L.A. ELECTIONS / 10th COUNCIL DISTRICT : Holden and Sanders Square Off in Series of Bitter, Personal Squabbles

It is a testament to the testiness of the Los Angeles City Council 10th District race that Nate Holden and J. Stanley Sanders are even squabbling over who ran and finished the L.A. Marathon.

That quarrel aside (for the record, Holden has completed the 26.2-mile race twice, Sanders once), the pair has waged a highly personal battle on issues ranging from leadership to finances, sexual harassment to Ivy League credentials.

Incumbent Holden, 65, is seeking his third term in the post he has held since 1987.

Reelect him and he will give the 10th District four more years of dependable, streetwise constituent services, promises Holden, who earned his political stripes getting potholes fixed and stop signs installed as an aide to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

But attorney Sanders maintains that the 10th District can ill afford four more years of what he calls Holden’s embarrassing leadership.

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The 10th District needs dynamic new leadership that is in tune with its ethnic diversity and its growing upscale character, says Sanders, 52, a Watts native who, with an Ivy League education and photogenic smile, moves easily in the city’s social and political elites.

In a glossy, 24-page campaign booklet that reminds voters of his ties to Mayor Richard Riordan and former Mayor Tom Bradley, Sanders maps out a high-minded--if at times vague--agenda for the future.

Most political oddsmakers favor Holden to win--but narrowly. “It’s more of a horse race than I thought it’d be,” said the area’s former councilman, David Cunningham.

Public records show that Sanders has stayed financially competitive--not raising as much money as the incumbent overall but keeping him well within sight. As of this week, Holden had raised $290,000, Sanders had raised $220,000.

The third candidate on the April 11 ballot is Kevin Ross, 31, a deputy district attorney whose campaign is underfunded and little-known. Yet Ross could be a key player. If he scores more than 5% of the vote, it may be enough to deny Holden the 50% plus 1 vote he needs to win the primary.

If no candidate receives more than 50% in the April 11 primary, the top two vote-getters must face each other in a June 6 runoff.

At stake is leadership of one of the city’s most ethnically diverse districts. The 10th includes the stately homes and prominent African American churches of West Adams Boulevard, the bustling shops of Koreatown and the strong Latino presence along the Pico Boulevard corridor.

Political power in the district has been continuously held by African Americans since Tom Bradley was elected to the seat in 1963 and became the city’s first elected black councilman.

In 1987, Holden emerged from Hahn’s office to win the seat, left open when Bradley’s successor, Cunningham, resigned. Since then, Holden has been a tireless candidate: In 1989 he ran for mayor, coming in second in a primary only narrowly won by Bradley; in 1991, he ran for reelection, facing nominal opposition, and in 1993, he ran for mayor again, finishing seventh in the primary.

Recently, Holden has vowed that if he wins this year he will not seek reelection to the council in 1999, although the city’s term limits law would allow him to run then for a final time.

“I say it everywhere I go: I will have been here 12 years (if reelected this year), and that’s long enough to do everything I need to do,” Holden said.

The incumbent has the support of most of the district’s religious and political leaders, unions and the Police Protective League.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)--who demanded Holden’s ouster after he cast a controversial vote on then-LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates during the Rodney G. King beating controversy--now tells voters: “We need Nate Holden now more than ever.”

And at his campaign headquarters, a contingent of aides from county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s office work for Holden during their off-hours.

The Holden forces see the backbone of their electoral strength as the 10th District’s churchgoing older residents concerned about crime, protective of their property values and who have had an easy acquaintance with the back-slapping, ubiquitous Holden over three decades.

Sanders has attacked Holden on three main fronts: the councilman’s vote on Gates, allegations of sexual harassment, and questions raised about Holden’s residency in his district.

“If Nate Holden had his way, Daryl Gates would still be the chief,” proclaims one Sanders political mailer, noting that Holden voted with the council majority in April, 1991, to override Bradley’s Police Commission, which wanted to temporarily relieve Gates of his duties during an investigation into alleged police misconduct stemming from the King incident.

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Holden contends that his vote was a responsible one, following the advice of City Atty. James Hahn, who warned that Gates would win back his job by a lawsuit if the council did not override the commission.

Another Sanders flyer shows a mock check for $300,000, payable to a fictitious “Nate Holden Sexual Harassment Legal Defense Fund.” It refers to the fact that three former female employees at City Hall have accused Holden of sexually harassing them. Two of them have filed lawsuits against Holden and the city that are being defended at public expense. The cases, which have not yet gone to trial, have resulted in $300,000 in legal bills.

But Holden says courtroom revelations will prove that his accusers were encouraged by political foes. “It’ll all come out--but not yet,” Holden said.

The Sanders camp also has drawn on a September, 1992, Times article that reported that Holden had set up housekeeping for more than a year in a condo he owns in Marina del Rey, located outside the 10th District. At the time, Holden said the relocation was necessary because of death threats made against him by people angered by his vote on Gates.

Holden says now he never made the condo his full-time residence. In any case, he added, he is back in his Crenshaw-area home for good because the threats have subsided.

As for Sanders, his campaign portrays him as a model citizen, whose character and resume (Yale Law School, a Rhodes scholarship and service under Bradley as president of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission) should inspire the district’s children and serve as a bond to the 10th District’s family-rearing, working-age voters.

Sanders has garnered only one significant endorsement from an elected official, winning the backing of state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles).

He does not have the support of Riordan, who is staying neutral in the race instead of returning the favor Sanders paid him in the 1993 mayoral campaign. After finishing sixth in the mayoral primary--one place ahead of Holden--Sanders threw his support to Riordan, becoming one of the few prominent black leaders to back the Republican against Democrat Mike Woo.

Holden refuses to comment on the political impact of Sanders’ 1993 Riordan endorsement, although his supporters privately argue it will hurt Sanders.

On the record, however, Holden says Sanders hurts himself by waving his Ivy League education at voters. “They can’t relate to that,” he said.

Holden also has raised questions about Sanders’ fiscal responsibility.

Holden’s political mailers have noted that Sanders was in default on his home mortgage payments in 1993 and is now being investigated by the state Fair Political Practices Commission for possibly improperly using $53,490 from his 1993 mayoral race campaign to pay back rent on his law office.

Sanders explained that he went into default on his home when he was running for mayor and has corrected the situation. As for the FPPC probe, he says it is unjustified because the evidence will show that he used his law office as his campaign headquarters in 1993 and thus it was OK to pay the office rent with campaign money.