LOCAL ELECTIONS / 15TH L.A. CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT : Nearing Finish Line, Flores, Svorinich Trade Charges : Politics: Both candidates have filed ethics complaints and stepped up their personal attacks in campaign’s final week.

With their runoff election looming, longtime Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores and challenger Rudy Svorinich are trading a flurry of charges and countercharges, each trying to pull ahead in a race both consider neck-and-neck.

“It is extremely, extremely close,” said Svorinich, 33, owner of the Industrial Paint Co. in Wilmington and a onetime chief deputy to former Republican Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando. “I’m confident, but no, I’m not comfortable.”

Said Flores, 56: “It’s the most intense race I’ve ever been in. I feel very good about the race and about the campaign . . . but it’s a close, close race.”

At stake Tuesday is the fate of what some consider a 42-year political tradition in the 15th City Council District, which stretches from San Pedro to Watts. Flores, who has represented the turf for 12 years, is the political protegee and successor of the late John Gibson Jr., who occupied the council seat for three decades.

But after losing in bids for higher office--for secretary of state in 1990 and Congress last year--Flores has shown signs of political vulnerability. And in Svorinich, she has drawn a feisty opponent.

In recent weeks, the two candidates have filed complaints against one another with the City Ethics Commission and stepped up their mailings to voters--both in number and vitriol.

Last week, Flores asked the ethics commission to block matching funds to Svorinich because he accepted a contribution from another campaign committee. The contribution, by Torrance City Councilman Bill Applegate’s mayoral campaign committee, came in the form of a $225 purchase of tickets to a Svorinich fund-raiser. State and city campaign laws prohibit transfers of money from one campaign committee to another, but neither the ethics commission nor the state Fair Political Practices Commission would comment on the Flores complaint.

Svorinich, however, said: “I talked to the ethics commission people and they’re not sure whether it was an acceptable contribution or not.”

“I think this is a desperate attempt by Joan Flores and Harvey Englander (Flores’ campaign manager) to save a desperate campaign,” he said. “They’re trying to manufacture dirt because they just don’t have any. But this is typical of the type of campaigns that Mr. Englander participates in.”

For his part, Svorinich wrote to the ethics commission complaining that Flores’ staff was working on her campaign during city time, using taxpayers’ dollars.

Flores staffers were quick to rebut.

“Oh please, we’ve been through so many campaigns that this is just a ridiculous charge,” Flores spokeswoman Nikki Tennant said after the charge was made. “The staff campaigns on its own time and takes time off to volunteer. We’re very, very careful about that.”

The mail campaign has been fierce, beginning with requests for support but descending to personal attacks.

By last week, Flores was sending out mailers on topics ranging from Svorinich’s TRW credit report to issues on which she said he had lied to the public. Svorinich was mailing retorts, in which he called Flores a liar.

The mailing that used a portion of Svorinich’s TRW credit report attempted to demonstrate that his paint store business is not well managed. It concluded: “If this is how Svorinich handles his own money, can we afford to let him handle ours?

In another piece, Flores attacked Svorinich’s assertion that he is a moderate and that she she is a conservative. She contended that as an aide to Felando, a staunch conservative, he played a part in making conservative decisions.

“As a member of a conservative team, he worked to cut aid to our local schools, he worked to increase tuition at our state universities and community colleges,” the mailing says.

Rebuts Svorinich in a mailing: “Why would Councilwoman Flores stoop so low? Because she . . . cannot defend her failed record, her failed attempts at higher office and her legacy of failure for our youth.”

Svorinich’s mailers consistently criticize Flores for taking a low road in the campaign by attacking him personally. He calls her a “right-wing” conservative, a label she has repeatedly rejected, and says she lives in a luxury condominium while he and his wife Deann live in an apartment.

In one mailing, he compares Flores to a former President, saying: “When George Bush had to run for reelection, he knew he couldn’t defend his failed record, so he ignored the issues and talked about trust. She’s ignoring crime, gangs, jobs and our youth and is spending her special-interest war chest to wage a campaign of lies and deceit.”

The mailing ends: “Tell Joan Milke Flores . . . you want to hear about real issues, not character assassinations created in the minds of paid hit men.”

Fueling such hand-to-hand political combat is the fact that Flores and Svorinich share the same political base. Both are San Pedro residents. Both are white, pro-business Republicans portraying themselves as socially moderate and fiscally conservative. And both are running to represent a predominantly Democratic district with a large minority population.

Given their common power base, Flores and Svorinich have worked hard for support in Democratic portions of the district. To gain political credentials in these communities, they have engaged in a game of one-upmanship, courting and trumpeting endorsements.

County Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Gloria Molina have endorsed Flores, as have former Democratic Assemblyman David Elder and Janice Hahn, who finished third in the April primary for the council seat. Hahn, daughter of former County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, won both Wilmington and Watts in the primary.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and U.S. Reps. Maxine Waters, (D-Los Angeles) and Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) are backing Svorinich.