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John Ferraro last summer faced a nightmarish prospect for his reelection to the Los Angeles City Council. The second of what eventually would be three redistricting plans designed to increase Latino representation placed Ferraro and fellow incumbent Michael Woo in the same Wilshire-Hollywood district. The two would have had to slug it out in next week's election.
But then Councilman Howard Finn died. Taking advantage of that vacancy, a third and final plan divided up Finn's San Fernando Valley territory, radically shifted other boundaries and gave Ferraro and Woo separate districts.
With the Woo threat gone, Ferraro now faces what his aides expect will be an easy contest in his 4th District against Sal Genovese, a Hollywood resident who owns a drug and alcohol rehabilitation counseling service and who, like Ferraro, unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1985.
Genovese, however, says he is counting on lingering resentment over redistricting to help him, especially since about half of the voters in the reconfigured 4th District never had Ferraro as their councilman before September.
"I think it was pretty dirty politics and a very selfish approach," Genovese said of the redistricting. The changes left Ferraro's home base of Hancock Park and mid-Wilshire in the district and added Atwater, Los Feliz, Griffith Park, Toluca Lake and parts of North Hollywood and Studio City to it. The 4th District is now a strange-looking creature on the map, a backwards C with a very narrow middle through Echo Park and Silver Lake.
Needed a Map Book
In September, Ferraro joked that he had to buy a map book to help him find parts of his newly drawn district. But now, he and his aides say, they have worked hard to win support in the new territory and are meeting constituents' concerns on such matters as a new public library for Atwater and redevelopment in North Hollywood.
"I've never encountered any resentment over the redistricting. People seem pleased and happy that I'm there," said Ferraro, who has been on City Council 20 years and was reelected in 1983 with 87% of the vote against two opponents.
Genovese, 41, is trying to portray Ferraro, 62, as a tired politician who pays more attention to developers than to residents. The challenger has been...