ELECTIONS ’95 : Challengers Face Long Odds in Bid to Unseat Galanter : 6th District: Councilwoman has advantage in fund raising, name recognition.

Los Angeles City Council hopeful Richard Niezgodzki walked to the podium at a recent candidates forum in Marina del Rey and said, “I have an endorsement too--my wife.”

The remark was tongue in cheek, but it sums up the difficulty facing all three candidates seeking to beat Ruth Galanter in her bid for a third term on the City Council. The challengers are up against a well-entrenched incumbent capable of raising money and drawing endorsements.

Galanter has Mayor Richard Riordan in her camp, a coveted endorsement for a liberal seeking to shore up her right flank in conservative pockets of the district. Small wonder that she trumpeted that fact at the Marina del Rey forum, organized by the local Chamber of Commerce.

Since Galanter was reelected in 1991, the 6th District boundaries have changed considerably. Parts of Westwood, Palms and West Los Angeles were annexed, joining Venice, Westchester and Playa del Rey. Most of the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw area was placed in another district.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 1/2 to 1 in the district, according to the county registrar of voters. More than a fifth of the registered voters have not declared a party preference.

Galanter’s challengers in the nonpartisan race are businessman Sal Grammatico, graphic designer Jill Prestup and Niezgodzki, who works for the Los Angeles Housing Department.

All three challengers say discontent with Galanter’s performance runs deep in the district; they believe she will be forced into a runoff, as she was in her first bid for reelection in 1991.

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Although it is true that Galanter has many vocal critics in the activist community, there is little evidence that she will face the kind of organized grass-roots uprising that led to her upset victory over then-Council President Pat Russell seven years ago.

Moreover, her challengers lack the money to hire sophisticated consultants or to blanket the district in campaign mail, as Galanter--taking nothing for granted this time around--is now preparing to do.

Even those Galanter detractors who say she would have been vulnerable if a well-financed or well-known opponent had emerged concede privately that she is in a good position to win outright on April 11.

There is nothing that exasperates the three challengers more than this kind of “conventional political wisdom,” which they say prevents them from debating the issues--and Galanter’s record--before a broad audience that might coalesce around one of them.

“All three of us have the same message, and the message is better representation,” said Niezgodzki, 42, the only registered Republican in the race.

A Westchester resident with two children, Niezgodzki said he is running because as a city employee he knows firsthand how ineffective Galanter is at City Hall. Compared to other council members, Galanter doesn’t fight for resources for her district, he said.

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Niezgodzki said his prime issue is economic growth for the district. He also promises to forge an alliance with the school district to work on mutual concerns and to be a “law and order” man on crime.

Prestup, 49, who lives near Venice High School, is also pushing her crime agenda and other quality-of-life issues. She has organized Neighborhood Watch programs and worked with the Los Angeles Police Department on community policing issues. Prestup has the support of former LAPD Pacific Division Capt. Jan Carlson, who heads the Bureau of Investigation for the district attorney’s office.

If elected, Prestup said, she would make gang abatement efforts a key priority. She said she would also seek to renovate blighted business areas on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice and on Sepulveda Boulevard near the airport.

Grammatico, 42, a resident of the Del Rey section of the district, near Mar Vista, has a lengthy record of community involvement.

A three-time candidate for the City Council, Grammatico picked up the endorsement of the Oakwood Property Owners Assn. board of directors this week. The group’s president, Dru Lewis, said the endorsement was based on disenchantment with Galanter’s record in the crime-troubled neighborhood.

Grammatico said the key issue in the race is getting new leadership that is accountable to “the little guy.”