Term Limits Lead to Record Number of Election Runoffs

By pushing incumbents out of office, Los Angeles’ term-limits law helped produce a record number of runoffs Tuesday and set the stage for longer and costlier campaigns.

Without incumbents, five and possibly six of the eight council contests were forced into runoffs June 5, as were the races for mayor and city attorney.

A notable exception was the city controller’s race, where Councilwoman Laura Chick blew past her rivals to become the first woman ever elected to citywide office.

This week’s municipal election was the first since the city’s 8-year-old term limits system took full effect. In the past, seats rarely turned over because incumbents held several big advantages over challengers, including money and access to the news media. Now, with fewer incumbents on the ballot, closer races--and more runoffs--result.

Similarly, a crowded field for a special election in Los Angeles’ 32nd Congressional District virtually guaranteed a runoff. Former Democratic state Sen. Diane Watson faces Republican Noel Irwin Hentschel, Donna J. Warren of the Green Party and Ezola Foster of the Reform Party. As the Democratic nominee in the heavily Democratic district, Watson is all but assured of victory in the runoff. The vacancy was created by Rep. Julian Dixon’s death.

The city elections set the stage for runoffs that are likely to be contentious and sent candidates scrambling to raise more campaign funds for their eight-week sprints.

In the city attorney’s race, Councilman Mike Feuer came out swinging against Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, on Wednesday attacking Mayor Richard Riordan’s economic development efforts, which Delgadillo has headed during much of Riordan’s tenure.

“Mr. Delgadillo . . . has headed an office that has been ineffective and even counterproductive to the goal of creating jobs and economic growth in our city,” Feuer said.

He cited a 1999 UCLA study that concluded, among other things, that the mayor’s business team had greatly exaggerated its jobs-creation claims. The mayor’s office disputed the study’s findings.

The Delgadillo campaign, clearly elated to have pushed Feuer into a runoff, said Wednesday that Delgadillo will continue to stress education as his main theme.

The school district is run independently of city government and seems especially far outside the purview of the city attorney’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanor crimes and provides legal counsel to city officials, departments and advisory boards. But Delgadillo has maintained all civic leaders have a role to play in improving the schools, and has promised to make campuses safer and cut through red tape to find sites for new schools and get them built quickly.

“Angelenos realize we have a crisis in our public schools and want their elected officials to do everything in their power to affect that,” Delgadillo spokeswoman Kristina Scott said Wednesday.

Delgadillo and Feuer each spent more than $1 million to reach the runoff, but Delgadillo got an additional boost from independent expenditures on his behalf by an outdoor advertising firm and by Riordan. In light of that, Feuer consultant Larry Levine said Wednesday that the councilman is reconsidering his long-standing policy of refusing campaign contributions from lobbyists and political action committees.

The two council incumbents who were on the ballot kept their seats. Alex Padilla of the east San Fernando Valley’s 7th District was unopposed and Cindy Miscikowski of the Westside/Valley’s 11th District trounced her only opponent.

Although term limits were largely intended to give novice politicians a shot at public office, clearly those with some government experience had the edge in Tuesday’s election, political experts said Wednesday.

“In reality, many of the candidates were not that new,” said campaign consultant Rick Taylor. “They are either former aides of council members or relatives to former county officials.”

Take the Hollywood-Silver Lake area’s 13th Council District. Former Councilman Mike Woo and Eric Garcetti, the son of former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, will face each other in June.

In the Westside/Valley area’s 5th District, where candidates spent a record $1.4 million, former state Sen. Tom Hayden ended up in a runoff with former federal prosecutor Jack Weiss. In the Valley’s 3rd District, police union leader Dennis Zine’s likely runoff opponent will be former council aide Judith Hirshberg, although, with some ballots yet to be counted, council aide Francine Oschin trailed her closely.

Political Spending

Although term limits were credited--or blamed--for causing more competitive city races and therefore higher spending, political science professor Michael Alvarez, who teaches at Caltech, said the economy has contributed to the upsurge in political spending.

“We are at a tail end of an economic expansion,” Alvarez said. “There is an enormous amount of money available to be used in campaigns.”

Garcetti, who raised nearly $300,000 and held a narrow lead over Woo, said he was surprised by the amount of time and money it took to wage his campaign.

On Wednesday, the outcome of the race in the 1st District--which includes parts of Highland Park, Mt. Washington and Chinatown--was still unresolved. With slightly more than 96% of the vote tabulated, Ed Reyes--who served as the chief of staff to Councilman Mike Hernandez--was clinging to a razor-thin majority but still could face a runoff with attorney Robert Nakahiro.

In other races going to runoffs, Assemblyman Carl Washington will face former council aide Jan Perry in the 9th District, which includes parts of downtown Los Angeles. Whoever wins will succeed termed-out Councilwoman Rita Walters.

And in the 15th District--home to the Port of Los Angeles--Janice Hahn and Hector Cepeda will be in the runoff to determine who takes the seat held by Rudy Svorinich Jr. Hahn is the sister of James K. Hahn and the daughter of longtime county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Cepeda is an ex-legislative aide to Svorinich.

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Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy and John L. Mitchell contributed to this story.