TIPOFF; L.A. JUST AIN'T A PARTY TOWN.

Byline: Rick Orlov Tipoff

Much has been made over the past week over the joke of L.A.'s sad Y2K parties.

The rain, of course, did not help. But the fact of the matter is Los Angeles has never been a New Year's Eve kind of party town. With the exception of the annual bash at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion. That'swhere the real fireworks would break out in any case.

There are several reasons for this.

First, there is no one real location that defines Los Angeles.

Secondly, is the money. Los Angeles voters would never go for a publicly subsidized extravaganza along the likes of New York and its annual ball dropping at Times Square.

Third, most of our glitterati are in New York or Washington or on theroad performing.

And, finally, it's the L.A. attitude.

In New York, a crowd of several million jammed into several blocks is a party. In Los Angeles, it's a crowd control problem.

WITH THE IOWA CAUCUSES and New Hampshire primary in the offing, a lot of Vice President Al Gore's supporters in California are wondering what's going on with his campaign and whether he will be able to fend off former Sen. Bill Bradley.

The most recent sign, reported in last week's San Francisco Chronicle, told of a major shake-up in his California effort, with his state campaign director, Kathy Bowler, stepping down to return to her job with thestate Democratic Party. Bowler is being replaced by Sky Gallegos, who is close to the vice president.

While Gore aides put out the spin that it was an effort to re-energize their California campaign, a number of supporters of the vice president are questioning whether there is a sense of panic out here as polls show Bradley edging closer in both early states.

``Everyone still thinks Gore can win this, but we just keep asking, What the hell is going on over there '' one insider said. ``It's like no one knows what to do.''

The Gore campaign had a much-publicized change in October when it moved its headquarters from Washington to Tennessee. But that apparentlyhasn't changed much of the national campaign's strategy in dealing with the various state campaigns in a top-down style.

It has been just such an approach that has led not only to staff turnover, but difficulty in hiring people. Many political activists passed on the chance to work with the Gore campaign because they didn't just want to be gofers for the national folks.

SAY YOU'RE AN AMBITIOUS young attorney who has spent the past six years working for Mayor Richard Riordan as head of his business team, but you harbor political ambitions of your own. What steps do you take?

Well, the first is to make sure you're a resident of the city.

Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo took care of that first step recently, moving into a penthouse in the downtown Central Park Apartments. Delgadillo said this shows his commitment to dowtown Los Angeles. ``This puts me squarely in the center of the city.''

Delgadillo wants to be city attorney, the post being vacated by City Attorney James Hahn in his bid for mayor.

Delgadillo will face powerful opposition in Councilman Mike Feuer, who is giving up his seat to run for the job. Also in the race is Deputy District Attorney Lea D'Agostino, who has strong ties to several law enforcement groups and has been courting the legal establishment, which fears Feuer.

WE ALL KNOW POLITICS make strange bedfellows. But for political consultant Bill Carrick, when he turned over in bed last week he ran into himself.

Carrick found himself in the position of defending one of his best known candidates against one he just helped elect.

In this case, Carrick was speaking out for District Attorney Gil Garcetti - whose re-election campaign he steered four years ago and is running again this year - against an attack by school board President Genethia Hayes. Hayes was part of a team of candidates for whom Carrick served as a consultant last year to take over the Board of Education.

Hayes held a news conference last week to endorse Garcetti opponent Barry Groveman and criticize Garcetti for failing to take action on the Belmont Learning Center fiasco when disclosures first came out.