Los Angeles County Elections 1992

With the nationwide anti-incumbency movement gathering steam, three-term County Supervisor Deane Dana is facing the largest and potentially most threatening field of challengers in his career.

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's victory as Los Angeles County supervisor in a race against State Sen. Diane Watson's election was not "stolen" through fraudulent voting practices, according to a report released Wednesday by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. After losing the election in November, Watson questioned whether votes were withheld or falsified through computer tampering or other means.

The campaign for Los Angeles County supervisor in the 4th District--pitting three-term incumbent Deane Dana against Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson--is shaping up to be one of the most expensive and vitriolic political contests in county history. The outcome in the coastal district of nearly 2 million residents may hinge on whose attacks can inflict the most damage before the Nov. 3 balloting.

Supervisor Deane Dana spent more than $2.5 million on his reelection in the most costly supervisorial race in Los Angeles County history, according to the final campaign finance reports filed with the county. Dana spent nearly $9 for every vote he garnered and outspent his competitor, Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson, more than 4 to 1 in a vitriolic slugfest of a campaign that was marred by negative and inaccurate ads. Combined, the two candidates spent $3.

Friday was the deadline for candidates seeking congressional, state legislative and county offices to file nomination papers for the June 2 primary election. The deadline is extended until 5 p.m. Wednesday in cases where incumbents did not file for reelection. The extension does not apply to state legislative districts in which the incumbent did not file a required declaration of intent to seek reelection in February.

Second-term Pasadena City Councilman William Paparian announced Tuesday that he will challenge County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in next June's election. Charging that Antonovich is "a prisoner of his perks," the 42-year-old lawyer said he would become part of a three-person majority that would reverse trends toward service cutbacks and lavish expenditures on board amenities.

Sparks were already flying Wednesday between Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and his former chief aide, Gil Garcetti, as they faced a runoff election for the job as the county's top prosecutor. Sniping that began primary night continued as Garcetti, who gained 34% of the vote, called Reiner the year's dirtiest word, a "politician," and Reiner, who won only 26% of the vote, dismissed his former chief deputy as a man who "makes a good first impression" but will not hold up under public scrutiny.

Staying on the offensive in her bid to unseat Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson on Thursday garnered the endorsement of five former challengers for the 4th District supervisorial seat. Swanson, who emerged from a large field of competitors to force Dana into a runoff, said the endorsements will help her in November to capture the 58% of the vote that she and the other challengers collectively denied Dana in the June 2 primary.

Supervisor Deane Dana, in a stunning development in Tuesday's balloting, was forced into a runoff, and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Diane Watson appeared headed for a November showdown in their battle to become Los Angeles County's first elected black supervisor. Dana, a 12-year veteran supervisor, was caught in an apparent wave of anti-incumbent sentiment that set up a November runoff against Rolling Hills City Councilwoman Gordana Swanson.

The year was 1885. Los Angeles County, with 67,416 residents, was less populous than Omaha, Neb., and was governed by a five-member Board of Supervisors. Today, 107 years later, the county has a population of 8.8 million--more than many states. And it is still governed by five supervisors. But that soon may go the way of the orange groves and the rancheros.

When the history of 1992 is written, it will begin on April 29. To be sure, much transpired before that warm Wednesday when a jury returned not guilty verdicts on four officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King. Willie L. Williams had already been named to replace Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. Several police reform proposals had been put on the ballot. Four black gangs based in a Watts housing project had declared a truce. But on April 29, the city began to burn.

Sen. Diane Watson, who narrowly lost the county supervisor's race in the 2nd District last month, Thursday sued her opponent in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke of fraud in the Nov. 3 election. Watson said her investigators have uncovered names of dead people and a dog registered to vote by absentee ballots, found unlocked ballot boxes in at least one polling place and heard from citizens who were not allowed to vote when they went to their polling place.

A $4.6-million Antelope Valley sports center promised in campaign literature by backers of the Proposition A parks assessment measure approved in November won't be built after all, Lancaster and Palmdale officials have learned. The mayor of Palmdale on Monday said he considers the post-election revelation as an indication that the Antelope Valley is still considered the stepchild of Los Angeles County. "There's some hard feelings up here," Mayor Jim Ledford said.

With all the ballots finally counted, election officials Thursday declared Yvonne Brathwaite Burke the winner--by less than 1% of the vote--in the race to become the first African-American elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. But Burke's opponent, state Sen. Diane Watson, repeated her vow to challenge the results by filing a lawsuit, possibly today, alleging voting irregularities.

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke declared victory Monday as her lead in the 2nd District Los Angeles County supervisor's race continued to grow--two weeks after the election. But her opponent, Diane Watson, vowed to challenge the results, in court if necessary. She has alleged that voting irregularities occurred. Burke, a former congresswoman who led state Sen. Watson by 775 votes when polls closed Nov. 3, stretched her lead on Monday to 2,572 votes.

The northern part of Los Angeles County stands to gain more than $50 million in park and trail improvement and development money after voters enthusiastically supported Proposition A, a $540-million parks assessment initiative. And the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys will be able to compete for a share of nearly $150 million more earmarked for countywide projects ranging from graffiti removal to tree planting.

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday delayed for a week a vote on whether to place on the June ballot proposals to reform county government. Among other things, the proposals would add two or four supervisors to the five-member board and create the post of county mayor. The board's liberal majority of Supervisors Ed Edelman, Kenneth Hahn and Gloria Molina expressed support for enlarging the board to increase representation.

A third challenger for the seat of Superior Court Judge Joyce A. Karlin has announced his candidacy. Bob Henry, 43, a deputy state attorney general who has practiced law in California since 1974, filed a declaration of intent Wednesday to run against Karlin. Henry is a resident of the San Gabriel Valley and ran for a congressional seat in 1978 and an Assembly seat two years later. Both bids were unsuccessful. Karlin, a former federal prosecutor who was appointed to the bench last summer by Gov.

With more than 100,000 absentee ballots still to be counted and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke leading Diane Watson by 775 votes, the historic race to elect a black to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors remained too close to call Wednesday. Updated results from the hard-fought campaign will not be available until Monday at the earliest, officials said. But election workers on Wednesday began the laborious process of verifying signatures on the absentee ballots.

One day after the election, Gil Garcetti was already on the move. The 51-year-old career prosecutor will not take office as the newly elected Los Angeles County district attorney until Dec. 7, but he was walking through the agency's downtown Los Angeles offices Wednesday, armed with a memo for his new staff that already showed a change in style from his more aloof predecessor, Ira Reiner.