TIPOFF : MAYOR LARGELY SATISFIED WITH CHARTER SLATE.

Byline: Rick Orlov

EVEN as his opponents revel in their defeat of most of Mayor Richard Riordan's slate of charter reform candidates, aides and advisers to hizzoner say they are pleased with how the commission is shaping up.

``The people who are on there deserve to have a piece of the pie,'' one official close to Riordan said. ``Would we like to have a bigger piece of the pie? No question. But we think these people will end up seeing the same problems the mayor sees in how the city is run with no accountability by anyone at City Hall.''

As a result, while Riordan still has commitments to a number of candidates in the June 3 runoff election, don't expect him to spend too much political capital in the races.

There will be some modest help, but it is clear that Riordan doesn't want to go out too far on behalf of any one candidate.

Public employee unions were the big winners on the Charter Reform Commission and it might be to their advantage - long-term - to back Riordan's main concern of providing more power to the Mayor's Office.

``Look at the demographics of the city and the unions,'' the official said, pointing to the growing influence of Latinos in the city. ``By 2001, or at least 2005, we will have a Latino as mayor. Latinos and the unions will want a strong mayor and not the system we have now.''

The race to succeed retiring Councilman Marvin Braude is starting to get down to one of those nasty little wars on word games over who's running a positive campaign.

Cindy Miscikowski, the former Braude aide who came in second in the race, has complained that front-runner Georgia Mercer has been been unfair to her about getting a gated community where she lives in Brentwood. At issue is the role played by Miscikowski as a council aide and her husband, developer Doug Ring.

Mercer campaign manager Larry Levine defends the mailing as both truthful and significant as to where Miscikowski stands.

``This should be called Cindygate,'' Levine said. ``She's been all over the place on this and given at least three different explanations. We think what she did in an official capacity to get that gate is fair game.''

As multimillionaire Al Checchi nears an official entry into the Democratic race for governor, he is quickly learning the difference between life in politics and that of private industry.

The 48-year-old co-chairman of Northwest Airlines found himself in the middle of a flap last week with an attack on U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is considering her own bid for governor.

At first saying the 63-year-old Feinstein represented a different generation, Checchi found himself on the spot as to whether he would raise her age as an issue in the campaign.

Checchi said he meant to say the two had different experiences, with his in private industry and her lengthy political career.

``Frankly, this is turning into a bigger deal than I expected,'' he said. ``I didn't mean to open up Pandora's box here.''

Checchi also continues to be hampered by questions over his voting record, having admitted he only has voted in presidential years.

Another wanna-be statewide candidate, Phil Angelides, is making the rounds these days trying to build up interest in his second bid for the state Treasurer's Office.

Angelides, a Sacramento developer, has been traveling up and down the state meeting with past supporters to enlist them in another campaign. He also was highly visible at the recent state Democratic Party convention in Sacramento, hosting several receptions.

MEDIA WATCH: Buzz magazine, which proclaims itself as offering the talk of Los Angeles, is the target of a lot of talk itself these days. The buzz about Buzz: what's its future?

The magazine that sought to unseat Los Angeles magazine as ``the'' city magazine has been in turmoil since the departure of Editor Alan Meyer last year.

A number of top staffers who had been with the magazine from the start and managed to survive the transition were told last week that it was time for them to pursue other career goals.