CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS: 8TH DISTRICT RUNOFF : King Beating Issue, Not Local Needs, Is Campaign Focus

During the 8th City Council District race, Roderick Wright has handed out packets of mustard green seed to emphasize his home-grown roots, while Mark Ridley-Thomas has distributed cards listing phone numbers to call for pothole repairs, graffiti cleanup and other city services.

Both candidates in the June 4 runoff for retiring Councilman Robert Farrell’s seat have strived to demonstrate that they are in tune with the needs of an inner-city district where the chief complaints have centered on basic government services.

But the sharpest divisions between Wright and Ridley-Thomas have arisen over the police beating of Rodney G. King.

Ridley-Thomas, 36, the executive director of the Los Angeles branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has enjoyed high visibility during the King controversy as one of the Police Department’s strongest critics. He is on official leave from his SCLC post, but is still the chief spokesman for the group, which has intervened in litigation over the Police Commission’s attempt to oust Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“Mark is a civil rights leader with a proven record,” said Farrell, who has endorsed Ridley-Thomas.

Political consultant Wright, also an outspoken critic of police conduct, lacks the platform Ridley-Thomas has. But he has the support of powerful Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has taken a leading role in protests over the King case. “He is smart and he’ll fight for the district,” Waters told a block club recently.

The most heated exchanges in the campaign have come over the the recent disclosure that Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax, a supporter of Ridley-Thomas, gave an SCLC attorney two city legal memos that were used in legal maneuvering by the civil rights group.

Wright said he believes that the documents were leaked to indirectly assist Ridley-Thomas in his campaign. “Mark Ridley-Thomas has manipulated the media by using these documents in a lawsuit so that he can get elected to office,” said Wright.

Lomax could not be reached for comment. But Ridley-Thomas said, “To attack me and Commissioner Lomax, charging we have been unethical largely because she happens to be one of my supporters, is just simply hitting below the belt.

Wright, 38, also accused Farrell of using city resources to bolster Ridley-Thomas’ campaign through several city-financed assemblies chaired by Ridley-Thomas in the 8th District.

More than 100 residents responded to an invitation from Farrell to attend an April 27 assembly, which featured a deputy police chief and a spokesman from the independent commission investigating the King case.

Wright brought more than a dozen demonstrators to the gathering and, with television crews on hand, accused Farrell of holding a rally for Ridley-Thomas at city expense. When Wright was refused permission to address the audience, he confronted Farrell. Then he grabbed the councilman’s coat sleeve as he tried to walk away.

Ridley-Thomas said that the monthly assemblies that he agreed to chair were organized last year before he decided to run for City Council. And Ridley-Thomas said that Wright’s criticisms show that “my opponent simply hasn’t learned his lesson.”

Ridley-Thomas was referring to Wright’s indictment on three felony counts of election fraud after he managed a bitter 1985 City Council election in Compton. Wright was accused of trying to smear a candidate in a last-minute mailer and of offering record albums of a speech by the Rev. Jesse Jackson in return for voters’ pledges of support. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge and paid a $2,500 fine. Wright contends that he did not intentionally do anything wrong. “It was an accident and I paid for it,” he said.

Ridley-Thomas, who holds a Ph.D. in social ethics from USC, says he is the best suited for the council job because of his 11-year record of service heading the SCLC, under which he established the Rosa Parks Rape Crisis Center and a dispute resolution center.

“What this community needs is someone with a proven record of leadership and that is what is absent in this hour,” said Ridley-Thomas, who is running in his second political campaign. Four years ago, he was defeated in an attempt to win a school board seat.

Wright, who has been involved in politics for two decades, began as an assistant to former Councilman David Cunningham and worked for Waters before working for the campaigns of Mayor Tom Bradley, state Sen. Diane Watson and Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles). He has made two unsuccessful runs for political office, including one for the 50th Assembly District seat in 1988 and another last year against Marguerite Archie-Hudson, Waters’ handpicked candidate in the 48th District.

“This is a community that is going to have to fight to get everything it needs, no one is going to give it to us,” Wright said. “We have to be prepared to do battle. These are tough times and they don’t call for nice people.

Wright and Ridley-Thomas were the top two finishers in a field of nine candidates in the April 9 primary election to replace Farrell.

Both candidates have an array of political heavyweights lined up behind them. Ridley-Thomas has the backing of Farrell, Bradley and Reps. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) and Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles). Wright has the backing of two former council race opponents, Kerman Maddox and Billy Mills, as well as Waters, Archie-Hudson, Jackson and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

So far, the runoff candidates have shown little disagreement over the issues that have plagued the impoverished district for years--crime, lack of health care, gangs, poor education.

However, there are differences. Ridley-Thomas, a devotee of nonviolence, has criticized his opponent for supporting the death penalty and for not supporting a ban on handguns.

Wright said “something needs to be done” about repeat killers and those who commit particularly heinous murders, especially of children. He said he also supports a limited ban on assault rifles but said homeowners and merchants should be allowed to own handguns for protection. “These are tough times,” he said.

The 230,000 residents in the 8th District live in an area stretching from Koreatown near Olympic Boulevard to the border of Watts. Its boundaries encompass USC, the Coliseum and the West Adams areas where whites are moving back in.

The number of blacks in the district has been slowly declining. Today they account for 48.6% of the district’s population, while Latinos make up 41.1%, Asians 5% and Anglos 4.5%. The district remains impoverished, with incomes below $15,000 in nearly 50% of the households, according to the 1990 census.

The changing numbers hold a message for the next generation of black elected officials to represent the area, said Eugene Grigsby, a professor of urban planning at UCLA.

“The district is changing its constituency base fast,” Grigsby said. “If black politicians frame issues purely as black issues, they may gain short-term favor but in the long run that will backfire.”