'New Politics' Challenge in Berkeley

...Then he surprised everyone in late January by announcing that he would not support the reorganization plan, even though he considered police reform urgent...

...His "new politics" captured 58 per cent of the district vote and 71 per cent in Berkeley...

...Besides the names of the nine, the ballot will present 33 candidates for four council seats, 15 for three school board positions, and four for city auditor...

...A former Berkeley councilman, Dellums was the first black to be sent to Congress from a predominantly white district...

...They include two black Democratic councilmen, an aggressive Trotskyite whose brother ran for the same office four years ago, a propagandist for Charles Manson, and a 16-year council veteran whose record suggests he votes "no" as a matter of unwavering principle...

...An unexpectedly successful voter registration drive on the university campus and the late endorsement of the coalition slate by a popular new liberal Democratic State Assemblyman point in that direction...

...Above all, the election will test whether this coalition of the Berkeley Left, working independently from the Democratic party, can build on Dellums' November victory to win a major foothold in the city council...

...It will also offer referendums ranging from the repeal of a utility tax to a controversial plan for community control of police...

...The Mayor earns $150 a month, and his chief duties are to chair city council sessions and employ a CPA each year to examine the city's accounts...

...Grouped together in the Left-liberal Black Caucus and the predominantly white, Left-liberal-to-radical April Coalition, they have put up a joint slate of four council candidates...

...Sweeney, who is conservative enough to attract Republican support in a bipartisan campaign, is one possible opponent...

...Widener's decision had an immediate impact on his campaign: His reluctant radical backers were enraged and withdrew...

...another is ex-Congressman Jeffrey Cohelan, who has remained in Washington as a lobbyist but is reported to have told friends he is still "interested" in politics...

...What Dellums and his allies on the Left are bucking is the enduring reality of Berkeley politics: Despite a history of radical activism and a newfound enthusiasm for coalition politics on the Left, Berkeley is still more Democratic than radical...

...He directed his appeal to the "new, emerging majority" of the poor, the ethnic minorities (chiefly blacks and Chicanos), students and labor unionists...

...The opposition comprises the Republican party and the Democratic old guard, all seven members of the short-handed city council, the Board of Realtors, the Exchange Club, and two bipartisan citizens' groups...

...If the new-politics coalition survives the strains between liberals and radicals in its ranks to win even a significant partial victory, that reality could change...

...Threatened by lagging enthusiasm and by active white splinter candidates, these men are fighting each other for the liberal vote that elected them both to the city council two years ago...

...In the process it has served to confuse the mayoralty contest, generally regarded as a tossup between two city councilmen--both of them black, attorneys and Democrats--opposed to community control of police...

...Widener's strained support from the Left is matched by that for Wilbur Sweeney from the Right, the major difference being Sweeney's immeasurably richer campaign contributions...

...Both the Black Caucus and the April Coalition, having firmly identified community control of police as the campaign's central issue, voted in separate nominating conventions to leave the Mayor's slot open on their joint slate...

...Indications are that if Sweeney wins a convincing victory as Mayor, and if the coalition's attempt to win four council seats is thwarted, a campaign to unseat Dellums in 1972 will begin early...

...Its supporters include the April Coalition, the Black Caucus, and a citizens' group spearheaded by the University of California Criminology Department with Dellums as honorary chairman...

...and Dellums' active support ceased, although his endorsement remained...

...Yet in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 3-1 in registrations, that name alone may prove invaluable to Widener...

...Opposing them are three partially overlapping moderate and conservative tickets, a Trotskyite group, and a number of independents, several of them on the Left...

...He steadfastly refused to support Dellums even after Dellums won the Democratic nomination, and his backing in the mayoralty race comes principally from a lavishly financed bipartisan citizens' group organized and led by Berkeley's incumbent Republican Mayor...

...If Dellums' coalition holds together, and if Republicans and moderate Democrats continue to split their support, the new politics could garner three or even all four of the open council seats...

...Nonetheless, the issue has polarized Berkeley...

...That would open the way for them to gain a majority on the nine-man body and to begin implementing their program of participatory democracy...

...key members of his staff, inherited from Dellums' congressional bid, also quit...

...Yet nine candidates are vying in the April 6 elections to succeed the incumbent Mayor, who is retiring after two four-year terms...

...Community control of police is given scant chance of passage on April 6; even if approved by the voters, it would probably face lengthy litigation and the possibility of a veto by the State Legislature...

...Under Berkeley's charter he cannot even hire or fire his own secretary...

...Formerly a powerhouse in local politics, it has been reduced to little more than a name...

...Warren Widener, a young liberal who entered the race with Dellums' blessing, was originally the Left's presumptive ticket leader...

...Overriding the storm of personalities and traditional issues in this campaign is the complex and hotly debated referendum to transfer control of the Berkeley police from appointed officials (the City Manager and the Chief of Police) to a network of elected neighborhood police councils, substituting three autonomous departments for the existing citywide police force...

...Sweeney was the first black to win a Berkeley council seat a decade ago and has been a popular votegetter ever since, but his liberal credentials have decayed in recent years...

...But that happens to be the case...

...Sweeney's unabashed alliance with the Right and Widener's rejection of the police plan have left the Berkeley Democratic Caucus in a shambles...

...Largely unspoken here is the importance of this election to Ron Dellums' congressional career--and hence to the fate of the new politics in the Bay Area...

...A model for the sort of participatory democracy advocated by many radicals, and a focus for growing criticism that the Berkeley police stifle political protest and slight the city's large black community, the referendum has intensified ideological differences between the Right and the Left...

...Nothing less than a radical reordering of the city's government is being sought by a loose coalition of blacks and whites campaigning under the aegis of newly elected Democratic Congressman Ronald V. Dellums...

...Amid all this confusion and with such unrewarding offices at stake, it seems foolish to suggest that the elections here seriously threaten the two-party system, the council-manager form of local government (a sacred cow of "good government" forces in cities across the nation), and the Berkeley police (whom the police chief calls "the first line of defense" against revolution in America...

...That they resisted moves to place a spoiler at the head of the ticket showed no great love for Widener but a recognition that his cooperation would be needed, whether he is elected Mayor or remains a councilman...

...The door to fundamental change in Berkeley's city government could be opened April 6. Mal Warwick, an editor of the Alternative Features Service, a syndicate for college and underground newspapers, works out of Berkeley...

...But any strong showing by the Left--the election of two or three coalition candidates--will be seen as a vote of confidence for Dellums and the new politics (in 1969 the Left's single candidate finished sixth in a field of 16...