Racial Scrawl on Election Poster Angers Palmdale

The words vote white were spray-painted on a sign advertising the campaign of a black woman candidate for the City Council in predominantly white Palmdale, bringing denunciations from community leaders Friday.

“I was shocked, shocked and disappointed,” said council candidate Celeste Eckley, a 26-year-old mechanical engineer and homeowner association president, who spotted the vandalism early Friday. The sign had been defaced by red letters a foot high.

Eckley, the first black candidate to seek office in Palmdale in memory, said race had not previously been an issue in the campaign.

At Eckley’s request, the Sheriff’s Department took a report on the incident. But neither Eckley nor deputies had any clue as to who defaced the sign, and whether the incident was racially or politically motivated.

“I’m appalled,” said Pat Russell, a Palmdale resident and member of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission who joined Eckley at an afternoon news conference in front of the sign. “This isn’t typically Palmdale,” Russell said.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area, and county Human Relations Commission Executive Director Eugene Mornell both decried the vandalism, Russell said.

Eckley is one of 10 candidates seeking two council seats in this Tuesday’s city election.

Eckley said this was her first encounter with such overt racism since moving to Palmdale about 2 1/2 years ago.

Eckley said she planned to take down the pole sign as soon as possible.

Originally, she said, she was not going to publicize the issue but later decided the publicity might deter similar acts.

“I would never dream somebody in the city of Palmdale would have done something like this,” Eckley said.

However, racial tensions in the Antelope Valley have been reported rising as the area has grown and attracted greater numbers of minority residents.