California: After Sam’s Scalp

Congressman James Roosevelt, 57, last week decided to take on a tartar. He announced his candidacy against Los Angeles Mayor Samuel Yorty in next April’s municipal primary.* Said Roosevelt in a gibe at Yorty’s notable irascibility: “Los Angeles must not be subjected to government by tantrum.”

Yorty, 55, is no pushover, not even for the eldest son of F.D.R. A maverick, he started his political career as an ultraliberal California assemblyman but turned conservative, and vociferously antiCommunist, during two terms in the U.S. House and backed Republican Richard Nixon in 1960. That brought threats from regular Democrats to get Sam’s scalp, but he went on to win an upset victory for mayor in 1961.

Yorty has reduced discrimination in city hiring, placed qualified professionals at the head of key city departments, and reversed a city ordinance that required housewives to separate cans from all other trash. He defends his record literally from A (for airport—”We made it self-supporting”) to Z (for zoo —”The city is getting some rare albino kangaroos”). But his administration has been marred by his constant and noisy fights with the city council, and he is currently involved in a controversial attempt to amend the city charter to give the mayor more power.

Roosevelt, a six-term Congressman, plans to campaign “not as a liberal Democrat but as a man with a bread and butter program for getting things done.” He has the backing of Governor Pat Brown, and will have the support of the state’s regular Democratic organization. But Sam Yorty is an old hand at knocking over organizations.

* The Los Angeles primary is a nonpartisan preference vote, but if any candidate gains an absolute majority, he is automatically elected mayor. Otherwise, the two leading candidates qualify for the general elections the next month.