Local Elections : Garcetti Blames Showing on Anger

There’s anger out there and it’s vast and deep, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti mused as the election returns trickled in.

“Anger with one or two cases,” he said at his Westchester campaign rally, a reference mostly to the O.J. Simpson double murder trial.

“I’m even getting blamed for the Baldwin case,” he said. When actor Alec Baldwin was acquitted last week of misdemeanor battery, Garcetti said he heard howls that it was all his fault--even though the city attorney’s office prosecuted the case.

“I’ll probably get blamed for the Bobbitt case before all this is over,” Garcetti said, offering a wan joke as Tuesday’s returns showed that two of three voters wanted someone else as district attorney.

Garcetti received only 37.5% of the vote. Five challengers split the bulk of votes; Deputy D.A. John Lynch finished second with 21.4%, setting up a November runoff.

Lynch spent about one-tenth of what Garcetti did but capitalized on key endorsements and rode a surge of momentum to the runoff. A “minor miracle,” Lynch said Wednesday, quickly adding that he fully intends to win in November: “Now that we’re down to two people, the choice is very clear.”

Political analysts said that Lynch, a 19-year veteran who heads the district attorney’s Norwalk office, stands an excellent chance of limiting Garcetti to a single term.

“Stick a fork in him,” California Political Week newsletter editor Dick Rosengarten said of Garcetti. “He’s done. He’s toast.”

John K. Van de Kamp, a former district attorney and onetime state attorney general, put it this way: “I thought Gil would do better, get closer to 50%. Anyone in that position,” he said, referring to the 37.5% figure, “historically is in some real trouble.”

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In 1992, incumbent Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner faced four challengers--including Garcetti, his former chief deputy--while battling claims that he could not win big cases such as the McMartin Pre-School trial and the state trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating Rodney G. King.

Garcetti won the 1992 primary, beating Reiner, 36%-24%. Before the general election, Reiner withdrew from the race.

This year, the incumbent--Garcetti--won the primary. Lynch finished 16 points back.

Nevertheless, at 37.5%, Garcetti “has a very high mountain to climb,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior associate at the Center for Politics and Economics at the Claremont Graduate School.

This year’s primary centered on criticism by the challengers that Garcetti’s deputies failed to win convictions in a string of high-profile cases: Simpson, Snoop Doggy Dogg, the Menendez brothers’ first trial.

Though the jury in the Menendezes’ retrial convicted both brothers last week of first-degree murder, Garcetti got no political “bounce” because the judge in the case imposed a gag order--meaning, Jeffe said, that Garcetti could not tout the result.

Over the past few weeks, Garcetti insisted that high-profile cases were not the sole measure of his tenure. Across the board, he said in TV ads, the office boasts a conviction rate of 93%.

What sticks with voters, analysts said, is how Garcetti did with the cases they remember--and in particular, the Simpson case, because television brought it day after day into voters’ homes.

With each fresh wave of publicity--prosecutor Christopher Darden’s book tour, guest-house tenant Kato Kaelin’s pronouncement on a television show that he now believes Simpson was the killer--many voters were reminded of their anger at the outcome of the Simpson case, experts said.

In the meantime, they noted, the wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Simpson is due to begin in September--a few short weeks before election day Nov. 5, perhaps just in time for many voters to be reminded why they didn’t vote for Garcetti in the primary.

“I hope Marcia comes out with her book very soon,” Garcetti said Wednesday, referring to lead prosecutor Marcia Clark. “I don’t know what it’s going to say, but, you know, the more and more information that comes out, frankly, is very helpful.”

Better for him, several experts retorted, if the book comes out later rather than sooner--and best if it’s after Nov. 5.

“Every time Garcetti hopes this thing dies away, there’s something else,” Rosengarten said of the Simpson case.

“The question I have now is, is the anger that’s there going to be sustained?” Jeffe said Wednesday.

“If it is,” she said, “that’s helpful to Lynch. If not, he’s going to need money, media and message.”

Lynch said Wednesday that he knows he needs cash. But he said he plans to set a ceiling, possibly $5,000, on donations.

There are no limits on donations in county races. Garcetti has received donations of $10,000, $25,000 and even $50,000, according to county records.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to be taking huge amounts of money from an individual,” Lynch said Wednesday.

During the primary, Garcetti spent more than $600,000--$423,511 in recent weeks on TV ads. Lynch spent $60,000, most of that on green-and-white signs, a couple of slate mailers and a mailer aimed at absentee voters.

As of March 9, the close of the most recent filing period, Garcetti had $440,292 left in the bank, county records indicate.

Lynch had $2,825.

His strategy through the primary, Lynch said, relied on “free media”--appearances on radio or TV shows--and newspaper endorsements.

“Now that I’m visible, I need to capitalize on that visibility, and I intend to,” he said Wednesday.

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On the issues, Lynch said he wants to “depoliticize” the D.A.’s office, take better advantage of prosecutors in suburban offices with extensive trial experience and make more efficient use of the office’s shrinking budgets.

The central mission of the office, he said, is prosecuting street crime. “That’s what the public wants and expects,” he said.

He also said he intends to keep hammering at Garcetti’s record.

“He needs to admit he’s made some mistakes as D.A. and learned some lessons,” Lynch said. “If he doesn’t, I don’t think people want him running the next big case or running the office.”

Garcetti said he recognized that he needed to “work hard” and “earn” votes. He said he was the “most experienced” and “best” candidate for the job, and the one with an “ambitious vision.”

He said he believes that voters want to hear about his initiatives to combat teenage crime and domestic violence.

Garcetti also readily conceded that he has made mistakes, both in running the office and campaigning.

“I have a positive message to deliver,” he said. “However,” since a $423,511 TV bill yielded only 37.5% of the vote, “I have to acknowledge that we have not communicated that well.”

He added: “Is there anger out there with one or two cases? With the criminal justice system? Have I made mistakes? You know, the answer to all that is yes, of course.”