LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. CITY COUNCIL : No Political Neophytes in 4 Contests

Looking at the four Los Angeles City Council seats at stake in the June 8 election, the potential for change is clear--the council will get at least two new faces and possibly as many as four, depending on the fortunes of longtime incumbents Joy Picus and Joan Milke Flores.

But to call this a season of upheaval at City Hall would be a mistake. Maybe downright misleading. Because none of the council candidates is really a stranger to local politics.

Picus’ challenger, Laura Chick, used to work for her as an aide. Flores’ opponent, businessman Rudy Svorinich, was once chief of staff to a local state assemblyman.

And in races for two open seats on the council, former school board member Jackie Goldberg is running against Tom LaBonge, longtime aide to council President John Ferraro, while Richard Alarcon, on leave as an assistant to Mayor Tom Bradley, is running against Lyle Hall, a former city firefighters’ union president who almost won election to the council four years ago.

“It is somewhat the year of the outsider,” quips political consultant Harvey Englander. “But it is an outsider who knows the way to the bathroom.”

Still, the contests hold promise for change since new lawmakers can bring new ideas, personnel and energy to their jobs. Here is how the races shape up:

3rd District

After four terms in office, Picus is feeling the heat from Chick in a fight to represent the southwestern San Fernando Valley. And to hear some pundits tell it, Picus is vulnerable to the same pressure as the incumbent she unseated 16 years ago: Voter desire for change.

“I think she has just overstayed her welcome,” said Rick Taylor, a political consultant whose candidate, Dennis Zine, finished third in the primary. Zine has since endorsed Chick.

“I don’t think it’s that Joy has been a horrible councilperson or anything like that,” Taylor said. “She’s just been there too long.”

That theme has been a cornerstone of Chick’s campaign. Directed by Englander, it has tried to portray Picus, 62, as a tired and ineffective politician concerned with crime and other district problems only at election time.

As Picus’ field deputy from 1989 to 1991, Chick, 48, also argues she has the experience to immediately re-energize the office. “I have seen how things need to be done differently and I have seen inefficiencies in departments . . . and all of these things are an advantage to me because I’ll be able to hit the ground running,” said Chick, a consultant for a North Hollywood community relations firm.

But while she touts her background, Chick bristles at the notion she is a political insider, even if her husband, Robert, was one of Mayor Tom Bradley’s longest serving commissioners, most recently at the Department of Airports.

“I get very emotional about that,” she said. “I’m very proud of Robert. He has been an unpaid political volunteer who put in a lot of time for the city. But as for a close friend, a close crony, even a close ally of Mayor Bradley, that is absolutely not true.”

But just as Chick has sought to depict Picus as an out-of-touch incumbent, the councilwoman and her campaign have labeled the challenger a City Hall insider pretending to be an outsider.

“Laura is masquerading as a political neophyte and we have to take the luster off her,” said Bill Carrick, a prominent Democratic consultant advising Picus’ campaign. “This is no fresh face (in politics),” he said of Chick. “This isn’t Mrs. Smith goes to City Hall.”

To convey their messages, both candidates have waged increasingly tough campaigns. Picus is claiming a Chick victory would be a “hostile takeover” of the district by “Tom Bradley’s cronies.” Chick has countered that Picus is herself a tool of special interests by virtue of more than $500,000 in campaign contributions over the years from developers and other big business lobbyists at City Hall.

7th District

If this race hinged on who had the most endorsements from former candidates for the seat, Hall would be the clear winner over Alarcon in the runoff to succeed retiring Councilman Ernani Bernardi.

Since Hall placed first in a seven-person primary with 23% of the vote, his campaign has been endorsed by all of the losing candidates except fourth-place finisher Raymond Magana.

But a victory in this largely working-class district in the northeast San Fernando Valley, including Pacoima, will depend on more than endorsements. So Hall, 53, said he is working longer hours and spending more money than in the primary. By Election Day, he expects his campaign will cost up to $150,000--more than twice what was spent on the primary, when he was fifth in spending.

Although placing first in the primary, Hall won only 4% more of the vote than Alarcon, who is seeking to become the first Latino elected to a Valley seat on the council.

As a Latino, Alarcon said at a debate early this month, he can bring “whatever wisdom and information comes from that experience” to the problems of Latinos in the district.

Still, the district’s demographics bear little relation to who votes. While the population is 70% Latino, 19% Anglo and 8% African-American, election officials report that only 30% of registered voters are Latino, while 49% are Anglo and 19% are African-American.

Alarcon’s time as Bradley’s services coordinator for the Valley--and his endorsement by the mayor--may do him more harm than good in much of the district. That seemed clear when Alarcon did not even tout Bradley’s support until the end of the primary, and then only among Pacoima’s black voters.

13th District

In a race viewed by many as too close to call, Goldberg and LaBonge are waging campaigns as different as their backgrounds.

The 48-year-old Goldberg, a longtime champion for liberal issues bidding to become the city’s first openly gay or lesbian council member, has relied on support from a mix of community activists and Democratic Party stalwarts such as Sen. Barbara Boxer and County Supervisor Gloria Molina. She also has won support from union groups, including the County Federation of Labor and United Teachers-Los Angeles.

LaBonge, meanwhile, is running a more traditional, nonpartisan campaign that reflects his nuts-and-bolts approach to government. As a 39-year-old council aide regarded around City Hall as hard-working and affable, LaBonge has enlisted endorsements from virtually every other candidate originally in the race, as well as the city’s police and fire unions.

Goldberg, who finished first in the eight-person primary race to succeed Councilman Mike Woo as he runs for mayor, has fashioned her campaign around a variety of proposals. They range from creating a job corps for youths to rebuilding city roads and painting more police cars black-and-white to increase law enforcement’s presence on the streets.

LaBonge has campaigned on making City Hall more responsive to the district, which runs from Hollywood to Glassell Park and includes Silver Lake, Mt. Washington and Atwater Village. Since the primary, he has gained endorsements from Tom Riley, Michael Weinstein and Virginia Stock Johannessen, the third, fourth and fifth place finishers in the April vote.

LaBonge’s campaign saw Weinstein’s endorsement as particularly significant because he was one of three gay or lesbian candidates originally in the race.

Goldberg dismisses Taylor’s comments as hyperbole, noting that she and Weinstein clashed during the primary and thus were unlikely to join forces for the runoff.

Goldberg agrees with those who see the race as a close one. LaBonge, she said, “is obviously strongest in Atwater, where he lives. And I will be strongest in Echo Park where I live.” But the rest of the district, she said, will be “a dogfight.”

15th District

After the scare of her political life in the primary, Flores is sounding more confident these days that she will retain the seat she has held since 1981. And that confidence was bolstered last week when Flores was endorsed by Janice Hahn, who placed third in the primary race to represent the Watts-to-San Pedro district.

Hahn’s endorsement was significant because the face-off between Flores and Svorinich, both white Republicans from San Pedro, may be decided by the district’s largely minority communities of Watts and Wilmington. And that is where Hahn, sister of Los Angeles City Atty. James Kenneth Hahn and daughter of former County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, beat all competition in the primary.

“I believe we were headed for victory anyway,” Flores said after Janice Hahn’s endorsement, “but I think this cements a victory.”

But if the primary results showed anything, it was that Flores, 56, has her detractors and Svorinich, a 32-year-old aide to former Assemblyman Gerald Felando (R-San Pedro) a strong base of support.

Indeed, after breezing to victory in previous council races, Flores won a mere 28% of the primary vote. Some blame Flores’ poor showing on her strong competition. Others blame it on voters’ desire for change. And still others argued voters were angry with Flores for twice running for higher office since 1989--proof, critics say, she no longer cares about the district.

“Voters were voting for change,” Svorinich said. “And as I’m the only instrument of change . . . I see voters staying with their convictions and voting for me.”

Svorinich is not without his own impressive endorsements, including Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, arguably the city’s most influential African-American politician. Her backing alone could bring him support in Watts, where in the primary he did not win a vote in some precincts.

Still, many political observers believe Flores--who placed second in most areas carried by Hahn--will win reelection for what she has hinted will be her final term.