EDITORIAL PARTY FAVORS L.A.'S DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP CASTS ITS LOT WITH THE CITY ELITE.

THE Democratic Party, depending on one's perspective, is either the champion of the little guy or the lapdog of big government. At various times and places throughout its storied history, it's been both.

But in Los Angeles today, it's clear where the Democratic machine's true priorities lie. The party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy seems to bear the unmistakable and unfortunate imprint of James Hahn, eager tool of the downtown power structure.

The matter of San Fernando Valley secession is a clear struggle between the little guy - Valley residents who have been cheated, neglected and under-served by City Hall for decades - and the fat-cat developers, consultants and City Hall insiders who want nothing more than to preserve a lucrative status quo.

Through the years, the Democratic Party has consistently sided with the fat cats.

It was Democrats in Sacramento who, at the urging of Democrats of City Hall, stripped the right of Valley residents to a secession vote 25 years ago. And it was Democrats who later fought unsuccessfully to prevent those rights from being restored.

In Los Angeles, democracy hasn't had much of a friend in the Democratic Party.

That's not to say there haven't been notable exceptions. Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, for example, played a key role in obtaining state funding for the study that produced the Valley breakup plan, and got many fellow Democrats to vote with him.

But as a party, especially at the city level, the Democrats have been too firmly tied in with the downtown power-brokers to heed their own principles. Politically, they have become so dependent on the campaign contributions of public-employee unions, contractors and developers that they have given up entirely on the working men and women who pay for the regular, massive and undeserved salary increases in city labor contracts.

The lure of power has proven too powerful. Rather than serving as a check on the city elite, the Democratic Party has become its political apparatus.

So it comes as little surprise that both the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County chapters of the Democratic Party are opposing secession. It's hard to imagine they would do anything else. The unions, the developers and the insiders are paying the party's bills, and it is they who stand most to lose should cityhood pass.

Ironically, most Vals - 60 percent - are registered Democrats, and most apparently support secession, too, according to polls. Party leadership has obviously chosen the big-time contributors over the rank-and-file.

What's a little guy to do?