ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : Area NAACP Chief Denies Endorsement of Alarcon : The head of the Valley branch says he hasn’t backed anyone in 7th District runoff. Observers say disavowal will cost candidate votes among blacks.

In a move that may damage Los Angeles City Council candidate Richard Alarcon among black voters, the head of the San Fernando Valley NAACP branch denied Friday that he had endorsed Alarcon, as Alarcon has claimed.

The Rev. Zedar E. Broadous said in an interview that he had not endorsed either Alarcon or Lyle Hall in their June 8 runoff battle to succeed Councilman Ernani Bernardi in the northeast Valley.

“I have not endorsed any candidate,” Broadous said. “I did talk to Richard, but I didn’t in terms of an endorsement. I guess you have to be careful about your verbiage when you talk to people in politics.”

Alarcon said in two interviews with The Times this week that Broadous had endorsed him and repeated that claim at the beginning of an interview Friday.

Informed that Broadous had contradicted him, Alarcon said the minister “gave me a check and also said he supported me.” He called the situation a misunderstanding.

“I guess he didn’t want me to use the name,” Alarcon said.

Broadous said he did give Alarcon a personal check for $100. But he said he did not intend that as an endorsement by either him or the NAACP, which, as a tax-exempt organization, is barred by federal law from formally backing political candidates.

Alarcon’s claim that Broadous endorsed him is “exactly what I told him not to do, because of the fact of my position,” Broadous said.

“If he said, ‘Zedar Broadous endorses me,’ everyone would say, ‘Who the hell is that?’ But I have an organization that I have to protect.”

Observers said Broadous’ disavowal probably will cost Alarcon votes among blacks, who make up 19% of the electorate in the district. Both candidates have earnestly courted the black community, seeking support from numerous black political and community figures.

Hall, a retired city fire captain, said he is supported by county Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke and LeRoy Chase, head of the Pacoima-based Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando Valley. Chase was a candidate in the April primary race in the 7th District, placing third behind Hall and Alarcon.

Alarcon, who is on leave from his job as Mayor Tom Bradley’s top Valley aide, said he is backed by City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). He also is endorsed by Bradley, but has used that plug sparingly. The mayor has a lackluster reputation in the 7th District, which stretches from Van Nuys to Sylmar.

Asked if he thought he would suffer any adverse political fallout from the Broadous situation, Alarcon said:

“I just need to talk to him first. It changes what needs to be done. It doesn’t necessarily make it negative.”

Some community activists disagreed.

“The black vote always has been inclined toward honesty. If honesty is not part of it when you get down to the ballot, then you can forget it,” said Ray Jackson, president of the Northeast Valley Community Improvement Assn., a group dominated by black homeowners.

Said Chase: “It would hurt him with any voters if a candidate claimed he has something he doesn’t have.”

Hall agreed that Alarcon would lose ground among blacks.

“It’s extremely important to be sure that you have an endorsement before you claim you do,” he said. “This has the potential to irritate people at best, and to alienate them at worst.

In another development, Hall was endorsed Friday by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union which represents the city’s rank-and-file police officers.

League President Bill Violante praised Hall, saying that the former city firefighters union president and onetime reserve Burbank police officer has “the courage and commitment to place public safety first.”