ELECTIONS / SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL : Candidates Bank on Endorsements : Politics: Ronald Reagan and Robert Myers are among those making pitches as the race approaches its final days.

What do Ronald Reagan and Robert M. Myers have in common?

The former President and the former city attorney have weighed in from their respective ends of the political spectrum to endorse candidates running for four spots on the Santa Monica City Council.

Reagan is backing the three-member law-and-order slate of John Baron, Edith Shane and A. Marco Turk. At least that’s how they interpret his statements in a letter to another candidate saying he hoped voters “will rise in full support of the entire coalition” of which the three are the centerpiece.

Reagan’s letter is addressed to Leonard McRoskey, the Republican candidate opposing Assemblyman Tom Hayden in the 23rd Senate District, which includes Santa Monica.

“I am . . . glad you have been able to join with the Santa Monica Political Reform Committee,” the letter says, “so that together you work to clean up the political mess that has plagued Santa Monica. If Hayden were to be elected, it would give him a chance to do to the entire district what he and his friends did to Santa Monica.”

The three candidates running on the Santa Monica Political Reform Committee slate have adopted a strong anti-crime platform.

Is the former President’s endorsement the right one for a liberal enclave like Santa Monica? Turk thinks so. “We’re the law-and-order slate,” he said. “We’ve made no bones about it.”

Myers’ endorsement of slow-growther Ellen Goldin is more straightforward. A mailer sent to renters features a letter from the recently dismissed city attorney who wrote the rent control law. It recommends her as someone who can be trusted to protect rent control.

The endorsements are part of the flurry of pitches and punches (some of them below the belt) that are characteristic of the final days before an election.

This year, the matter is complicated by the size of the field--18 candidates--and an electorate that is devoting much of its attention to the presidential and U.S. Senate races.

Within Santa Monica, those who are paying attention are divided. “There are splits all over the city,” said Sharon Gilpin, a consultant for candidate Alan Weston. “Votes are going to be spread out in a wacky way.”

The few candidates’ forums held in Santa Monica were poorly attended by the public, putting even more weight on the expected glut of last minute mail--and the endorsements.

Besides Myers and Reagan, other groups in the city have recently lined up their favorites. Friends of Sunset Park, a slow-growth group with 500 members, is supporting Goldin, Weston and incumbent Ken Genser. They also recommend not voting for Planning Commissioners Tom Pyne and Paul Rosenstein.

The Santa Monica Neighborhood Coalition, a small slow-growth group composed of members of other neighborhood organizations, is asking voters to choose from among five candidates who pass their growth litmus test: They are Genser, Goldin, Weston, Merritt Coleman and George Hickey.

They are seeking to caution voters against Pyne, Rosenstein and incumbent Judy Abdo.

Save Our City, a public safety group of residents and businesses, has endorsed Pyne, Weston, Asha Greenberg and Anthony Blain.

The city’s powerful rent control machine, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) is backing Abdo, Genser, Goldin and Rosenstein, while the increasingly influential police and fire unions have given Blain, Genser, Weston and Asha Greenberg the nod.

The local Santa Monica paper, The Outlook, agreed with the police and fire unions except about Genser. The Outlook backed Rosenstein instead.

SMRR is, as usual, flush with money to spend on mail, with a cash balance of $59,164 on Oct. 17 after raising $127,758 since the first of the year. By contrast, Save Our City has come up with just $5,382.

Of the candidates, Weston has raised the most money, $54,653--more than half of it loans from himself--followed by Pyne, $51,556.

Others who have raised enough money for all-important mailers include Rosenstein, $25,656, Blain, $14,719 and Greenberg, $14,517.