Mayor Reelected to Third Term in Compton Runoff

Mayor Walter R. Tucker won a third term in Tuesday’s runoff election by defeating Chuck (E. Boyd) Esters Jr., but the mayor will be presiding over a City Council that was significantly changed by the voters.

Tucker received 61% of the vote to 39% for Esters, the 37-year-old political consultant who forced the mayor into a runoff election. Two veteran councilmen, however, were defeated. Robert L. Adams lost his District 3 seat to school trustee Bernice Woods, collecting only 43% of the vote to Woods’ 53%.

Floyd A. James, who lost his District 2 council race in the April primary and then ran against Adams and Woods as a write-in candidate, was trounced, receiving only 247 votes or 4%. Patricia Moore, who defeated James in April by getting 50.7% of the vote, has already replaced him on the council. She was appointed by the remaining four members after James resigned to run as a write-in candidate.

When Woods takes the oath of office July 1, women will hold a majority of the five council seats for the first time in city history.

The departure of Adams and James breaks up a coalition that has dictated city policies over the past eight years, especially in redevelopment matters. James and Adams were viewed as the prime movers in redevelopment matters with Tucker and Councilwoman Jane Robbins going along. The fifth council member, Maxcy Filer, became an increasingly vocal critic of redevelopment decisions.

Redevelopment Issues

Moore and Woods, as well as Esters and several other candidates who lined up to run against the incumbents in the primary, pounded away at redevelopment issues for months, charging that developers were reaping too many favors, with the city getting little in return.

City officials billed the hotel and convention center nearing completion alongside the Artesia Freeway as the centerpiece of Compton’s economic revitalization. But continuous construction delays and money disagreements between the city and the developer made it a lightning rod for critics.

Also, two dealerships in the Compton Auto Plaza that received subsidies and loans from the city closed their doors during the last six months, heightening voter anxiety over whether the city was pouring money into risky business ventures.

“Having the hotel and all that go sour on them, these are the things that the people were worried about, and the auto plaza closing,” Woods said Tuesday night.

The city’s continuing crime problem, she said, also convinced voters that it was time for a change. During the campaign, Woods called for more police officers but Tuesday night declined to speculate on what the new council’s spending priorities would be.

Though Tucker joined forces with Adams on some campaign mailings, Woods said she can work with the mayor.

“I think Mr. Tucker’s going to have some help to get things done,” Woods said.

Though Woods’ and Moore’s criticism of redevelopment carried the same tune as Filer’s, both insist that they have no plans to form a new council majority with Filer.

School Board Member

Tuesday represented the fifth election victory for Woods, the 64-year-old mother of 15 who spent the week before the election in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery. She has been elected four times to the Compton Unified school board, serving 14 years.

Woods must resign as a school board trustee to sit on the council. State statute says the trustees can hold a special election or appoint a replacement. Either way, however, Woods’ successor will only serve until the next school board election, in November, said School Supt. Ted Kimbrough.

Woods speculated that Tucker’s reelection reflects a deep reservoir of good will and trust in the community toward the mayor, a 64-year-old dentist who was a school trustee and council member before becoming mayor eight years ago.

The mayor was both ebullient and gracious in his victory Tuesday. “I’m so relieved over winning,” he said, at one point jumping off the ground.

“The work I’ve done spoke for itself, plus, some hard work in the runoff,” he said, explaining his victory to a crowd of supporters that streamed into his campaign headquarters. Tucker declined to comment on James’ and Adams’ defeat, saying, “I’m so happy now I can’t say anything.”

He expressed confidence, however, that he can work with Woods and Moore. “If I work with (Councilman) Maxcy Filer, I can work with anybody. Maxcy ran against me,” the mayor said. Filer tried unsuccessfully to wrest the mayor’s job from Tucker four years ago.

Tucker declined to speculate on whether Moore and Woods would align themselves with Filer on redevelopment issues, but said that the city’s overwhelming priority would have been redevelopment regardless of how the election turned out.

“Even if I had been removed,” he said, “the show must go on.”

Picture of Esters

The raucous campaigning for mayor featured questionable tactics during the last two weeks. Tucker supporters hired a private detective to follow Esters and sent voters a picture of him outside a bar known for its nude dancers.

Tuesday night, the mayor dismissed the incident as inconsequential to his victory. It was “just a juicy morsel of gossip,” he said. Esters was defeated, the mayor said, because he had no credentials, no history of public service in the city.

During the campaign Esters had rehashed the sentencing of the mayor’s wife last year on charges of grand theft in connection with her real estate dealings. Esters portrayed the mayor as a man who was profiting personally from his public service. The mayor branded the charges as “lies” that helped him win.

In the council race, issues were overshadowed by the enmity between Adams and James, who acknowledged Tuesday night that he entered the race as a spoiler to take votes from Adams. “I exposed everything,” he said. “You know what? I did win.”

James claimed that Adams and his son, Laurence, former director of redevelopment for the city, squandered taxpayers’ money. He also claimed that Adams worked to defeat him in the primary. James said Adams blamed him for the firing last fall of Laurence Adams as redevelopment director.

Adams sent out a campaign mailer that called James a “cheater” and reminded voters that James was still on probation in connection with an election fraud charge against him after he defeated Moore four years ago.

Despite James’ claim that he helped defeat Adams, the numbers do not support his assertion. He received only 247 votes, or 4% of the total vote, not enough to have changed the result in the council race.

Several campaigns paid workers to generate more than 2,000 absentee ballot requests, but only 676 absentee ballots actually were cast. A total of 279 absentee votes were cast for Woods, 236 for Adams, and 89 for James. Almost 17% of the city’s 40,000 registered voters went to the polls. Longtime political workers said it was a large turnout for a municipal election with only two contested races.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

Compton

100% Precincts Reporting Mayor Walter Tucker, i.: 3,925 61 Chuck Esters Jr.: 2,555 39 City Council District 3 Bernice Woods: 3,356 53 Robert Adams Sr., i.: 2,669 43 Floyd James *: 247 4 i. Incumbent . * Write-in. Winners are in bold type.