Fear and Loathing in L.A.

If Los Angeles voters believe the campaign oratory that has been swirling around their heads, their next mayor will be, no matter who wins next week's election, an incompetent, a liar, an as sociate of criminals and a betrayer of the public trust. After a series of "debates" between incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty, 63, and black City Councilman and Ex-Cop Thomas Bradley, 55, the Los Angeles Times complained in disgust: "Slashing personal attacks apparently win votes. Well, that is what passes for politics in Los Angeles."

Mayor Sam's biggest clamor was a charge that Bradley had accepted a large campaign contribution and loans from two men who have "underworld connections." Bradley said he had returned the money, and he counter attacked by charging that Yorty himself had visited an imprisoned income tax evader and former race-track operator.

Yorty quoted one of Bradley's chief supporters as saying that "every white person is a racist" (the Bradley supporter denies the quote). Bradley accused Yorty of "the vicious, scurrilous big-lie technique."

The candidates in this nonparty election are no less violently opposed on impersonal issues. Bradley wants to limit Los Angeles to a population of 4,000,000 (it now has almost 3,000,000); Yorty opposes sharp restrictions on growth. Bradley favors a moratorium on highway building; Yorty argues for continued building of highways, which he says "really move a lot of automobiles very efficiently." Bradley thinks oil drilling off Los Angeles beaches was started partly by "deceit and deception" and should now be banned; Yorty insists that "we ought to do everything we can to develop our oil."

Bradley ran well ahead in the four-man primary last month (36% to Yorty's 29%). But despite an expertly run and expensive campaign (more than $1,000,000 to Yorty's $570,000), he is slipping badly. Three weeks ago Brad ley held a 43.4% to 28.5% lead over Yorty, with an unusually high 20.1% still undecided and another 8% refusing to announce a choice. As of last week Bradley's edge had shrunk to a meager 42% to 39%, with 19% still undecided.

Up the California coast in the mostly blue-collar city of Oakland, incumbent Mayor John H. Reading, 55, won re-election by nearly 2 to 1 over Black Panther Party Co-Founder Bobby Scale, 36. Although Scale ran as a Democrat and had dropped the rhetoric of the Panthers to campaign on bread-and-butter issues, his reputation as a revolutionary lingered. Reading, mayor since 1966, asserts that he won because "my programs were best for the city."

Scale, however, promised to campaign again for a "people's victory."

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