Council Race Being Fought the Old-Fashioned Way

With the sun beating down and the temperature soaring on a recent afternoon, 11th District City Council candidate Cindy Miscikowski could hardly have been called cool as she knocked on voters’ doors in Mar Vista.

But the veteran council staffer doesn’t seem to be sweating Tuesday’s election to replace her ex-boss, Councilman Marvin Braude. Instead, Miscikowski exudes confidence that she is on the road to a comeback after a second-place finish in the primary turned her from front-runner to underdog overnight.

Earlier that afternoon on her home turf in Tarzana, front-runner Georgia Mercer was confident--and cool, a feat that could only have been achieved indoors on a scorcher of a day.

The former Valley liaison to Mayor Richard Riordan was on the prowl for votes too. She glided through a roomful of women playing bridge and mah-jongg, then moved into the Braemar Country Club dining room to schmooze with the lunch crowd.

“I just feel the momentum,” Mercer said of her chances of representing the city’s most affluent district, which is split almost evenly between the Valley and the Westside.

Only one can win, of course, but with Mercer just 900 votes ahead of Miscikowski out of 46,414 cast in the April primary, it is not clear who that will be.

That is why both campaigns, as the race comes down to the wire, are being waged the old-fashioned way: voter by voter, neighbor to neighbor, phone call by phone call.

For Miscikowski that means donning white tennis shoes most days to walk precincts. Pleading foot problems, Mercer relies on phone calls to voters, supplemented by small “meet and greets” set up around the district by supporters.

Unlike the primary, there have been few conventional campaign debates, but they have been more tense than the early days when the candidates displayed similar styles and views in meeting voters.

Conventional political wisdom--the same wisdom that predicted Miscikowski would win the race outright in the primary--now sees Mercer as having the momentum.

Her primary win in the Valley was in double digits and she lost on Miscikowski’s home turf in the Westside by a few hundred votes.

When campaign finance reports were filed last week, Mercer had substantially out-raised Miscikowski during the runoff period--often viewed as a sign of which way political types believe the wind is blowing.

“I have not seen any signs of erosion since the primary,” Mercer consultant Larry Levine said. “Quite the contrary . . . I don’t see any reason we should be pessimistic.”

The Mercer campaign has stayed a steady course, but Miscikowski, responding to her surprise second-place finish, completely revamped her approach after the primary. She has beefed up considerably a ground operation of paid walkers and phone banks--such as that which Mercer has had from the beginning.

With a low voter turnout predicted, getting out the vote cannot be over-emphasized. But in the end, the race could hinge on geography and just how many Valley voters--some of whom feel disenfranchised by their perceived lack of clout at City Hall--prefer a local to Brentwood resident Miscikowski.

Miscikowski’s challenge is to cut into the big Valley vote Mercer got in the primary. Conversely, Mercer must stay close in the Westside, as she did in the primary, while maintaining her base.

GOP voters are key to Miscikowski’s strategy. And when a Mar Vista voter said she was looking for the more conservative candidate, Miscikowski, who like Mercer is a Democrat, played up her endorsement from third-place finisher Republican Mark Isler.

In addition to introducing a significant ground operation, Miscikowski consultant Rick Taylor said, the campaign “became a lot more focused on what the differences were between the candidates.”

Miscikowski is experienced, Taylor said, but Mercer is a “fraud. . . . We’re going to win.”

Miscikowski is stressing her wealth of experience at City Hall, along with her environmental credentials and endorsements, from Braude and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, among others.

While Miscikowski had hoped to wage a positive campaign without referring to her opponent by name, she changed course after taking a battering in the primary from Mercer.

Specifically, Miscikowski has been dogged by campaign mailers criticizing her for living in a gated community approved by the City Council.

That unique situation involved the city giving the public streets to her Brentwood neighborhood, with Miscikowski’s then-lobbyist husband, Doug Ring, working as a pro bono attorney on the issue.

Another negative mailer has highlighted Miscikowski’s extensive financial backing from developers and lobbyists.

Both pieces were aimed at connecting Miscikowski with insider politics, thus neutralizing a key selling point--that with 22 years as a city staffer, she has the experience to be the 11th District council member.

Miscikowski was especially incensed by the charge that she and her neighbors did something illegal to get the gates when the city attorney’s office deemed the deal a legal way around a court decision.

Mercer, however, does not apologize for the hits or their content.

“I ran an aggressive campaign,” Mercer said. “We’re not running for president of the League of Women Voters here. This is hardball.”

But since the primary, the Mercer camp relied mainly on its positive message with the theme, “Renew the Spirit.” Its mail featured the candidate’s platform that offered neighborhood councils with clout, a more business-friendly environment and a new committee on juvenile justice, an area of her expertise.

An activist whose experience ranges from women’s groups to juvenile justice to raising money for a Valley hospital, Mercer is playing her community roots big time.

She said her most effective message has been that she views City Hall from the community’s perspective, while Miscikowski sees the community from City Hall.

Miscikowski, a council aide nearly her entire career, meanwhile, has moved aggressively to capture the 15% of the primary vote won by Republican Isler.

One mailer carried her vow to cut spending by getting rid of the Department of Public Works. It also criticized the City Council payout to former Police Chief Willie Williams.

In an absentee vote mailer, Miscikowski featured an endorsement from county Supervisor Don Knabe. Miscikowski’s spouse, Ring, donated $31,500 to Knabe’s election campaign in 1994.

The outcome of the race may in part rest on whether GOP voters respond to that message. The Mercer campaign is wooing them too, using a brochure featuring Mercer with her former boss, the mayor.

Miscikowski also moved in quickly to capitalize on what Mercer agrees was her worst campaign error--a remark about homeowner associations having too much power.

Mercer insists the statement was taken out of context during a talk about reaching out to include business owners, renters and others on neighborhood councils.

The Miscikowski mailer, which states, “Georgia Mercer Wants To Take Away the Power of Homeowners,” could hurt.

So could another Miscikowski brochure sent to renters, one quoting Mercer as wanting to end rent control in Los Angeles.

Levine said he countered the rent mailer in a separate mailer, but answered the homeowner issue as part of other brochures such as the “Top 10 reasons why Valley homeowners and community leaders support Georgia Mercer for City Council.”