5 Challenge Garcetti in Race for D.A.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, whose courtroom team recently lost the so-called Trial of the Century, will face five challengers as he seeks a second term as the county’s top prosecutor in the March primary election.

At the filing deadline late Friday, three members of the district attorney’s staff had joined the post-O.J. Simpson verdict race against Garcetti.

The field includes Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lynch, an 18-year veteran who heads the district attorney’s Norwalk branch office and who formerly was in charge of the district attorney’s downtown operation.

Since announcing his candidacy earlier this month, Lynch has excoriated his boss as “an embarrassment” to his troops and accused Garcetti of having mismanaged “every major case he has personally been involved in.”

Lynch represents a disaffected faction in Garcetti’s office that has been deeply critical of him for, among other things, granting more than $43,000 in bonuses to the lead prosecutors in the Simpson murder case while prosecutors on non-celebrity cases have gone without raises for two years.

So intense is the anger that the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys, a nonunion group that represents prosecutors countywide, plans to hold a vote of confidence on Garcetti next month. The results could become a campaign issue.

Sterling E. Norris, another veteran deputy district attorney who unsuccessfully opposed Garcetti and former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner in the 1992 election, also is running against the incumbent. So is Deputy Dist. Atty. Malcolm Jordan, a 26-year veteran of the office.

Others in contention are ex-Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Greenberg, a former law professor now in private practice, and Steve S. Zand, a private criminal attorney based in Encino, who says Garcetti has mismanaged the office and failed to properly allocate his budget.

Garcetti has declined to answer his opponents’ attacks directly, saying at a recent news conference that he is looking forward to the race and plans to run on his record.

It will be a quick campaign because California’s presidential primary and elections for county officials, judges and state legislators have been moved from their traditional date in June to March 26.

Some political analysts believe that Garcetti--who, like Lynch, was the head of a branch office three years ago when he forced Reiner out of office--will win the primary with the necessary 50% plus one vote to avoid a runoff election in November.

Democratic political analyst Joe Cerrell said he believes that Garcetti, who has built a huge campaign treasury, has the money and the name recognition necessary to win the election outright.

A hard-fought race also was assured for the open seat of county Supervisor Deane Dana, who is retiring after 16 years in office.

Dana’s longtime chief deputy, Don Knabe, will be among a field of contenders that will include former Rolling Hills Councilwoman Gordana Swanson, who forced Dana into a runoff four years ago.

Long Beach City Councilman Douglas Drummond is also running in the sprawling 4th District, which stretches from the South Bay through Long Beach and southeast Los Angeles County. Other candidates are Norm Amjadi of Torrance, Joel Lubin of Downey and Deputy Assessor Richard S. Markowski of Long Beach.

The filing deadline in the supervisor’s race is Wednesday because Dana, the incumbent, is not seeking reelection.

The county’s top African American official, Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, is assured of reelection because no challengers filed papers.

With a lone opponent, veteran Supervisor Mike Antonovich is expected to win a fifth term on the governing board of the nation’s largest county government. Antonovich faces D.C. “Dan” Kumaus of Palmdale.