Baca backs two men for one office

It must have seemed like a minor coup when Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss secured the backing of Sheriff Lee Baca, the county’s top law enforcement officer, for his 2009 campaign for city attorney.

What Weiss did not know was that a year after he received the endorsement, Baca would urge another lawyer to enter the race: former Deputy Dist. Atty. Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, an environmental lawyer whose resume presents him, in some ways, as the polar opposite of Weiss.

As Weiss was pushing for new gun regulations, Trutanich’s firm represented more than a dozen gun rights groups and firearms manufacturers.

While Weiss has focused on the cleanup of the Santa Monica Bay, Trutanich has represented industrial companies, including San Pedro Boat Works, which was accused of allowing piles of paint residue to wash into Los Angeles Harbor.

The decision to back two opposing candidates is highly unusual, said Jaime Regalado, who runs the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles.

“Why endorse anybody if you’re doing that?” he asked.

Baca saw nothing unusual in his actions, saying he favors both Weiss and Trutanich.

Yet Baca, who headlined a Trutanich fundraiser with Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley on Friday, praised the 54-year-old Trutanich for promising not to use the city attorney post as a political stepping stone.

Trutanich “will focus on his responsibilities as a city attorney and . . . not bring in political influences that distract the work of the office,” Baca said.

Weiss would not comment Friday. But his campaign consultant, Larry Levine, voiced little surprise at the double endorsement. In a state Senate race in the San Fernando Valley, Baca endorsed both Levine’s son, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), and his opponent, former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, a Democrat from Agoura Hills.

“I get the feeling that Lee will endorse anyone who walks in the door and smiles at him,” the political consultant said.

So far, Trutanich and Weiss are the only lawyers who have filed paperwork to raise money for the city attorney’s race.

Levine said Weiss is prepared to compare his record with Trutanich’s.

As Weiss was pushing for more resources to help the Los Angeles Police Department investigate rape cases, Trutanich successfully defended several USC football players, including two who were under investigation for sexual assault. Neither was charged. Although Trutanich has yet to formally announce, Weiss, a former federal prosecutor, has collected $135,000 for his city attorney bid, a feat achieved despite having to raise other funds to thwart a noisy recall effort in his district.

Weiss is almost certain to get the endorsements of both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti, the son of the man Cooley defeated in 2000. And the councilman has a reception scheduled for tonight, when he and Villaraigosa will headline a fundraiser for the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Although Trutanich and Weiss are both former prosecutors, they differ in more than their politics. Weiss lives in Bel-Air and is the son of a judge. Trutanich grew up in San Pedro and is the son of a fish cannery manager. “My family didn’t even know a lawyer,” he said.

Trutanich, a onetime gang prosecutor who moved from Long Beach to Harbor City to run for office, said he has plenty of legal expertise, having worked in the environmental crimes unit of the district attorney’s office from 1986 to 1988. But he acknowledged that he has little name recognition beyond the harbor.

“It’s going to be hard,” he said. “But I’m hoping that at the end of the day, people are going to elect a lawyer, not a politician.”

Trutanich rose to prominence in legal circles as a lawyer for actor Steve Seagal, who was named in an FBI affidavit that contained allegations that he hired private investigator Anthony Pellicano to terrorize a Los Angeles Times reporter. Seagal was never charged and is now demanding an apology from the FBI.

On the gun issue, Trutanich tried to distance himself from his law partner, Chuck Michel, who represents such clients as the National Rifle Assn. and handgun maker Bryco Arms. Regarding crime, Trutanich said he spent roughly three years serving in the district attorney’s hard-core gang unit.

The latter stint impressed Cooley, who had no trouble choosing just one candidate in the 2009 race.

“I picked my horse, and I’m sticking with him,” Cooley said.

Baca said he informed Weiss a year ago that he probably would endorse two candidates. At the time, Baca expected the second candidate to be former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who came in third in the 2005 mayoral election.

Baca said he is still holding out hope that Hertzberg, who has been pursuing a solar energy venture, will return to politics and run for mayor or some other post.

“Bob Hertzberg, to me, would make a great city attorney,” he said.

--

david.zahniser@latimes.com