What’s in a Name? A Lot, If It’s Yaroslavsky : Politics: If she seeks her husband’s City Council seat, Barbara Yaroslavsky will have instant voter recognition. But some object to what they call creation of a dynasty.

Her name brings instant voter recognition. She is well liked and highly visible in her community. But if she runs for office, she will face charges that she is attempting to create a political dynasty.

That is the dilemma facing Barbara Yaroslavsky, who acknowledged last week that she may run for the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by her husband, Zev, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors earlier this month.

“I have been encouraged and flattered,” Barbara Yaroslavsky said of interest shown by friends and political advisers in her possible quest for the seat her husband held for 19 years.

“She’s one of the best-kept secrets in town,” said real estate mogul Stanley Hirsh, a Studio City resident.

Ticking off her attributes, Hirsh praised her as bright and personable. He also noted that she is involved in Jewish religious and charitable causes in a Westside and Sherman Oaks-based council district where Jewish voters exercise tremendous clout.

“I think she runs and she wins,” said veteran Democratic political consultant Joe Cerrell. “I’m not saying it’s a slam dunk, but she starts out with what is a very good political name in this city. And she can raise good sums of money with it.”

But others say that having Barbara Yaroslavsky on the City Council and Zev Yaroslavsky on the Board of Supervisors would create a regrettable political dynasty.

“It’s too much in the same family,” said Sandy Brown, a Westside activist who has frequently clashed with Zev Yaroslavsky on development issues.

“If she runs, I think there’ll be a backlash against it. We’ve already had 19 years of Zev and then to have . . . another Yaroslavsky is too much,” added Brown, who is president of the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Assn.

City Council President John Ferraro said he expects that the council will decide to schedule a special election for Zev Yaroslavsky’s seat that coincides with the city’s regular municipal elections next April.

Others who have expressed interest in running for the office include former Los Angeles school board President Roberta Weintraub and Bet Tzedek Executive Director Michael Feuer.

Feuer said that his decision to run is irreversible and that he has even agreed to resign in December as head of Bet Tzedek, a legal services group, so he can campaign full time. “There’s no turning back,” Feuer said.

Weintraub, once a Republican and leader of the San Fernando Valley anti-busing movement in the late 1970s, re-registered as a Democrat a few years ago and already is campaigning for the council seat. She has met with homeowner leaders and toured city parks and police stations in the 5th District to familiarize herself with key municipal services.

“I’m going full bore on this,” said Weintraub.

In recent days, Lea Purwin D’Agostino, a deputy district attorney who ran a quixotic campaign in 1988 against her then-boss, Ira Reiner, reportedly had several political meetings to discuss running for the 5th District seat. Bill Christopher, an architect and leading neighborhood activist, filed the paperwork necessary to begin raising money for the race. Ryan Snyder, a transportation consultant who previously ran against Zev Yaroslavsky, filed his papers earlier this month.

In an interview, Barbara Yaroslavsky said she has yet to fully discuss her possible campaign with her husband, but she expects to do so soon. “We have been so busy with the election (for supervisor) that I haven’t sat down with Zev to go over the pros and cons of it,” she said.

Asked how she would react if her husband were to express concern that her entrance in the council race might reflect badly on him, she said, “I’d have to take that into consideration. But I don’t see that happening at all.”

And what if her husband advised her not to run?

“He wouldn’t say that,” she said. “That’s not the way our relationship works.”

Others who know the couple agree. But there are those who believe Zev Yaroslavsky privately does not want his wife to seek his seat.

“I don’t think he’s enthusiastic at all about this,” said one knowledgeable source active in Westside political circles. “It could be that he thinks it would hurt him politically or that he doesn’t want to share the spotlight.”

When asked recently about his wife’s prospective political career, Yaroslavsky replied: “Talk to my wife.”

Inevitably, talk of Barbara Yaroslavsky’s candidacy raises the dynasty issue.

“This is not a hereditary monarchy,” said one critic, who asked for anonymity.

But Cerrell and other observers say that Barbara Yaroslavsky should be able to deflect such reactions by presenting herself as an independent-minded and credible candidate.

Barbara Yaroslavsky herself said last week: “I just don’t see it as a problem.”

County and city government activities don’t overlap much, she said, so opportunities for her and her husband to coordinate their powerful positions would be limited. “There’s too much independence,” she said. “They’d have to feed off each other for there to be a dynasty problem.”

But some, such as Sandy Brown, the Westside activist, said the issue is one of fairness. “My concern really is what kind of arm-twisting will Zev do to get her elected,” Brown said. And after Barbara Yaroslavsky, who’s next?

“Their teen-age daughter?” Brown sarcastically quipped.