” coming from a President who has been a champion of change.

The endorsement, Riordan said in a written statement, “conflicts with Woo’s status quo record. He has never created any jobs, has violated ethics laws and been a leader in receiving special interest money. He won’t expel students who bring guns to school and he will raise taxes.”

Riordan also said that “the President’s intervention will disappoint a large percentage of Democrats who favor change and have joined with Republicans and independents in placing leadership over partisanship.”

A White House official acknowledged that such outside endorsements are “not necessarily determinative, and sometimes aren’t even helpful.” Clinton, in a news conference Friday, said he had not sought such support during his days in Arkansas politics because of their dubious value.

“But the truth is, it sends a message among the citizens of Los Angeles who like Bill Clinton, that this is his choice,” the official said.

Both Riordan and Woo took their campaigns to inner-city neighborhoods Saturday.

Woo visited African-American and Latino communities, picking up several endorsements from local officials and strengthening his message to minority voters whose support was crucial to his victory in the primary.

Woo said he was opposed to any city budget-balancing proposal that would disproportionately affect black or Latino workers. Specifically, he came out against a Riordan plan to contract out garbage collection, which Riordan argues could save the city $40 million annually.

Up to now, Woo has said he would consider any plan to alleviate the city’s budget crisis and put no restrictions on potential cutbacks or layoffs.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, a key Woo supporter in the African-American community, said Saturday that Woo’s opposition to privatization of garbage collection is part of a refined agenda for South-Central Los Angeles that will be released later. Ridley-Thomas said that the refinements would emphasize differences between Woo and Riordan on a range of issues relating to economic development, transportation and law enforcement.

Last week, Riordan repeatedly challenged Woo to release the details of what he called a secret agreement between him and Ridley-Thomas regarding South-Central Los Angeles. And Saturday, Jadine Nielsen, who chairs Riordan’s campaign, said that Woo and Ridley-Thomas are now “refining a back-room deal” in a display of “good old boy politics that makes voters demand real change at City Hall.”

Endorsing Woo on Saturday were state Assembly members Willard H. Murray Jr., Hilda L. Solis and Richard Polanco, state Sens. Art Torres and Diane Watson, and City Councilman Mike Hernandez.

Riordan spent the morning in Little Tokyo, where he held a news conference to emphasize his appeal to Asian-Americans.

Los Angeles Community College Trustee Julia Li Wu introduced him by saying: “The Los Angeles City Hall is in dire need of a major surgical operation, rather than a mere cosmetic face lift. In doing so, we need an outsider.”

Riordan campaign staffers passed out a list of endorsements from 44 Japanese-, Chinese-, Vietnamese- and Korean-American business and professional people and activists such as Young Tae Kim, president of the Korean Federation of Los Angeles, and Chung Lee, chairman of Korean-American Victims of Los Angeles Riots.

In a brief speech, Riordan pledged to work for a Los Angeles Police Department substation in Koreatown, where he said police respond too slowly because residents “have to call three different substations which are outside their area.”

LAPD officials reacted with some puzzlement to his remarks, saying they have a substation in the heart of Koreatown at 8th and Irolo streets.

That small substation, staffed by an interpreter paid for by Korean business people, comes under the jurisdiction of the department’s Wilshire Division, which shares responsibility for Koreatown with Rampart Division.

Police said they did not know anything about three substations, because Wilshire and Rampart have a combined total of two.

But some Koreatown residents have complained that dividing police responsibility for their community among two divisions makes little sense because it allows police to too easily pass the buck.

Riordan also pledged his support for Korean business people who lost money in the riots. He said he supports the right of South-Central Los Angeles to demand fewer liquor stores, but said that store owners who were burned out and barred from rebuilding should be compensated.

Times staff writers Ted Rohrlich and Frank Clifford contributed to this article.