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For Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, the 1991 campaign has been a time of unaccustomed calm as he coasts toward Tuesday's election in the 10th District.
The usually combative lawmaker has run a low-key campaign against his lone challenger, Esther Lofton, an unemployed former schoolteacher with no political base and no campaign funds.
Holden represents a largely middle- and working-class section of the city that stretches from the western edge of downtown to the Palms area on the Westside. Pockets of the district include expensive homes on quiet streets, but some areas have been hit hard by crime and drug problems that plague the central city.
A victory would give the 62-year-old Holden only his third win in 10 runs for public office, but he hints that he may run for mayor again in 1993. Holden came unexpectedly close to unseating Mayor Tom Bradley two years ago when the mayor was mired in questions about his financial affairs.
"It's a decision that I still have to make," Holden said this week. "Two years is some time away. I'd like that challenge, if I'm in good health."
Lofton, 60, said she is running because "Mr. Holden is out there for himself." She said she has not worked since she was "forced out" of teaching 30 years ago by bureaucrats in the Los Angeles public school system, whom she later sued.
"I know how the system works. I know how government works," she...