LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. MAYOR : Riordan, Woo Seek Support of Jews, Labor

Pressing their struggle for the broad middle ground of the electorate, Los Angeles candidates Richard Riordan and Michael Woo on Sunday carried their campaigns to two potentially pivotal groups--Westside Jews and organized labor.

Woo also ratcheted up his effort to make Riordan as distasteful as possible to key middle-of-the-road Democrats by suggesting that Riordan “was behaving like Richard Nixon” when he would not comment on a somewhat mysterious private investigation firm that operated for at least three years out of a storage room of the Original Pantry, a downtown eatery owned by Riordan.

Woo was referring to a report in Saturday’s Times that mentioned the private investigative firm. While conceding that he had no information on what the firm was doing, Woo demanded that Riordan explain the firm’s activities and that he “uncover his undercover operation.”

At a speaking engagement, Riordan refused to answer questions about the investigation firm and was hustled off by aides. Spokeswoman Annette Castro said Riordan’s second wife, from whom he is separated, was involved in the business. The candidate “had nothing to do with it.”

Riordan later issued a prepared statement offering no additional details, but saying The Times’ report on the private-eye firm “provided no documentation to substantiate Woo’s ugly innuendo.”

His statement also cited old news reports that businessman Wilbur Woo, Woo’s father and one of his largest political contributors over the years, was a key Republican fund-raiser for Nixon. Woo “raised the specter of Nixon, and it’s a boomerang,” said Riordan spokesman Joe Scott.

Earlier in the day, in back-to-back appearances before several hundred members of the Wilshire Temple, the candidates were confronted with voters’ more tangible concerns about neighborhood deterioration, homelessness and crime.

Both candidates pledged to increase the police force and launch efforts to help revitalize the once preeminent residential and commercial corridor that includes the Mid-Wilshire temple.

Woo said he would boost police patrols by making a variety of cuts in other city spending, and nurture a system of neighborhood patrols--a concept he has promoted with some success in the Hollywood area of his district. He received strong applause when he vowed to work to ban cheap handgun sales in the city. “There is no legitimate reason for them to be sold in L.A,” he said.

Riordan said businesses and young families were fleeing areas such as the Wilshire district because the city has an image of a “war zone.” He criticized as wholly inadequate Woo’s proposal to build up the police force, and said his own scheme to lease out Los Angeles International Airport would pay for 3,000 new officers in four years. But the feasibility of that plan has been called into question by city and federal officials.

Claiming a “vacuum of leadership” has gripped the city and allowed such things as the recent closure of I. Magnin (formerly the venerable Bullocks Wilshire)--near the Wilshire Temple--Riordan said he would break down City Hall’s bureaucratic barriers to business and entice business to come back to the area.

Several congregation members said they were leaning toward Woo or remained ambivalent about the election. These are some of the swing voters Woo must win over to tip the scales June 8, polls show.

One of his biggest weapons in that effort--the endorsement Saturday of President Clinton--did not appear to be influencing several undecided voters interviewed. “It’s meaningless to me,” said Brad Tabach-Bank, a lawyer and liberal Democrat who voted for Clinton.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with local government,” he said. After the speeches, he said that he was impressed with some of what Riordan said, but remained “still up in the air” on his choice.

Later, Woo received a rousing welcome at a County Federation of Labor rally at the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, where he vowed to be “the best friend of organized labor that you’ve had in many, many years.”

It was a show of unity by labor groups that had stood on the sidelines or been divided among various Democratic candidates in the mayoral primary.

But despite the enthusiastic “Woo! Woo! Woo!” chants of several hundred union activists, the rally underscored one of the greatest threats to the Woo candidacy--the possibility that the voters he needs most to win may not go to the polls in three weeks.

County labor chief Bill Robertson and other speakers warned the labor activists, who represented the building trades, public employees unions and aerospace firms, that a Woo victory hinges on getting loyal Democrats to the polls.

In an interview, Robertson acknowledged that many union households voted for Riordan in the primary, and union leaders have to work to get rank-and-file members in line for Woo. Mailers and absentee ballots will be sent to union households, union officials said.

Robertson, calling the mayoral race the most important labor campaign in recent local history, said labor will be working with the state Democratic Party to get out Woo voters.

Another labor leader said the state party is, among other things, targeting 50,000 loyal Democratic voters who did not participate in the primary election.