Bob Gay

Three-term Los Angeles City Council member Hal Bernson was running even with challenger Julie Korenstein in partial election results late Tuesday, but one-term incumbent Ruth Galanter held a lead in a race to hold onto her 6th District City Council seat. With one-third of the city's 15 City Council seats at stake, the results of the balloting will reshape political alignments in the city and could shore up Mayor Tom Bradley's flagging support on the council.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Bob Gay accepted a $10,000 international trip in 1987 from a Hong Kong businessman who was attempting to develop a huge hotel and office project in the 9th District, where Gay worked as an aide to then-Councilman Gil Lindsay, according to interviews and records. Gay said on Friday there was nothing improper about his acceptance of the trip, which he considered a gift from a personal friend, developer Howard Yeung.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Bob Gay accepted a $10,000 international trip in 1987 from a Hong Kong businessman who was attempting to develop a huge hotel and office project in the 9th District, where Gay worked as an aide to then-Councilman Gil Lindsay, according to interviews and records. Gay said on Friday there was nothing improper about his acceptance of the trip, which he considered a gift from a personal friend, developer Howard Yeung.

On the Sunday afternoon that I launched my campaign for the Los Angeles City Council, I was given a handwritten note by an area resident. Mr. Marshall didn't come to make a fuss, nor was he particularly interested in the festivities at my campaign headquarters. He was not, after all, a "political" person. Retired after 34 years as a city employee, he has lived in the 9th District for 45 years and was tired and frustrated by what he saw around him. His message was simple: Our streets are dirty, sidewalks broken, curbs unrepaired and alleys so filled with trash that passage is nearly impossible.

In a sometimes heated exchange, 9th District City Council candidates Rita Walters and Bob Gay on Saturday debated issues that centered on the need for better city services in the poorer parts of the district. About 70 people in Kinsey Auditorium in southwest Los Angeles listened to the candidates in the June 4 runoff election, which will determine the first new council representative in almost 30 years for the district, which includes downtown and parts of South-Central Los Angeles.

A new generation of black leaders began to emerge this week from free-for-all elections in two largely black City Council districts, where the stage has been set for runoffs between candidates who are more vocal about minority issues than their predecessors.

City Council members Ruth Galanter and Hal Bernson displayed fund-raising muscle that far outstripped opponents in their vigorously contested reelection campaigns, according to reports filed with the city clerk's office. Another top fund raiser among those running for council seats in the April 9 election is Bob Gay, deputy to the late Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, who said he has raised $103,882 for his race against nine other candidates for Lindsay's 9th District seat.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Tuesday endorsed Rita Walters, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, in the highly contested fight for the 9th District City Council seat left open by the death of longtime Councilman Gilbert Lindsay. Walters is among 26 candidates who have declared their intention to run for the seat in the April 9 election. Only a handful of candidates are expected to gather sufficient signatures for valid nominating petitions, due at the city clerk's office by 5 p.m. today.

Gil Lindsay ran downtown Los Angeles as if the money and the power would never run out. He had a Southern senator's gift of gab and a gunslinger's arrogance. When he wanted contributions, the 9th District city councilman brashly rang up developers and investment bankers and told them to get out their checkbooks. For 27 years, Lindsay called the shots downtown and shaped the soaring Los Angeles skyline. He has thrived on flattery and the doting of young women.