An Uphill Battle in Sherman Oaks : Politics: Los Angeles council candidate Barbara Yaroslavsky finds lingering hostility in community that her husband represented for 19 years.

As a contender for the 5th District Los Angeles City Council seat, Barbara Yaroslavsky has a lot going for her: She has a well-recognized name, the endorsement of Mayor Richard Riordan and twice the campaign funds of any other candidate.

But she may also have an Achilles’ heel: Sherman Oaks.

The well-to-do community at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains represents about 20% of the district’s voters. But if community leaders there are any indication, Sherman Oaks may not be Yaroslavsky country.

Her campaign faces difficulties because of lingering hostility that some Sherman Oaks residents hold toward her husband, Zev Yaroslavsky, who represented the district for 19 years before resigning in December to take a post on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Before he left, Zev Yaroslavsky drew the wrath of some residents by endorsing several controversial projects, including a redevelopment effort for quake victims that so angered the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. that it sued the city last month to kill the project.

The animosity toward Barbara Yaroslavsky was evident recently when she underwent harsh questioning at a candidates forum sponsored by the homeowners group. Some residents and business owners expressed fear that she would only continue her husband’s more controversial stands.

“Can you convince us tonight that the money you’ve raised is based on your merit and your views and not those of your husband?” one woman asked. “And how do we know that your vote will not just be a proxy vote for your husband?”

The questions sparked applause from 75 or so audience members.

Clearly agitated, Yaroslavsky called the question sexist because, she said, it assumes that she can’t have opinions independent of her husband. She also defended her $279,000 campaign war chest, saying her contributors gave to her because they believe in her.

According to political pundits, the harsh questioning at the forum demonstrates the politically precarious situation Barbara Yaroslavsky is in: She wants to capitalize on her husband’s popularity but reduce any negative impact that his past actions may have on her campaign.

Political consultant Richard Lichtenstein said Yaroslavsky can reduce the negative impact of being associated with her husband’s controversial stands and yet benefit from his popularity by clearly defining her personal beliefs and how they differ from her husband’s.

“The more the campaign moves along and the more Barbara remains an unidentified individual in her own right, the more she will be defined by Zev’s policies,” he said.

Underscoring her problems in Sherman Oaks, Yaroslavsky’s campaign has generated only $5,500 or about 2% of her campaign contributions from the community’s residents and business owners.

For her part, Yaroslavsky said that during her door-to-door campaigning in Sherman Oaks, she has found that many residents support her and that the kind of criticism she faced at the candidates forum was not widespread.

“I don’t think I’m going to have such a hard time in Sherman Oaks,” she said.

Still, Lichtenstein and other political observers say that the April primary and June elections are both likely to have a relatively small voter turnout and that the votes of a small but motivated group of Zev Yaroslavsky critics could influence the outcome.

The Zev Yaroslavsky legacy that his wife must contend with includes several controversial positions he took in the months before he resigned.

In November, he and the rest of the City Council voted to support a senior housing project at Ventura Boulevard and Woodman Avenue that several homeowners opposed because, they said, it would create traffic and parking problems.

Later that month, Zev Yaroslavsky and the council backed expansion of Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, despite protests from residents who complained that the mall project would generate parking problems.

In December, he sparked the strongest community protest when he backed a plan to use redevelopment powers to rebuild quake-damaged buildings in Sherman Oaks. At his behest, the City Council adopted the plan.

In January, the homeowners association sued to kill the project, claiming that city officials failed to justify the program and give residents enough time to review the plan before it was adopted.

Still, Sherman Oaks residents and business leaders disagree on how much these controversial decisions will affect Barbara Yaroslavsky’s campaign.

Despite his group’s lawsuit, Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said Zev Yaroslavsky did an overall good job representing Sherman Oaks. But he said the former councilman’s clashes with residents there are likely to haunt his wife’s campaign.

“Having the same last name has its pluses and its minuses,” Close said.

Fred Gaines, a member of the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, said he believes that the residents who are still sore over the redevelopment project and other controversial decisions are few but vocal.

But he said he is not sure whether those critics will vote against Barbara Yaroslavsky because of her husband’s record.

“Whether that carries on to Barbara, I don’t know,” he said.

But Matt Epstein, one of the most outspoken critics of the redevelopment plan, said that hard feelings over the redevelopment still permeate Sherman Oaks and that those feelings are likely to impact Barbara Yaroslavsky’s campaign. He said she may also have difficulties with voters unless she makes clear how her positions differ from those of her husband.

“I think she is going to have a very difficult time in Sherman Oaks,” he said.