Mayor Initiates Direct Mail Campaign for Police Plan

The Los Angeles mayor’s office wanted to reach the likeliest of voters when it launched a “very well targeted” direct mail campaign to drum up support for Richard Riordan’s ambitious Police Department expansion program.

Councilwoman Rita Walters fit that description all right, but she is clearly not the kind of recipient Riordan had in mind when he sent out his letters.

Walters, who represents the downtown Los Angeles area, had sided with the council majority in an 8-7 vote to slow the pace of the police expansion plan, the mayor’s highest budget priority.

Riordan vetoed the scale-backed plan and set about trying to keep his council opponents from mustering the two additional votes they needed to override the mayor.

Walters got the “dunning” version of a set of letters Riordan sent to high-propensity voters in selected council districts. The mail campaign, paid for from Riordan’s “officeholder account” of private contributions, was launched as the council approached this week’s override deadline.

The letter informed Walters that, “Astoundingly just last week, your council member, Rita Walters, joined several other council members by voting to slow down the police expansion.” It urged her to “call council member Rita Walters . . . and urge her to reconsider her position on this important measure.”

The second version was sent to constituents of some council members who had stood by the mayor on the expansion plan. That version commends the constituent’s lawmaker and implores the recipient to call and “let him know you appreciate his hard work in making our neighborhoods safer.”

The mayor’s office would not say how many letters were sent or to which council districts.

Judging from the calls logged by council offices, however, it appears that the critical versions went to constituents of Walters and Councilwoman Laura Chick, one of the strongest voices for slowing down the expansion.

The laudatory version went to constituents of Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., a firm Riordan supporter on public safety issues, and to Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Mike Hernandez, considered possible swing votes.

Alarcon stood firm at Tuesday’s override vote but Hernandez switched sides to help deliver the override.

Attorney Bill Wardlaw, the mayor’s close friend and main political advisor, said he was unwilling to disclose details because the mailings are the first of a what will probably become a regular part of the mayor’s “program to communicate with the people of Los Angeles on issues of importance to him.”

“This is the first time he’s used direct mail in this manner,” Wardlaw said. “He will use this vehicle again in the future.”

He may want to check the Postal Service’s delivery schedules first. It appears that at least some of the letters, including the one to Walters, did not reach voters’ homes until Tuesday. By the time Walters got home and received hers, the override vote was history.