Bernardi-Hall Race for Council Starts to Simmer as Runoff Nears

What has thus far been a low-key Los Angeles City Council race to represent the east San Fernando Valley promises to take an aggressive turn in the final two weeks of campaigning as veteran Councilman Ernani Bernardi tries to stave off challenger Lyle Hall.

It will be a battle waged in the last days before the June 6 runoff election, through the mails and over the telephone, the candidates’ campaign consultants said. Registered voters in the diverse district--from rustic Sylmar hillsides to densely populated Pacoima--can expect a barrage of telephone solicitations and biting campaign literature.

“It’s all going to boil down to the last four or five days,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a veteran consultant hired by Bernardi to devise mailers and advise him on campaign strategy. “That’s when people say, ‘Oh, hey, we have an election going on.’ ”

Series of Endorsements

The runoff race has so far been marked by a series of endorsement announcements, several press conferences focusing on crime issues and relatively quiet public forums.

But the energy has begun to build.

Last week, 7th-District residents began to receive some of more than a dozen slick flyers for Hall produced by campaign consultant Harvey Englander. During the next two weeks they can expect more mail that will point to instances in which Bernardi has “failed the community.” Englander declined to identify those issues.

Bernardi has not yet started his mail campaign, but Hoffenblum hinted that the bulk of the flyers will be sent in the last week before the election and that they will portray Hall as a candidate “with no real local involvement in the community.”

Bernardi, 77, the dean of the City Council with 28 years of service, has found himself campaigning in a largely new district that was carved out during City Council reapportionment in 1986. The redistricting replaced a swath of his longtime Van Nuys support with the communities of Sylmar, Lake View Terrace and predominantly Latino and black areas of Pacoima.

Starting Over

“It’s close to starting all over again. It’s a new campaign in a diverse community,” Bernardi said. “I’ve been working here 2 1/2 years, but we’ve still had to pretty much introduce myself to a lot of people.”

Hall, 49, a Los Angeles city Fire Department captain and former president of the firefighters’ union, has strong union backing, and his message to voters has been a call for change and new ideas.

“After 28 years of decline and neglect . . . it’s time for a fresh, aggressive and realistic point of view,” Hall said.

The candidates do not differ on most issues: Both want more police officers in the northeast Valley, they support the closure of Lopez Canyon Landfill and they seek controls on the construction of more apartments and condominiums.

One disagreement is over the Nancy Reagan Center for drug rehabilitation. Bernardi vehemently opposes its location in a residential area of Lake View Terrace. Hall supports it because he believes that it would be a valuable resource in an area plagued by drug abuse.

Candidate Polls

Both campaigns have conducted polls and both show Bernardi ahead.

Hall’s poll, completed two weeks ago by Valley pollster Arnold Steinberg, shows Bernardi only one point ahead, in a 40% to 39% vote split, with 21% undecided, Englander said.

Bernardi’s poll, conducted May 6 by a San Francisco firm called Charlton Research, said Bernardi was 18 points ahead, in a 49% to 31% split, with 20% undecided, Hoffenblum said.

Each side challenged the other’s results.

While consultants prepare mailers and supervise polls, the candidates gather endorsements.

Bernardi is using endorsements to bolster his image as a grass-roots man of the people. He has assembled a list of about 50 community activists, educators and social service workers--names that are largely unknown outside small community circles.

Deliberate Effort

This is a deliberate attempt to counter Hall’s endorsements from better known politicians such as Bobbi Fiedler, a former congresswoman, and state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles).

“For every Bobbi Fiedler they have, I told Ernie to go out and get five local people,” Hoffenblum said. “For every Art Torres they have, I said go get five community activists.”

Englander said endorsements do not mean much to the average voter, but big names can lend credibility to a lesser-known candidate such as Hall. Credibility can help raise money and move voters to read mailers, he said.

Fiedler will be pictured on a mailer to conservative voters in the district, Englander said. Torres’ endorsement will be highlighted in a mailer to Latinos and Democrats.

Endorsements are generally more important to the challenger than to the incumbent, said Kam Kuwata, a Los Angeles-based political consultant not involved in the 7th-District race. But he said this is a race that may break that rule because Bernardi is campaigning in a relatively new district.

In the areas Bernardi’s district acquired in 1986, “if he’s able to gain key endorsements, then it could have nearly as much impact for him as for a challenger,” said Kuwata, because many of the voters in the new district are not familiar with him.

Notable among endorsements for Bernardi are those from an emerging Latino coalition. Sylmar attorney Raymond Magana, who helped organize the group, described Bernardi in a letter to 150 Latinos as “a friend to our community” because of his recent record on Latino issues, such as supporting City Council actions to establish day-labor hiring halls.

But another plus for Bernardi among Latinos is that the councilman has promised to retire at the end of his four-year term. That would open a path for a Latino candidate to run in the next election without having to face an incumbent. And the formation of the pro-Bernardi coalition has given the group experience at building a political organization, which leaders hope will be strong enough to find and promote such a candidate in 1993.

“This is an election where we can practically and tangibly make a difference. It’s laying the foundation for down the line,” Magana said. “It’s important that there is an open seat so we don’t face an entrenched incumbent.”