MAYOR TOM BRADLEY: THE FINAL CHAPTER : Bradley's Ethnic Coalition Faces an Uncertain Future : Politics: Blacks and Jews worked together to support the mayor through five terms. Experts expect new alliances to emerge.

By RICHARD SIMON

Sept. 25, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

With Mayor Tom Bradley deciding to step down after five terms, a coalition of Southside blacks and Westside Jews--the core of Bradley’s political support over the years--may be history.

As a dozen candidates gear up for the liveliest mayor’s race in years, new alliances are expected to form, but political experts say it is unclear who they will include.

The city, riven by ethnic factions, is “far more Balkanized,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior associate at Claremont Graduate School’s Center for Politics and Policy. “Coalitions are more difficult to achieve.”

“It will never be the same because so much of the character of the coalition was shaped by Bradley’s ability to tie groups together,” said Raphael J. Sonenshein, author of “Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles.”

The coalition--one of the most powerful civic reform movements in the city’s history--was born during the 1960s out of a common goal of liberal blacks and Jews: to open the corridors of power to a broader cross-section of the city and to wrest control of the mayor’s office from then-Mayor Sam Yorty and his conservative allies.

“The city was run by an elite, exclusive group . . . and Jews and blacks were not welcome,” said federal appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt, an early member of the coalition along with such others as Samuel Williams, a black attorney, and Maury Weiner, who had been a member of Bradley’s City Council staff.

Over the years, the coalition expanded to include the downtown business Establishment and labor. To a lesser degree, Bradley also came to enjoy support from Asian-Americans and Latinos.

Nelson Rising, a real estate developer who chaired Bradley’s 1973 campaign, said: “I don’t know that the coalition that Bradley was able to put together is available for anyone else. That coalition was in a large measure a result of the force of his personality. . . . He tried to be a voice of reason.”

But new alliances will emerge, say political experts.

“Changes in the city will make for new coalitions,” said Bruce Corwin, a former Bradley supporter, who did not wait for the mayor’s announcement to declare his support for Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City) for mayor.

Experts say that such new coalitions are sure to include greater roles for two groups whose populations have swelled in recent years--Asian-Americans and Latinos. Today, Los Angeles is 40% Latino, 37% Anglo, 13% black and 10% Asian. Anglos account for 65% of registered voters, blacks 21%, Latinos 11% and Asians 3%.

Also, the San Fernando Valley, a largely conservative part of the city that always was tough political turf for Bradley, may play a more prominent role in any coalition, experts say.

Without Bradley in the race, Sonenshein said, “You not only lose the symbol, you also lose the network of people who interacted through him to maintain the coalition. . . . Without Bradley as a central focus, they’re going to be drifting off to different candidates.”

Some past Bradley loyalists already have gone their separate ways.

Paul Hudson, a black businessman and Bradley appointee to the city Pension Commission, is supporting Councilman Michael Woo for mayor. Stanley Hirsh, a Jewish community activist who has been a Bradley fund-raiser, is backing Councilman Joel Wachs.

Suzette Neiman, a city planning commissioner, and Herbert F. (Bert) Boeckmann, a former police commissioner, said they will support attorney-businessman Richard Riordan, a former Bradley ally who is considering a run for mayor.

Two other longtime Bradley supporters, RTD board member Nikolas Patsaouras and environmental lawyer Mary Nichols, are considering running for mayor.

Woo, the first Asian-American elected to the City Council, is modeling himself after Bradley, hoping to inherit the mayor’s mantle as a mediator in a city divided into ethnic factions.

“Michael Woo is going to draw out Asians finally,” predicted UCLA Professor Leo Estrada, a longtime student of the city’s ethnic politics.

Woo also hopes to win support in the black community. He was the first City Council member to call for former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ resignation after the Rodney G. King beating.

Building a coalition in a crowded primary--especially with several candidates vying for support from the same ethnic groups and neighborhoods--will be no easy task, experts say. Coalition building is important in Los Angeles politics because no one voting bloc is large enough to elect a candidate on its own.

“There are just too many people from too many ethnic groups that are going to be dividing the power,” Corwin said.

Others considering running for mayor are council members Zev Yaroslavsky and Joy Picus. Like Woo, Wachs and Katz, they enjoy strong support in the Jewish community and in the San Fernando Valley. Councilman Nate Holden, who has support in the black community, also is considering running. Councilman Richard Alatorre and county Supervisor Gloria Molina, both popular in the Latino community, have not ruled out mayoral bids.

Political experts say they doubt that any candidate will emerge from a crowded primary with a strong coalition.

“The votes of African-Americans and Jews will be divided among a number of candidates,” said Wachs. “There are a lot of candidates who will be running who will be appealing to one or more segments of both of those communities as well as to other communities.”

Estrada added: “I don’t see anybody creating the South-Central-Westside coalition in the same way it was there before. . . . When you put the pieces of the city together into what it takes to elect somebody, my feeling is that you either have to look for somebody who can take the Valley and Westside or somebody who could do East L.A. and South-Central. The black and Jewish communities have become more diverse since Bradley first formed his coalition.”

Some have suggested that the Bradley coalition was significantly eroded by tensions between blacks and Jews over Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and the riots. In addition, Bradley lost support on the Westside because of his pro-development stance and his support for the Occidental oil drilling project.

He alienated others, including some black voters, who viewed him as an Establishment mayor closely allied with downtown business interests.

Bruce Cain, associate director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, said that the coalition could reappear if the mayoral race comes down to a choice between two ideological opposites.