Runoffs Seem Likely in Several Local Races

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, battling five challengers and an embarrassing string of losses in high-profile murder cases, prepared Tuesday for a possible runoff election in November.

Likewise, Board of Supervisors candidate Don Knabe seemed unable to parlay his anointing by retiring 4th District Supervisor Deane Dana into an outright victory. Instead, he appeared headed for a fall runoff against former Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson.

And in one of the county’s most freewheeling contests, two Democratic state Assembly members--Juanita M. McDonald of Carson and Willard H. Murray of Paramount--also seemed destined for a November runoff for the 37th Congressional District seat, which was left vacant when former Rep. Walter Tucker III resigned after his federal conviction in December for extortion.

In early returns, Dist. Atty. Garcetti had 36% of the vote, far short of the majority he needed to avoid a runoff with one of his own prosecutors. He was followed by deputy district attorneys John F. Lynch, with 22%, and Malcolm Jordan, with 17%.

Garcetti strolled into his rally, held at a Westchester restaurant, about 9:30 p.m. with his arm around his wife, Sukey. Greeted with a standing ovation, the incumbent seemed confident but resigned to the idea of a runoff.

“Everyone had told me from the beginning, given the number of challengers, you have to expect a runoff,” Garcetti said. “It would be a miracle if you avoid a runoff, especially given the anger out there with one or two cases.

“We have geared up and prepared for this eventuality. If there is a runoff, I’ll tell you what I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to a discussion of the issues. Everyone is cutting me up because of a case here, a case there. I want to talk about the issues.”

Hoping to fare better in the court of public opinion than he did in several high-profile prosecutions, Garcetti, 54, waged a reelection campaign that relied heavily on television advertising. Facing five opponents, he amassed nearly $1 million in campaign contributions and spent almost $600,000 in the closing weeks--$423,511 of it on television ads.

The first-term incumbent also enjoyed name recognition, largely because of the worldwide telecast of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Haunted by Failures

But Garcetti was haunted by his office’s failures to win convictions of Simpson, rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and, in their first trial, Lyle and Erik Menendez. With guilty verdicts last week in the Menendez brothers’ retrial, Garcetti could finally trumpet his office’s victory in a big case. He also has pointed out that his office’s conviction rate is more than 90%.

Much of the campaign, however, revolved around the failure to convict Simpson--with many of the challengers hoping to turn the primary into a referendum on what they portrayed as Garcetti’s inept management of the case.

Among the challengers, only Jordan ran a full-time campaign. He also spent about $100,000 on television ads, most of it on cable stations.

Lynch, a veteran who heads the Norwalk office, lagged far behind in fund-raising. But he picked up several key endorsements.

The presence of a rare open seat on the Board of Supervisors made for an expensive and hard-fought contest to replace Dana, who is retiring after 16 years in office.

From the beginning, Knabe had the advantage of being the supervisor’s designated successor, able to tap the rich lode of special interests that finance major county campaigns.

With his war chest easily topping $1.4 million, Knabe blanketed the sprawling 4th Supervisorial District with billboards, slate cards and mailers that stressed his endorsements from county labor unions and top officials.

It was precisely Knabe’s prominence in the race that made him the target of his two chief rivals: Swanson and Long Beach Vice Mayor Douglas Drummond.

Both sought to link Knabe to the legacy of salary and pension increases that they said contributed to the county’s serious fiscal problems. Knabe fired back in the final days with mailers attacking Swanson and Drummond.

Ultimately, the choice for voters was whether to go with Knabe, the insider, or send an outsider to the powerful board. Also in the race were engineer Joel Lubin, a Downey Democrat, and businessman Norm Amjadi. A sixth candidate, Richard Markowski, appeared on the ballot but did not campaign in the huge district, which hugs the coast from Marina del Rey to Long Beach, before reaching inland as far as Whittier and east to Diamond Bar.

While Dana’s seat was open, two other incumbents--Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Mike Antonovich--were posed for another four years in office. Burke ran unopposed for her second term in the largely minority 2nd District, encompassing south and central Los Angeles plus pockets of the South Bay and Westside. Antonovich, seeking a fifth term, faced only one challenger, deputy county assessors Dan Kumaus, in the 5th District, which spans the county’s northern and eastern reaches.

Although the supervisorial campaigns generated only moderate interest across broad swaths of the area, races for congressional and state offices sparked intense local interest.

In south Los Angeles, the political spotlight focused for months on the fierce contest to replace former Rep. Tucker (D-Compton).

The primary election results were pivotal, because the district’s rock-solid Democratic voter base was all but certain to mean a Democratic winner in November. But the jam-packed field of candidates was expected to fractionalize the electorate, and even pundits declared the contest too close to call with any certainty.

The results also held the prospect of a twist--voters were to choose both a nominee for the November ballot and an immediate replacement for Tucker, who endorsed his wife, Robin, for the seat.

But 10 other Democrats, including five elected officials, also became candidates in what emerged as an acerbic free-for-all. With the Tucker name under fire, pundits put the early odds on Assemblyman Murray (D-Paramount) and Assemblywoman McDonald (D-Carson). They had the edge, experts said, because they represented larger swaths of territory, and were known to more voters, than their competitors.

In Compton, where Tucker had served as mayor before his election to Congress, Mayor Omar Bradley slugged it out with longtime City Clerk Charles Davis. Lynwood Mayor Paul H. Richards jockeyed for roughly the same voters. And M. Susan Carrillo, who serves on the county water replenishment board and is the contest’s only Latino, courted her own voter bloc.

In the overwhelmingly Democratic 51st Assembly District, Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent held an early lead against Mark Dymally, son of former Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally, and Inglewood School Board member Thomasina Reed. The southwestern Los Angeles County district is centered in Inglewood.

Former Assemblyman Dick Floyd, who lost a reelection bid in 1992, was the favorite to win the Democratic primary in the 55th Assembly District, which covers north Long Beach, Compton, Carson and Wilmington.

Challenging his bid to return to office were Juanita McDonald’s son, Keith, a businessman and former football player; Wilmington activist Joe Mendez Jr., and Carl E. Robinson, a former postal worker and president of the Compton College Board of Trustees.

Virtual Dead Heat

In the bitterly contested race for the 25th state Senate District seat, Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker and Sen. Teresa Hughes, both Inglewood Democrats, were locked in a virtual dead heat in early return. Tucker infuriated Democratic leaders when he accepted a $40,000 campaign contribution from Senate Republicans in his bid to represent the district, running from Marina del Rey to Paramount. Democrats responded by pumping $41,000 into the Hughescampaign.

Another tight race in central Los Angeles found Rod Wright, an aide to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters; Museum of Science and Industry deputy director Bob Campbell, and former Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell battling neck and neck for the right to succeed 48th District Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles).

In southeastern Los Angeles County’s 52nd Assembly District, first-time candidate Rev. Carl Washington, an aide to county Supervisor Burke, was running against Deputy Dist. Atty. Melinda Murray, who hoped to succeed her father, Willard Murray--a candidate for Congress.

And in the San Fernando Valley, Latino activists, women’s groups and special interest groups headed for a showdown in the 39th Assembly District, where veteran Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) has been forced to retire leave office because of term limits.

In a nasty campaign that focused on personal financial dealings and even one candidate’s status as a licensed foster parent, the three major contenders for the Democratic nomination--Tony Cardenas, Jim Dantona and Valerie Salkin--vied for the chance to be the northeast San Fernando Valley’s first new Assembly representative in almost two decades.