Powerful Allies Spicing Up Race of Friendly Foes

Incumbent George Kiriyama, 67, is known for his love of music, his gentle personality, his accessibility and his penchant for spending most of his time in his office at the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters.

Challenger Mike Lansing, 42, is a soft-spoken but persuasive man who has raised millions of dollars for the Boys and Girls Club he operates in San Pedro.

"I think George is a nice guy," said Lansing, a former parochial school teacher.

"I really like Mike, he's a nice guy," said Kiriyama, a retired Los Angeles school principal.

"This isn't exactly a rumble in the harbor--it's two nice guys after the same position," said 12th-grade teacher Aaron Bruhnke, the teachers union's point man in District 7. "Frankly, the union thinks highly of Mike Lansing. He's done a heck of a lot for the San Pedro community. But we think George is the best guy for us at this time."

Pleasantries aside, the candidates strongly disagree on what ails the district and who's to blame.

Lansing and his consultants characterize Kiriyama as a "do nothing" on a school board that many blame for the district's low performance on test scores and other measures of academic achievement. The board has a reputation for divisiveness, turf squabbles and micromanaging Supt. Ruben Zacarias and district finances.

Kiriyama cites Lansing's inexperience and calls him a lackey of Mayor Richard Riordan, who plans to pay for the bulk of Lansing's mailers, telephone banks and radio spots.

Kiriyama also cites recent signs that the troubled district has turned the corner during his term: Test scores are creeping upward, dropout rates are starting to decline and more college prep courses are being offered than last year.

Each candidate has staunch supporters entrenched at opposite ends of the district--Kiriyama's in Watts, Gardena and Carson; Lansing's in Lomita, Wilmington and San Pedro.

It's hard to find anyone in San Pedro--a tight-knit, isolated, ethnically mixed wharf-side community--who has not been hit up by Lansing for donations to the Boys and Girls Club, or whose children were not taught math by him.

"Mike will get terrific support around here--it's nice to know the guy you're voting for," said sandwich shop owner Peter Skrumbis. "The guy who's in there now, what's his name? Kiriyama? I don't know much about him. My wife says he's just kind of there."

Conversely, Lansing is a complete unknown at the northern end of the district in Watts, where Kiriyama has become a cultural icon of sorts by supporting the $2.1-million Watts Cinema and Education Center.

"My associates are going to fight tooth and nail for George. And if I had to bet my money, I'd put it on George to win," said Barbara Stanton, executive director of the center, which expects to open the region's first movie theater in 30 years.

"Mike Lansing? Does he ever come to Watts? Don't think so," she said. "That man's got a lot of catching up to do."

In fact, Lansing's trying hard to do just that.

"We're doing a full court press in the African American community," said Lansing's campaign manager, Tom Shortridge. "They're a third of the vote, and they have some of the worst schools in the district. Who better to vote for change?"

Kiriyama also figures he'll do well among the 4.6% of the district's voters of Asian descent, concentrated in Gardena--his hometown--and Carson.

"But I need $250,000. Otherwise we won't be able to afford the blitz we'll need," said Kiriyama, who has already managed to rustle up about half that amount at a single fund-raiser.

As of Feb. 27, the most recent date for campaign contribution reports, Kiriyama had raised $136,013. Lansing had raised $38,465, although Riordan plans to spend far more than that on Lansing's behalf. Lansing is one of four candidates that the mayor is supporting in hopes of remaking the school board.

With no overlapping municipal races in the April 13 election, experts predict a low turnout of about 25,000 voters in the district, which is home to 120,990 public school students.

"It's going to be a close race," Kiriyama predicted during a lunch break in a school board meeting. "A lot of people don't like what the mayor is doing. And test scores are going up. So things are getting better, not worse."

Then Kiriyama squinted at a "fortune" he had just pulled out of a cookie, smiled and tossed it across the table saying, "It's my winning formula."

The fortune: "You can always trust your friends."

Seated in his cluttered office at the Boys and Girls Club in San Pedro, Lansing summed up the district's problems this way: "The system is in disarray; it's an entrenched bureaucracy used to doing things at a snail's pace.