There’s More Rhetoric Than Reality in Call for Keeping Jobs in L.A. : Politics: Some mayoral candidates are relying on consultants from the East Coast or Orange County. Others use campaign materials made in Northern California.

Last time we checked, this was the media capital of the Western World. But some of the people running for mayor can’t seem to find anyone around here who can put together a 30-second television spot or print a sign with a stick on it.

For all their tough talk about keeping jobs in Los Angeles, a few of L.A.’s would-be leaders seem to be spending a lot of money and doing a lot of hiring everywhere but here:

Candidate Nate Holden promises in his TV commercial that he will “put business back in Los Angeles and Los Angeles back in business.” His “Holden for Mayor” lawn signs, however, were printed by a company in San Jose.

Linda Griego would give preference to companies that keep jobs right here in Los Angeles. She tells us this in an expensive television ad--produced by a consultant from Washington.

“Shame, shame on you, gang. What we are trying to do is keep jobs here,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, scolding candidates who have gone from New York City to Calaveras County to buy the stuff of which campaigns are made.

Whenever business goes out of town, so goes tax revenue that would help offset a looming budget deficit of half a million dollars. Kyser calls it a ripple effect. Every direct manufacturing job lost means 1.5 other jobs get hurt; when the printer doesn’t get the contract, he doesn’t buy the paper from the local supplier and so on.

But that has not stopped the candidates from spending plenty on out-of-town consultants, holding fund-raisers at out-of-town hotels and printing mountains of literature at out-of-town shops.

Richard Katz hired James Carville, the Washington-based wizard who helped get Bill Clinton elected. A separate Katz political consulting firm is in Charleston, W.Va., his recent $150-a-plate fund-raiser was held at a hotel in Beverly Hills and he patronizes a research group in San Francisco.

His office apparently couldn’t find any sticks for lawn signs in Los Angeles, although they managed to dig some up in Mokelumne Hill, a town of 950 people in Calaveras County.

“They were the ones who could provide the sticks when we needed them,” said a Katz spokeswoman, who was quick to note that all the campaign’s literature and signs are printed in Los Angeles.

Millionaire Richard Riordan, who boasts about the thousands of jobs he wants to create in Los Angeles, started off by hiring strategist Clint Reilly of San Francisco. His campaign brochures were printed in the Bay Area, too, as were his signs.

Riordan campaign manager Jadine Nielsen issued a statement on the apparent contradiction, telling The Times: “You’re comparing apples to oranges. When Dick Riordan is talking about jobs, he’s talking about long-term commitments to bring business and high-paying jobs to Los Angeles. That’s what the city needs.”

Michael Woo and Stan Sanders boast that their printers are in Los Angeles--but both have hired media consultants from Washington, D.C.

And Joel Wachs had his letterheads and envelopes printed in New York City. That, evidently, was after he hired New York media expert Jay Severin, who, during his most recent stay in Los Angeles, threw a little business Beverly Hills’ way by checking into the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where Wachs also held a fund-raiser.

“I’ll bet a lot of people who work at the hotel are (L.A.) residents,” said Wachs consultant Harvey Englander, whose office, by the way, is in Orange County.

Holden said he went to a San Jose sign-maker because he doesn’t know any in his district. “The gentleman who made this sign for me is a minority . . . and besides this is a union company and I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Griego’s campaign manager noted that her East Coast consultant used to live in Los Angeles.

And the Woo campaign said local business is not the highest priority when one’s political life is at stake.

“That is a very high-risk, high-stakes proposition when you’re about to hire someone to run your campaign. There are only a certain number of people who are good at it,” campaign spokesman Garry South said. “I don’t think one should be pilloried for spending $113 on buttons that were printed in New Jersey when you are putting $1 million on local television in Los Angeles.”

But this is bigger than buttons. Los Angeles is trying to show the rest of the nation that it can still handle the job.

So if a candidate sends you a message on something printed anywhere but in Los Angeles, economist Kyser suggests you send the message right back, postage due.

SNAPSHOTS:

Another one bites the dust: Alas, Melrose Larry Green, the frizzy-haired darling of the mayoral race, the guy who got thrown in jail for overzealously campaigning with a fried fish on Santa Monica Pier, the man who once in jail tried to send out for pizza, says he has thrown his support to Riordan.

Riordan, Green said, held his nose and threw it right back. Then, perhaps to cover his bets, Green said Friday that he is supporting Sanders for the top job.

Whatever. We evidently have not seen the last of Melrose Larry, a.k.a. Laurence Greenblatt, as a candidate: He is throwing his backing to rivals while simultaneously unveiling a cable TV ad urging people to vote for him.

And in this corner: Holden’s latest radio ad has the candidate coming out swinging in what sounds like a raucous boxing match. The message: Holden is “tough enough to turn L.A. around.” Catchy phrase. Only trouble is, Riordan has been using it for weeks.

Holden’s response? “He stole it from me.”

Reply from Riordan camp? “Nate Holden is ridiculous.” End of Round 1.