Stevenson and Picus Face Toughest Tests in Council Elections

Graffiti had been scrawled on the walls of the Robert J. Stevenson Building of the Echo Recreation Center, and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson was mortified by the sight.

“Graffiti on Robert’s building! How could they do such a thing!” Stevenson said to the visitors she had taken to the top of Bellevue Avenue in Echo Park to show off the building. She pointed out that it was one of two public buildings in her district named after her late husband, whom she succeeded on the council after his death 10 years ago.

As her third campaign for relection begins, Stevenson has reason to fret if time and graffiti are beginning to blur the memory of Robert Stevenson, who was revered in the 13th Council District. That memory, in no small way, has played a part in the reelection of a woman whose opponents say is as inattentive to her constituents as her husband was devoted.

Thronged by the politicians and lobbyists who were paying homage to her at a recent $2,000-a-table dinner, City Councilwoman Joy Picus was advising a housewife from Canoga Park on whom to call to replace a street light in front of her house.

Approaching her second campaign for reelection--she has been in office since 1977--Picus, a liberal, was living up to the image that has endeared her to many voters of a district that has backed conservative causes and candidates from Proposition 13 to President Reagan to Gov. George Deukmejian.

“She is the mother hen of the City Council,” said Susan Pasternak, one of Picus’ aides.

Picus’ soft touch can extend to developers as well as housewives, however, as evidenced by her acquiescence late last year to a controversial high-rise project in Warner Center. Her timely ability to get along with Valley developers is one reason her opponents, so far, have lacked the money they need to mount a major campaign against her.

Eight members of the City Council are up for reelection on April 9, but only Stevenson and Picus appear to be facing strong opposition.

A defeat for either councilwoman would be a significant upset. Both are well known in their districts and can be expected to raise the money--$250,000 or more--and the endorsements necessary to run formidable campaigns.

But close races are possible, especially in Stevenson’s district, where a field of six challengers is led by Michael Woo, a 33-year-old aide to State Sen. David Roberti.

Nearly Won an Upset

Woo nearly upset Stevenson in 1981. He is sounding a theme that served him well four years ago, arguing that Stevenson is a passive member of the council who is more interested in the ceremonial side of the job.

Woo and the other challengers also hope to capitalize on people’s dissatisfaction with Stevenson’s leadership in fighting crime, revitalizing Hollywood and curbing commercial development in residential neighborhoods.

“Woo will be trying to exploit the issue of Peggy’s alleged unresponsiveness. It hasn’t worked before and it’s not going to work this time,” said Larry Levine, who ran Woo’s campaign in 1981, but this year is working for Stevenson.

Forced into a runoff by Woo four years ago, Stevenson is getting off to a faster start this year with a flurry of press releases and public appearances.

As she has in the past, Stevenson is turning to old family friends--including business lobbyists who have come to count on her vote in the council--to help pay for her campaign. Stevenson raised nearly $500,000 for her last campaign and says that, if necessary, she will match that amount this time.

Appeal to Older Voters

Stevenson’s greatest strength may be her appeal to people over 50, the largest group of voters in the district.

In addition, she comes to the race with an incumbent’s critical advantage--the backing of prominent business and political leaders who do not want to offend a proven vote getter.

Stevenson has endorsements from several state legislators and from most of her colleagues on the City Council.

Despite criticism that she is indifferent to good city planning, she has the support of City Planning Commission Chairman Dan Garcia, who backed Woo in 1981. And she is getting help from Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“I think the political leadership we’ve had out here has been good. Peggy’s done a good job,” Gates recently said at a meeting of Neighborhood Action Group, a citizens’ anti-crime group in Hollywood.

List of Opponents

Besides Woo, Stevenson’s opponents are Michael Linfield, 34, a teacher at Fairfax High School with a long record of local service to liberal causes in behalf of labor, civil rights and nuclear disarmament; Arland (Buzz) Johnson, 49, a restaurant owner active for several years in efforts to fight crime in Hollywood; Bennett S. Kaysar, 38, a systems manager for an electronics company who is active in Silverlake community affairs; James M. Duree, 33, a political consultant and disciple of Lyndon LaRouche, the ultra-right wing presidential candidate, and Craig R. Freis, a small businessman.

If there is a close race in Stevenson’s district, both Linfield and Johnson could play a role in pushing the incumbent into a runoff.

Linfield has made inroads on Woo’s liberal support, and Johnson could attract a bit of Stevenson’s Hollywood support.

Stevenson’s challengers will be trying to benefit from a new development in the district, reapportionment, which cut away a large enclave of middle-class Anglo and Latino voters in Highland Park and cost Stevenson some of her staunchest support.

Effect of Attacks

Woo said he thinks that Highland Park voters four years ago were among the most susceptible to scare tactics that portrayed him as a tool of predatory Chinese financiers. The attack on Woo, directed by Stevenson’s campaign managers, turned the race into one of the tawdriest council contests in recent history. But it also helped Stevenson win 61% of the vote in a runoff against Woo.

In the areas of the district not lost to reapportionment, Stevenson received 58% of the vote, her campaign staff says.

While the district lost Highland Park in reapportionment, it gained several hillside neighborhoods north of Hollywood full of the kind of people Woo counts as his natural constituents.

“They are people living in the canyons, a lot of them are in the entertainment industry,” said Woo. “They are people who read the Los Angeles Times, who pay attention to politics, care about good government and environmental issues. They are educated, relatively affluent people who would never vote for someone like Peggy Stevenson.”

Woo said he was more perplexed than angered by the ethnic slurs hurled at him during the last campaign.

A Source of Strength

“I had never experienced anything like that before in my life, and I really didn’t know how to respond to it.”

But he said he thought the experience has enabled him to be a better candidate by making him more sensitive to the feelings of the multitude of new arrivals from all over the world who are settling in the 13th District.

Woo has the backing of a variety of civic and political leaders. Among them are Roberti, his boss for the past eight years; Secretary of State March Fong Eu; Bill Figge, vice chairman of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce; Fran Offenhauser, president of Hollywood Heritage, and Mary Nichols, the president of the California League of Conservation Voters. (The Los Angeles chapter of the league has endorsed Linfield.)

Woo says he has raised $160,000 and plans to raise another $80,000 to $100,000 before the April 9 election.

Leaders of the district’s substantial gay population, at this point, are endorsing Stevenson, Woo and Linfield.

Position of Activists

For years, social activists in the district--militant gays, environmental groups and rent control advocates--have proclaimed the need to replace Stevenson and helped to create the impression that the voters were ready to dump her.

Yet, Stevenson has survived, and not just on the strength of money from big business and votes from senior citizens. Neighborhood voters too have rallied to her defense.

Levine, Stevenson’s co-campaign manager, said that analysis of the 1981 runoff returns shows that voters in the Hollywood Hills backed Stevenson by a margin of 58% to 41%.

“Overall, we’ve had good cooperation from Stevenson’s office,” said Dorothy Meyer, president of a homeowner group in the Los Feliz Hills, one of those new areas in the district where Woo expects to find supporters.

Five Oppose Picus

In the West San Fernando Valley’s 3rd District, Picus, 54, is facing five opponents, all with ties to Valley business or Republican Party leaders, who contend that Picus is out of synch with her district.

Picus’ opponents are:

- Jeanne Nemo, 55, a schoolteacher with strong ties to the Republican Party who was a member of Reagan’s campaign staff in 1979. Nemo has the support of Howard Jarvis, the father of the Proposition 13 tax reform measure, and former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian.

- Matt Lynch, 49, a lawyer and businessman, who was a member of the state Welfare Reform Commission when Reagan was governor of California. Lynch has been endorsed by state Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley).

- Gil Eisner, 51, a businessman who worked as a consultant to the state Senate committee on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and served as an aide to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Baxter Ward.

- Gary Klein, 37, a political consultant and former aide to City Councilman Hal Bernson.

- Jon Lorenzen, 29, the vice president of a Reseda mortuary and the son of a former city councilman, the late Donald Lorenzen.

Picus’ challengers say that she has hurt landlords with her votes in favor of strong rent control, that she has undermined police protection in the Valley by her attacks on Gates, that she failed to use powers available to her to help prevent school closures in the district and that she turned her back on her constituents when, for environmental reasons, she would not allow any Olympic athletic facilities to be built in the Sepulveda Basin.

Confident of Victory

But Picus, who already has raised $200,000, says she is confident of an easy victory and predicted recently that not one of her challengers would get more than 5% of the vote.

One reason for Picus’ confidence is that, despite her reputation as an environmentalist, she has maintained a tenuous truce with prominent members of the Valley’s real estate industry.

The relationship was underscored recently when Robert D. Voit, the major developer of Warner Center, contributed $2,000 to Picus’ campaign for reelection.

“There have been no overriding, burning issues with regard to Joy,” said Norm Emerson, a spokesman for Voit.

Like Peggy Stevenson, Picus has a lackluster attendance record. (Hers is the 6th poorest over the past three years.) But she has played a dominant role on certain issues; in particular, the council’s search for safe ways to dispose of hazardous waste.

Her challengers say they can raise between $50,000 and $150,000 apiece and draw enough votes to deprive Picus of the 50% she needs to win without a runoff.