BITTER D.A. CAMPAIGN TURNS EVEN MORE CAUSTIC.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

District Attorney Gil Garcetti and challenger Steve Cooley engaged Friday in a barrage of negative media ads that promises to cost more than $1 million in a 10-day escalation of their bitter campaign leading up Election Day.

Garcetti launched his long-expected attack ad campaign Friday calling Cooley a ``plea bargainer'' who settles cases with chronic drunk drivers, child abusers and drug dealers, as well as those eligible for three-strikes sentences.

Cooley, a head deputy in the D.A.'s Office, responded with his TV campaign accusing Garcetti of negative and false ads, lying about the Rampart Division scandal, giving leniency to relatives of contributors and losing case after case.

Garcetti declined to discuss his ads. His campaign spokesman, Erik Nasarenko, said the ads were intended to ``inform the electorate.''

Cooley defended his ads as true.

``If it's true and negative, that's OK,'' Cooley said. ``It's true, he's not pictured in the best light when it comes to Rampart and this mailer puts it out there.''

Cooley also sent out a mailing to about 300,000 absentee voters last week featuring a grainy Garcetti under the heading, ``L.A. Confidential 2'' blaming the two-term incumbent for failing to preventing the sweeping Rampart police corruption scandal.

What is missing from both campaigns, according to political consultants, is perspective, context and nuance in favor of the kind of jarring allegations that could backfire.

``The pox is on everybody's house,'' said consultant Richard Lichtenstein.

GOP consultant Allan Hoffenblum said Cooley may have more to gain from a negative campaign since his charges basically center around Rampart, which is familiar to voters. In contrast, Garcetti's charge that Cooley plea-bargained too many three-strikes cases is largely unfamiliar concept to most voters and thus less likely to stick.

``If you hear someone gossiping about someone you know, you're likely to listen more closely,'' Hoffenblum said.

Garcetti, who narrowly lost to Cooley in the March primary, is the only local politician on the ballot, which makes him the target of voter discontent with the city, Hoffenblum said.

``He's blamed for everything in town,'' he said.

Consultant Howard Sunkin agreed, saying, ``The race is all about the perceived negatives of Gil Garcetti.''

Strategically, there are questions about the value of 30-second attack charges late in the campaign because voters have become wary.

``This is the kind of soap opera campaign that turns people off,'' said political strategist Arnold Steinberg. ``It's a 'he said, she said' campaign, and people can't sort it out.''

``Plea bargainer''

Garcetti's ad claims Cooley plea-bargained a higher percentage of three- strikes cases in the San Fernando Valley than any other office.

The facts cited by Garcetti's campaign are that between March 1994 and May 1996, Cooley's office plea bargained 61.3 percent of its three-strike cases, compared with 44.5 percent countywide.

Cooley was transferred downtown, where he heads the welfare fraud unit, as a result, said Nasarenko, Garcetti's campaign manager.

What's not disclosed in the ad, Cooley said, is that each of the 150 three-strikes cases he handled was reviewed by supervisors. Never was a case questioned, a claim the D.A.'s Office did not dispute.

Peter Bozanich, who was Cooley's boss before he, too, was demoted and who now supports him, said Cooley acted within policy in properly disposing of three-strikes cases either through a plea bargain, or by going to trial.

``They were all within policy,'' Bozanich said. ``If they hadn't been, something would have happened. We would have taken action.''

In the county, the vast majority of all felonies are plea bargained, with only about 5 percent going to trial.

The plea bargain was used routinely by county prosecutors under Garcetti to put innocent people in prison after Rampart anti-gang cops asserted they were guilty. Assistant Public Defender Bob Kalunian, whose office represented most of those people, said about 70 percent were plea bargained.

``He turns plea bargain into a dirty word,'' Cooley said. ``If plea bargaining is bad, he's the worst plea bargainer of them all, because he presides over all the plea bargainers in the system.''

Garcetti's Rampart record

Cooley's new ad charges Garcetti hasn't told the truth about Rampart, a point Cooley defends, saying he has never taken any responsibility for the corruption scandal though he's part of the justice system.

Garcetti repeatedly has said the scandal is LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks' responsibility, and that he has worked to clean it up.

Cooley's mailing says Garcetti ignored early, repeated warnings by staff that dirty cop Rafael Perez was not to be trusted.

Nasarenko, Garcetti's campaign manager, said Cooley's ad gives an incomplete picture, failing to mention Garcetti's accomplishments, including indicting five Rampart officers to date. Four of those officers are now on trial.

``The omissions in the ad are the most glaring,'' Nasarenko said.