Foes Swap Gibes as D.A.’s Race Heats Up

Let the presidential candidates slug it out over bridge metaphors--to the past, to the future, whatever. The race for district attorney got down Wednesday to some old-fashioned name-calling.

Incumbent Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti called challenger John Lynch “Johnny One Note” and “the Maytag Man.”

Lynch’s response: He compared Garcetti to the captain of the Titanic.

With election day two months away, the district attorney’s race perked up Wednesday with the incumbent and the challenger holding made-for-media campaign events.

Flanked by 11 of the dozens of officials and public figures who have endorsed him--including Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and City Councilwoman Laura Chick--Garcetti announced: “I stand here . . . with friends and supporters, money in the bank, and a lot of energy. We are ready to go the distance.”

Speaking in a conference room at the Biltmore Hotel, Garcetti called Lynch a “Johnny One Note who sings of nothing but one high-profile case.”

Lynch has hammered Garcetti relentlessly for the failed prosecution of the O.J. Simpson murder case.

Garcetti asserted that he has made the prosecution of child abuse, domestic violence and hate crimes a priority. He said he has emphasized programs designed to prevent crime, such as an anti-truancy project.

Lynch has said that such crime prevention projects are “at the margins” of the job. The district attorney’s priority, Lynch said, is prosecuting street crime.

Charging that Lynch would not use the authority of the office to prevent crime but wait for police to bring him cases, Garcetti said: “John Lynch is not running to be district attorney, he is running to be the Maytag Man. He is waiting for the phone to ring.”

Half an hour later, Lynch summoned news crews to respond: “Reelecting Gil Garcetti would be like giving the captain of the Titanic another command.”

Lynch said he has not been endorsed by any elected officials in the county. His last campaign disclosure statement, filed June 30, indicated that he had $7,858 in the bank. But his new finance manager, Charles Sena, said Wednesday that the campaign had brought in “$50,000 hard cash” in the last three weeks.

Garcetti’s June 30 statement showed that he had $507,740 on hand.