ELECTIONS ’95 : Paths Cross Again for Holden, Sanders : 10th District: The two front-runners clash over the marathon during radio address. ‘I’m stuck between two Goliaths,’ says long shot Kevin Ross.

In their first radio address together, the three candidates in the 10th District City Council race shifted talk to another race.

Incumbent Nate Holden said he once ran the Los Angeles marathon to raise money for youth sports.

“You never completed the marathon,” challenger Stan Sanders said with a snicker, prompting an angry reply from Holden.

“I’ve got medals. You can call the marathon office,” Holden shouted. (In fact, he completed the race in 1990 and 1991. Sanders admitted later that he didn’t know whether Holden had finished.)

The radio show’s host vainly tried to steer the discussion back to the issues, while third candidate Kevin Ross--the only one of the three to finish this year’s marathon--chided the two others for their digression.

It’s been that kind of bitterly personal campaign heading into the April 11 primary. And it’s no surprise that Holden and Sanders--the two front-runners--have clashed in their quest to represent a region that includes large sections of the Crenshaw district, Koreatown, Mid-City and West Adams. Though they reside in the same district (and even that has become an issue as Sanders has accused Holden of really living in Marina del Rey), Sanders and Holden are of starkly different worlds.

*

Sanders speaks broadly about bringing the best out of district residents. He repeatedly refers to himself as a leader and a role model, suggesting that the strength of his character can be leveraged into more police officers and new businesses for the district.

Holden sticks to the familiar, mentioning street corners at which he has placed signal lights and taking credit for bringing a new supermarket to the Midtown Shopping Center.

Their lives also reveal different paths to prominence.

Holden, who quit school at 16 to join the Army, finished high school at night before coming to Los Angeles in 1955 to work in an aerospace plant. He worked his way through West Coast University and became an aerospace engineer before starting his bumpy 27-year political career.

In his eight years on the council, he has become a master of constituent services, inspired by his longtime job as an aide to former county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

“Nate’s background is that of a guy who’s streetwise and savvy,” said former 10th District Councilman David Cunningham.

Sanders, a Rhodes scholar who was born and raised in Watts, likes to compare himself to another Rhodes scholar, Bill Clinton. He notes that both are Yale law graduates with daughters named Chelsea. His years of public service have been spent on city commissions and boards of nonprofit groups.

It’s fitting that the 10th District would produce such different candidates. It is one of the city’s most vibrant and diverse areas. Bisected by the Santa Monica Freeway, its population of 218,000 is increasingly Latino and Asian American. Latinos make up 41% of the district’s residents, followed by African Americans at 35%, Asian Americans at 14% and whites at 10%, according to the 1990 Census.

African Americans and whites, however, still dominate voting.

Because of term limits, this is Holden’s last run for the council. It’s also his eighth campaign since 1968. He has won three races, getting to the state Senate in 1974 and on the council in 1987. He lost campaigns for Congress, mayor and the State Board of Equalization.

Holden, 65, is a former amateur boxer, and the image he likes to portray is that of a fighter. But some say Holden has not always chosen his political battles wisely.

For instance, he voted with nine other council members to reinstate now-departed Police Chief Daryl F. Gates when the city’s Police Commission put the chief on administrative leave after the police beating of Rodney G. King. Holden has said he voted that way not to support Gates, but to ensure due process for the chief and to settle a lawsuit.

*

Still, the vote angered many of his constituents. Holden received death threats and said police directed him to take refuge in a high-rise condominium he owns in Marina del Rey.

That move haunts him. Sanders attacks Holden for his time in the marina, and says that Holden only recently moved back to his house in the district. Holden denies the charge.

Holden also may be vulnerable in this campaign because of sexual harassment allegations by three women who worked for him. Two of the women have filed lawsuits against him. As a council member, Holden’s legal costs are covered by the city. Holden denied the charges.

Like Holden, the 52-year-old Sanders began life humbly. The son of a city garbage collector who lived in Watts, Sanders was inspired to succeed by his older brother, Ed, who in 1952 became the first American to win the Olympic gold medal in boxing.

When Stan Sanders graduated from Whittier College in 1963 as an All-American wide receiver, he chose to attend Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship over an offer to play professional football.

After law school at Yale, Sanders returned to Los Angeles to practice law. He served on the city Recreation and Parks Commission, the Coliseum Commission and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

Sanders is 0-1 as a political candidate: He finished sixth out of 24 in the 1993 mayoral primary, just ahead of Holden both citywide and in the district.

Ross, the third candidate, admits he’s in a struggle of mythical proportions. “I’m stuck between two Goliaths,” he said. But Ross, a 31-year-old deputy district attorney, is hoping that voters fed up with Sanders and Holden’s attacks on each other will support him.

With less than $10,000--Sanders and Holden have each raised more than 10 times that amount--winning the race is nearly impossible for Ross, say political consultants.

Ross insists he has a chance of winning. “If I can get 2,000 to 3,000 votes, I can make it into a runoff,” he said.

Raised in South-Central, Ross graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta and Southwestern University School of Law. A forceful speaker who works at the district attorney office in Inglewood, Ross also hosts a Sunday morning talk show on radio station KACE-FM (103.9). He is on leave from both jobs while he campaigns.