Woo to Seek Secretary of State Office : Politics: Former councilman who lost mayoral race will enter crowded field in bid to succeed Eu, a nominee for ambassador post.

After weeks of quietly testing the waters, former Los Angeles Councilman Mike Woo will announce his candidacy for California secretary of state today at news conferences in Los Angeles and Sacramento, a Woo adviser confirmed Tuesday.

The 41-year-old Woo, who lost a grueling and enormously costly race for Los Angeles mayor in June, was not available for comment Tuesday afternoon. He was en route to California from Boston, where he holds a temporary lecturing position at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a knowledgeable source said.

Woo’s high name recognition in vote-rich Southern California, after a $6-million campaign against Mayor Richard Riordan, is likely to make him a formidable contender in the increasingly crowded Democratic June primary. The incumbent secretary of state, March Fong Eu, has been nominated by President Clinton as ambassador to Micronesia and is not expected to seek reelection.

Other announced or likely Democratic candidates for the post include state Assembly members Jackie Speier of Burlingame and Gwen Moore of Los Angeles, as well as Eu’s chief deputy, Tony Miller.

Jim Wood, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and a key player in state Democratic politics, said Woo, with a proven fund-raising ability and residual support from the 46% of voters who chose him in the mayoral race, will be a credible candidate. But he said intense political jockeying is still occurring among potential candidates for state and local races, and Woo’s competition is not yet clear.

“I think the field is going to get more crowded,” Wood said.

Woo previously had expressed interest in the secretary of state job, and recently sent letters to potential supporters outlining his interest in the office and its authority over campaign finance issues and voter registration.

Steven Glazer, a political consultant who has worked for the former councilman, noted that Woo sponsored a sweeping Los Angeles city ethics reform package in 1990. The secretary of state job is “a natural match for his interest,” Glazer said.

“It’s a key office as it relates to campaign and election reforms, as well as encouraging greater citizen participation” in balloting, Glazer said.

Since the bruising Los Angeles mayoral campaign, Woo has kept a low profile.

Glazer said any negative political baggage Woo may carry from the mayoral campaign is offset by the strengths he showed in the race.

“On the positive side he garnered 46% of the vote (and) over 9,000 people made contributions to him. He has a national network of supporters.”

Wood said Woo can build on a base of liberal and Asian supporters in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. But he would face a strong challenge for other constituencies that supported him in the mayor’s, including African American voters who could shift heavily to Assemblywoman Moore.