ELECTIONS WATCH : The Absent Candidate

Barbara Yaroslavsky’s absences from forums for 5th District City Council candidates--she has missed about a dozen of them--are a disservice to voters on two counts.

She is denying them a chance to learn about her. And she appears to be trying to hide her shortcomings.

At forums she has attended, Yaroslavsky would not take firm stands on important issues. Worse, she seemed unfamiliar with some big issues.

A position on MCA expansion at Universal City? “We need to work together to make it work,” she said vaguely.

Although denying she is dodging debate, Yaroslavsky says she is not as good a speaker as she might be. Now, successful politicians need not be spellbinders. But the job does include joining in council debates, committee meetings and other assemblies and facing constituents. A politician unable to communicate in a group has a real problem.

Voters have few sources of information about local candidates. There is direct mail, which Yaroslavsky’s $300,000-plus war chest will produce in profusion, but it probably will have little depth. There is news coverage.

And there are the highly useful forums, where candidates test themselves against one another and face well-prepared interest groups and questioners.

Yaroslavsky should attend the few left. Her absence invites invidious speculation:

Is she relying on money, endorsements and her name recognition as an ex-councilman’s wife to put her into office? Or can she just not stand the heat?