LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. MAYOR : Woo Unleashes Strong Attack Ad Against Riordan : Politics: The councilman attempts to link his opponent with Pat Robertson and the religious right.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Michael Woo on Friday began airing one of the strongest attack ads of the campaign, seeking to link opponent Richard Riordan to the religious right, exclusive country clubs and the anti-abortion movement.

Beginning with a picture of televangelist Pat Robertson and ending with one of Riordan, the 30-second television spot says: “Pat Robertson and his right-wing fundamentalist Christian Coalition: banning textbooks, against a woman’s right to choose. . . . They took over the Republican convention. Now . . . they’re working for Dick Riordan.”

The allegation stems largely from volunteer work done for the Riordan campaign by the state director of the Christian Coalition, a Chesapeake, Va.-based lobbying group founded by Robertson. But officials of the group said they have no official role in the Los Angeles race and Riordan characterized Woo’s attacks as a sign of desperation in the campaign’s final weeks.

“Mr. Woo has been trying to define me throughout this campaign as somebody very different than I am,” Riordan said. “He doesn’t see me as a person who . . . has worked for years in the inner city to try to get every child to be able to read and write by the second grade.”

At a news conference where the ad was unveiled, Woo bashed Riordan for secretly employing “far-right religious zealots” in his campaign.

“What has the Christian Coalition demanded of Dick Riordan as a price for their support?” Woo asked, asserting that the group has a “radical, far-right agenda.”

Pressed on whether the Christian Coalition is involved in his campaign, Riordan said: “I have support from a lot of different groups.” But he said of the Christian Coalition: “I differ from them. I’m pro-choice. I believe in the rights of gays and lesbians to hold jobs.”

Sara DiVito Hardman, the Christian Coalition state director, acknowledged that she supports Riordan, has worked in the campaign office and has a Riordan campaign sign on her front lawn.

But she denied that she was more than a volunteer and bristled at Woo’s suggestion that there was any impropriety in the involvement of conservative Christians.

“Isn’t the mayor of Los Angeles the mayor of all the people--whether they are Christian, Jewish, black, purple or whatever?” asked Hardman, who owns a furniture manufacturing business in the San Fernando Valley. “I would think the candidates would be soliciting all the people. I’m a little tired of being attacked because I go to church.”

“Mr. Woo is telling churchgoers to take a hike,” she added.

The national leader of the Christian Coalition called the Woo ad full of “lies and distortions” and said the coalition is not endorsing either candidate.

“The Christian Coalition is not involved in any way, shape or form in either campaign,” said national director Ralph Reed, who characterized the group as representing mainstream, pro-family values.

During the primary, the coalition distributed nonpartisan voter guides in 2,000 churches, but the guides did not endorse anyone.

The coalition, which was created in 1989 from the mailing lists of Robertson’s failed presidential campaign, has grown to have about 400,000 members nationwide. The group has often been reluctant to acknowledge its role in elections.

“We at the Christian Coalition are raising an army who cares,” Robertson wrote in a 1991 fund-raising letter. “We are training people to be effective--to be elected to school boards, to city councils, to state legislatures and to key positions in political parties.”

The Woo ad became a topic of discussion Friday on Robertson’s TV show, “The 700 Club,” after a viewer who had seen the ad saw Robertson’s picture and mistakenly thought he was the candidate.

Woo’s ad seemingly is aimed at Jewish voters, minorities, women and social liberals--voters who are considered key to his fate in the June 8 runoff.

“Riordan has fought to take away a woman’s right to choose,” the ad says while showing Operation Rescue members trying to blockade a clinic. The ad then says: “For years, Riordan belonged to clubs that excluded blacks, Jews and women.”

Riordan had not seen the TV ad early Friday, but when told it seeks to tie him to the religious right, exclusive country clubs and the anti-abortion movement, he said: “All in 30 seconds?”

“I don’t waste my time looking at Michael Woo’s commercials,” Riordan said. “It would take my focus off the real issues.”

Riordan has said that as a member of the California Club, he worked during the 1970s with others to open the club to women, Jews and ethnic minorities. Riordan was a member of the Los Angeles Country Club for about three years, but said he resigned in August “because I thought it was a symbol of discrimination to too many people. But it’s a bit ironic that the person who came in as I left was their first African-American member.”

Acting swiftly to try to minimize political damage, the Riordan campaign called on three supporters to denounce the ad on the City Hall steps--Councilman Joel Wachs, who is Jewish, attorney Stan Sanders, an African-American, and Ann Petroni, past president of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles.

Wachs called the ad “campaign slime” that “reached a new low in local Los Angeles politics.”

Wachs and Sanders said they would be concerned if the Christian Coalition were playing a behind-the-scenes role in Riordan’s campaign, but both said the group was not involved.

The Christian Coalition’s voter guide, distributed during the primary, listed the positions on a series of issues of five candidates--Riordan, Woo, Wachs, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) and Councilman Nate Holden.

Although there was no endorsement, Riordan’s name was listed first and he was the only candidate who supported all of the Christian Coalition positions, such as opposing tax increases, gun control and further governmental regulation, and favoring school choice.

During the primary, a woman distributed the guides outside Riordan’s campaign headquarters but a campaign aide told her she could not hand them out inside.

In other campaign events, Riordan picked up the endorsement of Councilman Hal Bernson.

Woo has been endorsed by council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mike Hernandez and Marvin Braude. Riordan has the support of Bernson, Wachs, Council President John Ferraro and Councilman Richard Alatorre.

Woo and Riordan are scheduled to meet in their third debate at 1 p.m. today at First African Methodist Episcopal Church.