FUND RAISING NEAR RECORD COMPETITION GROWING FIERCE FOR COUNCIL, BOARD SEATS.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Almost half the seats on the Los Angeles City Council and more than half of the Board of Education are on the ballot Tuesday in an election featuring several competitive races with high fund raising.

School board President Caprice Young and challenger Jon Lauritzen are battling in the west San Fernando Valley, while three other school board members also stump for re-election, as the teachers union and former Mayor Richard Riordan's education reform group raise millions of dollars for their candidates.

Eight candidates, including two write-in hopefuls, are crowding the field in the north and west San Fernando Valley for the City Council's 12th District seat which Hal Bernson is leaving due to term limits.

Other races include four seats on the Los Angeles Community College District's Board of Trustees and City Council seats in San Fernando, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and a number of other local cities.

Fund raising in the Los Angeles council races has exceeded $3.8 million - or $5.5 million including matching funds and independent expenditures. That is less overall than it was in the last election, but, on an individual basis, two candidates have reached near-record levels.

Councilman Nick Pacheco has broken the $500,000 mark, which has only occurred twice before in the last 14 years, according to city Ethics Commission records. Former Police Chief Bernard Parks has broken the $400,000 mark, which has only occurred five times previously - the last time in 1995. The all-time record for fund raising in a council primary is $626,000, set by incumbent Councilman Richard Alatorre in 1991.

Pacheco, the 14th District incumbent, is in a fight against former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, who also may surpass the $400,000 level, while political analysts consider Parks a shoo-in for the 8th District seat.

Another Valley council race pits former Assemblyman Tony Cardenas against businessman Jose Roy Garcia in the 6th District, where Ruth Galater is forced out by term limits.

In all the local races, if no candidate gets more than half the votes, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held May 20.

Sherman Oaks political consultant Larry Levine theorizes that term limits may have accelerated the amount of fund raising overall by forcing incumbents from office and creating more competitive races for the open seats.

``What we've done is increase the influence of special-interest money on City Hall,'' said Levine, who is also running the 10th District council campaign of former Assemblyman Rod Wright. ``Before term limits, council members stayed in place and didn't have to raise (as much). Now it's guaranteed every eight years in every one of these seats, there's going to be a major race with major demands for money.''

Term limits at the state level have also in the past few years increased the number of state legislators seeking council seats. In the current campaign, there are four former Assembly members, although in the last election, in 2001, none of several state legislators who sought city office was successful.

``I think what you're beginning to see is an awful lot of more competitive races, more qualified candidates, more people whose names are familiar to the public, in large measure due to term limits,'' said political consultant Richard Lichtenstein, who is not working for any candidate. ``We're finally seeing that cycle where people are moving from one set of offices to another set of offices.''

WHERE TO VOTE

Tuesday is election day in Los Angeles and a number of other cities across the region. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

To find your polling place, you can call the Los Angeles city clerk's election division at [phone] or go on the Internet at www.lacity.org/clk/election. For language assistance, call [phone], and to report voter fraud, call [phone]. For information about voting in other cities, contact the county Registrar-Recorder at [phone].

On election night, results will available online at www.dailynews.com and on the city's cable channel, which is Channel 35 in most areas.

Also, audio cassettes of the sample ballot are available in six languages for visually-impaired voters. They are available at the Central Library, the Braille Institute of Los Angeles or the City Clerk's Office at City Hall, Room 285. For information on the tapes, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

box

Box:

WHERE TO VOTE (see text)