Precincts Separated by Just Miles Are Light-Years Apart

There is a corner of Compton that’s nearly as Democratic as the Bill and Hillary Clinton household in New York. And part of La Mirada tilts so Republican, it’s like Los Angeles County’s own private Idaho.

In every presidential election since 1988, a majority of county voters favored the Democratic nominee. But the region’s political tent proved big enough in 2000 to accommodate a precinct where George W. Bush bagged 93% of the ballots, his best mark in California for a polling ward of more than 35 voters.

The Bush super-stronghold consisted mostly of Biola University, an evangelical Christian college in La Mirada. Just 15 miles away, the Compton precinct handed Al Gore 96% of the vote, tops in the county and close to his high mark in the state.

Residents of both areas predict similar results in Tuesday’s showdown between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry.

“It’s cool,” student Dustin Earl said of Bush’s popularity at Biola. Echoing many on campus, the 23-year-old philosophy major said he admired Bush for his opposition to abortion rights.

“You don’t have much of a wide range of views here,” Earl noted.

The same is true in the Compton precinct. Its cluster of tidy houses sits across Central Avenue from Compton Airport.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Kerry gets 100%,” said Shep Edwards, 47, a telephone company technician. In a neighborhood refrain, he railed against Bush for the war in Iraq.

“We’re in Iraq fighting over oil, basically,” he said.

The precincts have patches of common ground. The young people at Biola spoke of their devotion to family values and lofty morals, as did the Compton folks. And the Compton voters were almost as likely as their Biola counterparts to invoke the Bible when discussing their political beliefs.

“Jesus would be a liberal, because he was always telling the rich to sell what they have and follow him,” said Mollie Bell, 57, a postal worker who lives on 158th Street. “He has given us a commission to continue doing what he was doing, to help the downtrodden.”

Biola theology student Joe Barsuglia, 23, couldn’t quarrel with that.

“I think Jesus would have been a Democrat,” he said with an uneasy chuckle. “He was a social reformer.”

But Barsuglia said he would vote for Bush: “I think he’s a strong leader.”

The earthly divide between Biola and Compton is mirrored in their demographics and surroundings.

Biola’s student body of about 5,100 is 70% white and appears solidly middle class. La Mirada, population 50,140, borders GOP bastion Orange County. The city has a per capita income of $25,281 and a low crime rate.

Bush won 52% of the overall La Mirada vote in 2000. He did as well or better in swaths of the San Gabriel, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, and along the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Back in Democratic territory, the Compton precinct is mostly African American, Latino and working class. The city of Compton, home to 97,930 people, has a per capita income of $10,636 and a high crime rate.

Gore’s tally exceeded 90% in all of Compton. His numbers were off the charts throughout South Los Angeles, in West Hollywood and in Santa Monica.

Bell said Kerry would benefit from Bush’s positions against abortion and gay marriage, especially because of their association with the Christian right.

“I can’t find the word abortion in the Bible, and I can’t find homosexual in the Bible,” said the Methodist lay leader and community activist, standing on her front porch at the kind of metal-mesh security door found up and down the street.

Her voice rising, Bell also slammed Bush for taking “us to war when he shouldn’t have.”

“What I can find in the Bible is, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ ” she said.

Around the corner, Connie Causer, 49, a property manager, cited the same commandment in assailing Bush’s handling of Iraq. “Let him and his family fight first,” she said.

The families of precinct No. 1450045B look out for each other, Causer said. Many have lived there for four decades. They take pride in their well-groomed lawns and their efforts to drive gang members out of Tragniew Park, where tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams sometimes practiced as youngsters.

Like her neighbors, Causer could not name any Republicans in the precinct. “Rich -- that’s the first thing we think when we hear ‘Republican,’ she said. “Nobody’s rich around here.”

In 2000, Bush got four votes in the precinct; Gore racked up 177.

Asked to guess which precinct went heaviest for Bush, most of the Compton residents said it must have been in Orange County. One said Simi Valley, another Beverly Hills. La Mirada didn’t register.

“La Mirada?” said James Smith, 72. The retired bus driver laughed. “My son Derek lived in La Mirada. He’s a Democrat.”

Other Compton voters said they were only vaguely familiar with La Mirada and Biola, mainly as places they drive past occasionally. The Biola students, many of them from distant hometowns, were even less knowledgeable about Compton. Would they know how to get there?

“Not necessarily,” said Tim de la Haye, 20, a biblical studies major whose parents are missionaries in Nigeria. He supports Bush because the president is “a godly man.”

Bush reaped 577 votes to Gore’s 12 in precinct No. 3300009A. Many students voted in off-campus precincts or cast absentee ballots at family addresses.

Biola’s roots are in the early 20th century, when its founders launched the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Renamed Biola, the school moved to the 95-acre La Mirada campus in 1959. On its website, it declares a commitment to “biblically centered education, scholarship and service -- equipping men and women in mind and character to impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

On a recent afternoon, a search for Democrats proved fruitless among the bright-eyed, uniformly polite students hurrying between classes. But there were secondhand accounts of sightings.

“I saw students wearing Kerry buttons today,” said Jessica Neilson, 21, a biochemistry senior from Seattle.

She backs Bush despite misgivings about some of his policies. “In terms of matters of conscience, I can’t vote for Kerry,” she said.

Neilson made the point that campus Democrats “are not ostracized.”

Dave Peters might be proof of that. He is chairman of Biola’s political science department, a former La Mirada city councilman -- and a loyal Democrat with an autographed photo of President Truman in his office.

“They have been very tolerant of me, and I have been very tolerant of them,” Peters said of his Republican students and colleagues, whose religious faith he shares. “I don’t get into telling which way to vote.”

He said he had assumed that Bush won huge in the precinct four years ago, but 93% was “unbelievable.”

Then again, Peters said, Biola students “are socially conservative. They are politically conservative. They are doctrinally conservative. They are probably fiscally conservative.”

Barsuglia, the theology student, agreed. “It’s just such an isolated hub,” he said of the school.

The master’s degree candidate from Simi Valley pulled a Bible from his backpack and opened it to Isaiah 58. He read aloud a passage about feeding the hungry.

He said he had visited Compton and understood why its residents felt Kerry was their best hope for better jobs and affordable healthcare.

“But I just don’t like Kerry,” he added.

Even so, Barsuglia expressed surprise that so many students had opted for Bush four years ago. “I would have guessed we’re more Republican than not, but not that extreme,” he said.

Andrea Dotters, an intercultural studies major, said Bush’s campus landslide did not surprise her.

“Bush stands out for his faith,” she said.

The 19-year-old said she knew nothing about Compton. She’s from Idaho.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Different worlds

Compton and La Mirada are geographically close but demographically and politically worlds apart. A comparison of two voting precincts demonstrates this:

2000 presidential vote

*--* Compton La Mirada Precinct Gore 96% 2% Bush 2% 93% Citywide Gore 95% 45% Bush 4% 52% Population 97,930 50,140 Income per capita $10,636 $25,281 Race/Ethnicity* Blacks 40% 2% Whites 1% 60% Latinos 56% 37% Asians ** 18%

*--*

*Numbers may exceed 100% because of overlapping categories

** Less than one-half of 1%

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Claritas Inc., city of Compton, city of La Mirada, California secretary of state.

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Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.