In the beginning, candidates for a proposed Hollywood city council trained and appeared at political events together, as if they were allies. Their main focus: building support for Hollywood secession, without which the five council seats will not exist.
But as Tuesday's election drew closer, collegiality gave way to competition.
With four times as many candidates as there are council seats, groups of contenders are banding together, forming slates to push themselves and their causes. They are running at large for the nonpartisan posts. If secession wins, the top five vote-getters will take office. They will later select a mayor from their ranks.
Hollywood secession leader Gene La Pietra, 54, who has spent more than $2 million of his own money to finance the cityhood effort, recently sent out a mailer urging Hollywood residents to "Vote Democratic for Hollywood City Council!"
One side of the flier listed statewide Democratic candidates, starting with Gov. Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. On the other side: five grinning Hollywood candidates, with La Pietra, who wants to be mayor, at the top of the list.
Other candidates on La Pietra's slate: Pashree "Super Pat" Sripipat, 55, publisher and editor of a bilingual Thai-English newspaper; Garry Sinanian, a 26-year-old Armenian American flower shop owner; Rosa Martinez, a preschool teacher at a Hollywood private school; and Michael Ackerman, 40, an entertainment lawyer.
"The slate represents the diversity of Hollywood, and that's very, very important," said La Pietra, the multimillionaire owner of two popular gay nightclubs. "I said from the beginning that we would have a diverse slate of candidates, and we do."
Candidates without access to La Pietra's money for mailings are creating informal slates. Four have formed the "H Team," with the H standing for Measure H, the Hollywood ballot initiative.
"We're not a part of La Pietra's campaign,'' said Billy Tsangares, owner of a Los Feliz T-shirt and gift shop. He gained local fame when he started the "Free Winona" campaign after actress Winona Ryder was arrested for allegedly shoplifting.
Tsangares, 42, said many Hollywood residents support secession but feel uncomfortable voting for it because they do not want La Pietra to run a new city.
"La Pietra has the money, and ... all the [media] attention goes to him," said Tsangares, who also sells "Free Martha" shirts featuring domestic diva Martha Stewart behind bars and prefers distributing news releases printed on cloth.
