The specter of a racially divisive mayoral campaign here between the black incumbent and a Jewish challenger dissolved abruptly Friday, when City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky announced he will not run against Mayor Tom Bradley in this year’s election.
Political observers were caught off guard by the announcement, which followed an unofficial but intense 18-month campaign by Yaroslavsky and the accumulation of a $1.5 million war chest.
Yaroslavsky, who got his political start by organizing the local Students for Soviet Jewry drive, decided to drop out because his opponent was so “personally popular and deeply entrenched” as to foreclose any hope of victory.
The clincher was a poll commissioned by Yaroslavsky that showed Bradley leading 4-1 at this stage and enjoying a name recognition among voters two to three times larger than that of the councilman.
Bradley, a consistent supporter of Israel, has been elected four times, thanks largely to an alliance between blacks and other minorities and the liberal Jewish community.
In the anticipated confrontation this year, however, observers predicted a sharp break in the alliance, with many of the Jewish votes and much of the money going to Yaroslavsky.
The possibility that such a break might degenerate into an ethnic confrontation, as happened in Chicago and other American cities, worried both Jewish and black leaders.
They were concerned that extremist followers of the two candidates might have resorted to racist attacks during the race.
INCIDENT IN AUGUST
That possibility was taken seriously enough by three local organizations as far back as last June to form a coalition, known by the acronym CONDUCT, to monitor and seek to prevent anticipated ethnic hostilities.
“Black-Jewish tensions would have been inevitable,” during the campaign, said Jerry Freedman-Habush of the regional chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
His group had joined with some 40 local leaders of the American Jewish Committee and the predominantly black Urban League with a view toward “using the power of the press and public opinion to monitor and restrain over-zealous supporters on both sides,” Freedman-Habush said.
In fact, black-Jewish tensions did surface last August, when racist memoranda written by two of Yaroslavsky’s campaign consultants came to light. One of the memos advised Yaroslavsky he could beat Bradley, because “you’ve got 50 I.Q. points on him (and that’s no compliment).”
The negative fallout from the memos was quickly contained after Yaroslavsky disavowed them and called Bradley to affirm his “high personal regard” for the mayor.
Despite the disappointment felt by Yaroslavsky’s partisans at the abrupt end of the race, some admitted to a sense of relief that the efforts of CONDUCT would not have to be put to the test.
Others, like Sanders, looked ahead. “Zev is a young man of 40,” he said. “He’ll be running for higher office, mayor or congressman, at some time in the future.”
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