D’Agostino Backs Ex-Foe Delgadillo for City Atty.

Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, in a tight runoff race for Los Angeles city attorney, on Thursday picked up the backing of one of his rivals in the April 10 primary election, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino.

D’Agostino, a tough-on-crime conservative who finished third with nearly 16% of the vote, praised Delgadillo at a news conference the two held outside City Hall, citing his jobs-creation work as Mayor Richard Riordan’s head of economic development and his proposal to add after-school programs at every Los Angeles campus.

“I am very honored today to announce her endorsement of my campaign,” Delgadillo said, noting that, during the primary, D’Agostino was endorsed by many major law enforcement groups and officials.

One of those groups, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, surprised some political observers earlier this week by announcing its runoff election endorsement has gone to City Councilman Mike Feuer. He is the more liberal of the two contenders and had angered the police officers union by becoming an early advocate of the federal consent decree stemming from the Rampart Division police corruption scandal.

D’Agostino reiterated some of her primary-election criticisms of Feuer, including blaming him, as a city councilman, for being slow to implement police reforms. But she was especially critical of the police union endorsement of Feuer.

“It was a political decision,” D’Agostino said, noting that Feuer’s council assignments give him the power to help decide officers’ pay and benefits.

The league, however, has insisted that its decision was based on its board’s unanimous choice of Feuer as a man of “unwavering integrity” with a “proven commitment to our law enforcement interests.”

Delgadillo also used Thursday’s news conference to release a list of leaders in the San Fernando Valley who have endorsed him in the June 5 election. They include former Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian, developer Dan Selleck--who worked with Delgadillo’s office in bringing new business and jobs to a shuttered auto manufacturing plant in Van Nuys--and two Democratic state legislators from the Valley, state Sen. Richard Alarcon and Assemblyman Tony Cardenas. Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn, and Police Commissioner Bert Boeckmann also endorsed Delgadillo on Thursday.