Inglewood Elects First Latino to Council : Incumbent Wins Narrow Victory in Runoff Vote

Voters in Inglewood Tuesday elected newcomer Jose Fernandez the first Latino on the City Council and, spurning the endorsement of Mayor Edward Vincent, sent two-term incumbent Daniel K. Tabor back for another four years in a narrow runoff victory.

Political observers said the election results, coupled with Thomasina Reed’s strong showing in the school board race and Councilman Ervin (Tony) Thomas’ court-mandated runoff with Garland Hardeman in the fall, suggest more independence in Inglewood politics and a decline in Vincent’s citywide political reach.

City officials said 11.3% of the city’s 48,755 registered voters turned out at the polls.

In District 3, Fernandez, an insurance broker and aide to state Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk), won decisively over former councilman Bruce U. Smith, 63% to 37%, in a race to fill two years left in the term of Ann Wilk, who died in December. Fernandez had outpolled Smith 33% to 30% in the five-way April election.

Tabor, forced into the first runoff of his career after being narrowly defeated by John Gibbs in April, saw his 52.3% to 47.7% victory over Gibbs in the District 1 race as a reinforcement of his political leadership.

Pledges Independence

“I see it as an acceptance of the kind of leadership I have offered, an affirmation that Danny Tabor has a future,” the 34-year-old incumbent said at a campaign headquarters packed with jubilant supporters.

Tabor said he would be even more independent from Vincent during his third term and would press to involve more citizens in the governmental process. An active member of the National Caucus of Black Elected Officials, Tabor said his victory is part of a larger generational change in black politics.

Cresia Green-Davis, a community activist who supported Tabor, said Tuesday’s victors were candidates who concentrated on the support of everyday people, not political machines.

“We are sending a clear message,” Green-Davis said. “This city is going to be a city governed by and for the people, not by and for the mayor.”

Gibbs, 32, who began his campaign because of what he called widespread dissatisfaction with Tabor’s leadership, said Tuesday, “Apparently, his popularity as a home-grown kid had its effect. . . . Apparently there weren’t enough people who were dissatisfied enough.”

Tabor Edges Gibbs

Gibbs held a narrow lead as election results filtered in to City Hall Tuesday, but final tallies gave Tabor 1,526 votes to Gibbs’ 1,393. Gibbs had edged Tabor 39.8% to 37.1% in April.

Gibbs, the former aide and son-in-law to the late Assemblyman Curtis Tucker, said during the campaign that his association with the Inglewood political legend was a benefit that supplemented his other qualifications.

Some political observers saw Gibbs’ campaign as an outgrowth of Tucker’s vow to end Tabor’s political career after the young councilman challenged Tucker in the 1987 Democratic primary. After the results came in Tuesday, Gibbs downplayed the role Tucker’s name had in his campaign.

“Had Tucker been alive, maybe the results would have been different,” he said. “A dead man can’t do anything.”

During the campaign for the District 3 seat, Fernandez, 29, tore at what he called a lack of leadership by Smith, 70, during his eight years on the council.

‘A Responsive Councilman’

“I think the people want a responsive councilman, someone who is there for them,” Fernandez said as the preliminary results leaned his way. “The voters will notice a difference. I’ll be there when they need me.”

While Fernandez touted his victory as a sign of a successful multi-ethnic coalition, Smith scoffed at such claims.

“He was elected by a select group of people who told a bunch of lies,” said Smith, who was running to win back a seat he held from 1979 until 1987, when he lost it to Wilk. “It’s obvious that the people of Inglewood want a new, loose form of government. They’ve elected it. Good for them.”

While Fernandez, who will take office June 20, becomes the first Latino councilman in a city with a 30% Latino population, he downplayed the significance of that and stressed his commitment to all the people of Inglewood.

“I am a public servant now and I come into the job with that mind-set, to serve all the people,” he said.

Councilman Anthony Scardenzan, a strong Fernandez backer, called the new councilman “a needed voice for the Hispanic community.”

Another Open Seat

While Fernandez fills a council vacancy, another seat will open up in mid-June when Thomas is expected to step down, pending a runoff election with Hardeman, a Los Angeles police officer who has been locked in a two-year court battle for Thomas’ seat.

Hardeman filed suit in 1987 charging that Thomas, Vincent and others used illegal tactics to sway voters. Last month, the state Supreme Court upheld a 1987 Superior Court decision that invalidated Thomas’ victory and called for a new election. The ruling requires Thomas to vacate the position before the election. City officials plan the runoff between Thomas, a Vincent ally, and Hardeman, a critic of the mayor’s, sometime in late September or October.