D’Agostino First to Air TV Ads in City Attorney Race

Emphasizing her experience as a crime fighter, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino on Tuesday became the first candidate in the race for Los Angeles city attorney to air television ads.

Although she lags considerably behind Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo and Councilman Mike Feuer in fund-raising, D’Agostino found money in her budget for at least a week’s worth of ads on cable television stations in some key parts of the city.

Other developments Tuesday showed how the race is heating up as the campaigns entered the final month before the April 10 election.

A major fund-raiser for Delgadillo on Tuesday night featured his boss, Mayor Richard Riordan, as a special guest, fueling speculation that Riordan would at last endorse his point man for economic development. But the mayor continued to stay neutral.

Also on Tuesday, Feuer harshly criticized Eller Media Co., which has put up $73,500 in signs supporting his rival Delgadillo on billboards it owns across the city, including 15 more on Tuesday.

Flanked by about 15 neighborhood activists, Feuer held a news conference at the site of a large, double-sided billboard at Robertson Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue on the Westside. Feuer said the billboard was erected improperly and cited his promises to enforce outdoor advertising regulations--as well as his sponsorship of a tough new law--as reasons for Eller Media’s wanting to see him defeated.

Eller officials, who are disputing Feuer and the city’s citation of their billboard, say they are supporting Delgadillo because they believe he is the best candidate and not because they dislike Feuer.

“This is an example of billboard blight in our city,” Feuer said of the sign. “The billboard companies are opposing me because they know I will aggressively enforce the laws.”

Last week, the Feuer campaign, in a complaint to the city Ethics Commission, alleged that Eller had illegally colluded with the deputy mayor because its “independent expenditure” on his behalf--the billboard signs--bore the same graphic as Delgadillo’s campaign materials. The Delgadillo campaign rejected that allegation.

Meanwhile, the D’Agostino campaign unveiled the two 30-second spots that began running in such areas as the west San Fernando Valley, the Westside and the Los Feliz district. Consultant Rick Taylor said he expects to spend $40,000 to $50,000 on cable time this week.

Each spot features a woman’s voice intoning details of an especially heinous crime--in one case, the rape of a 70-year-old woman; in the second, the violent abduction of a 6-year-old girl--while the text appears in white type against a dark background. Each spot shows how the prosecutor saved a difficult case with special effort.

“The verdict is guilty. The prosecutor is Lea Purwin D’Agostino,” each advertisement concludes. The ads end with a photo of D’Agostino in her office and display her slogan, “A Prosecutor, Not a Politician.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Tavelman is the fourth candidate.