COUNCIL RACE DOWN TO WIRE THREE BIG SPENDERS, SEVEN OTHERS SEEK SEAT LEFT BY LATE JOHN FERRARO.

Voters on Tuesday will go to the polls to choose a successor to the late John Ferraro in the Los Angeles City Council's 4th District.

The special election has become one of the costliest in city history, with the top three candidates in a field of 10 raising more than $1.2 million combined.

Candidates are competing for a seat that had gone virtually unchallenged during Ferraro's 36 years on the council, including two decades as council president.

The district runs from the southwest San Fernando Valley to Hollywood, two communities seeking secession from the city, making it a key seat in the next decade of Los Angeles politics.

All three leading candidates are Democrats in the highly Democratic area.

Tom LaBonge, who served as one of Ferraro's top aides for more than 20 years and as an aide to then-Mayor Richard Riordan in most of the 1990s, said he would work to increase interaction with the community if he is elected to the council.

With more than $370,000, he has led the pack in fund-raising, according to reports on file with the City Ethics Commission.

Former state Sen. David Roberti, who served 27 years in the Legislature, is basing his campaign on creating a borough system like that in New York, which he says will create more responsive government and stop secession efforts. He also promises to strengthen renters' rights and fight big development. Roberti has reported raising more than $300,000.

Beth Garfield, an elected member of the Los Angeles Community College District board, has put $350,000 of her own money into her campaign - the most personal funds spent by a council candidate.

Garfield, who is married to former Democratic Assemblyman Wally Knox, has raised about $500,000, including her own money and enjoys the volunteer and organizational support of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Seven other candidates, by far outspent by the top three, have also been actively campaigning on grass-roots issues.

Susan Fong, a teacher and ex-wife of a former councilman, Mike Woo, said she is running to help break up good-old-boy politics at City Hall.

Gadfly and tax preparer Melrose Larry Green, who has run for council and mayor in the past, said he hopes to respond to people's real needs if elected.

Community activist Linda Lockwood, who won a third of the vote in challenging Ferraro in 1996, said she would focus on improvements at Griffith Park.

Richard MacMinn, president of the Los Angeles Congress of Neighborhood Councils and the only Valley resident in the race, said his focus would be on ethical reforms at City Hall and shaking up the system.

Denise Munro Robb, an environmental and community activist, has promised to focus on strengthening neighborhood councils and the senior lead officer program in community policing.

Attorney Michael Schaefer, a former San Diego councilman who has run for more than a dozen government seats around the country in the past 30 years, said his focus is on public safety.

And Fares ``Ferris'' Wehbe, a teacher at a private school and a community activist who helped lead the Hollywood secession movement, said his focus would also be on public safety and basic community services, such as paving streets and trimming trees.

Since Ferraro's death in April, the candidates have rushed to raise funds and get their names known in the community.

Most candidates have focused spending on a slew of mailers - some sending out as many as a dozen over the past two weeks - and have walked door to door in the district that includes some 13,000 registered voters with high propensity to cast ballots.

The district includes parts of North Hollywood, Studio City, Toluca Lake, Griffith Park, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, the Hollywood Hills, Hollywood, Larchmont Village, Windsor Square, Hancock Park, Park La Brea and the Miracle Mile area.

If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

For information on polling places, contact the City Clerk's Office at [phone].

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UP FOR GRABS

After the death of Councilman John Ferraro, a special election will be held Tuesday for a new representative in the City Council's 4th District.