Yaroslavsky Expected to Seek Edelman’s Seat : Politics: The councilman has scheduled a news conference for today. Entering the supervisorial race is a foregone conclusion, analysts say.

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, 44, is expected to announce today that he will enter the race to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, who is retiring.

Yaroslavsky aides refused to comment on the nature of today’s Hall of Administration news conference, but much of the rest of the region’s political community speculated that the 18-year Los Angeles councilman will declare that he will run next year for Edelman’s 3rd District seat. That seat includes about 1.5 million people living in the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

“There’s no question what Zev’s going to do,” said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein. “He’s declaring for Edelman’s seat.”

“This is not unexpected,” said Harvey Englander, also a political consultant.

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Yaroslavsky, with today’s announcement, “will be, if not the front-runner, at least one of the principal candidates for the job to succeed Edelman,” Lichtenstein added.

Although his political career has been on hold for several years, Yaroslavsky is known as a shrewd campaigner, an aggressive fund-raiser and a sharp and industrious lawmaker who can claim credit for an impressive array of legislative achievements.

Meanwhile, advisers to state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) claimed that Yaroslavsky’s expected decision will not affect Roberti’s review of the possibility of running for Edelman’s seat.

“Whatever Zev does will in no way deter or have any effect on Sen. Roberti’s own decision,” said Englander. “The senator will announce his own decision shortly.”

Last week, Edelman caught many by surprise when he announced that he would not seek reelection.

Among those caught flat-footed was Yaroslavsky, in South Korea on a city business trip to one of Los Angeles’ sister cities.

But Yaroslavsky cut short his Korea stay to hurry back to Los Angeles to begin exploring the feasibility of running for Edelman’s seat.

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Although Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) expressed earlier interest in the Edelman job, he quickly took his name out of the running. Likewise, former City Councilman Michael Woo said last week that, contrary to widespread speculation, he was not interested in running for supervisor.

Among those still eyeing the post are ex-Councilwoman Joy Picus. But it is Roberti who would probably be Yaroslavsky’s strongest foe.

A Yaroslavsky-Roberti race would be a “tough one with a lot of trading of charges,” predicted Lichtenstein.

Yaroslavsky’s political career began with a bang in the 1970s when he won a seat on the City Council, defeating a Democratic Party favorite. But since then, the ambitious Yaroslavsky has been frustrated in his efforts to advance up the political ladder. In the late 1980s, Yaroslavsky seemed irretrievably poised to run against Mayor Tom Bradley. But then, in a stunning about-face, he withdrew from the race on the eve of the deadline for officially filing.

Over his lengthy career at City Hall, Yaroslavsky has become known as one of the authors of a 1986 growth-control initiative that slashed by half the amount of commercial development possible on thousands of parcels of land; for defeating Occidental Petroleum’s bid to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades; for opposing the use of the chokehold by the Police Department; for seeking curbs on police spying on dissident groups, and for initiating various fiscal strategies in the late 1980s to hire more police officers.