Carson OKs June Election to Fill McDonald’s Seat : Politics: Activist James Peoples, narrowly defeated in April, announces he will run. He predicts support from diverse quarters.

Just a few moments after the Carson City Council on Tuesday night scheduled a special election to fill a seat vacated by one of its members, one prospective candidate began his bid for the seat.

“Should I make an announcement now?” civic activist James Peoples asked a supporter outside the council chambers. The supporter nodded, and then Peoples told a reporter: “I will be running.”

Peoples, who narrowly lost a campaign for a council seat last April, will be running for the seat left vacant by Juanita McDonald, who was sworn in last week as a member of the state Assembly.

The City Council, in a 4-0 vote Tueday night, moved to hold a special election June 8 to fill the seat rather than make an appointment. The winner will serve the rest of McDonald’s term, which will expire in April, 1994.

Two council members, Kay A. Calas and Sylvia L. Muise-Perez, had said in interviews that they opposed the appointment of McDonald’s successor because it would undercut the right of the people to choose their representatives.

The other two council members, Mayor Michael I. Mitoma and Peter Fajardo, had expressed reservations about a special election, pointing out that June was the earliest it could be held. But they decided not to press the issue, doubting that anybody would win the necessary three council votes.

That cleared the way for the decision Tuesday to hold a special election. The contest is seen as important by some in the black community who were concerned that McDonald’s vacancy leaves the city without a black representative.

In an interview a few days before leaving office, McDonald said: “The community, especially the African-American community, feels that seat must be filled by an African-American.”

Carson, with a population of 83,995, is 26% African-American, 25% Asian and Pacific Islander, and 27% Latino, according to the 1990 U.S. Census.

The council now consists of two whites, Calas and Muise-Perez; a Japanese-American, Mitoma, and a Filipino-American, Fajardo. Muise-Perez is married to a Latino and maintains close ties to the Latino community.

Peoples, who is black, said he feels that it is important that the council reflect the ethnic makeup of the city. But he predicted that he will draw support from diverse quarters with his theme of bringing fresh ideas to a council that he believes is dominated by politicians who have served too long and are inattentive to the public.

He expects to file candidacy documents once he has met with the Carson Coalition for Good Government, the activist group that he heads, to decide who will take over the organization.

“They won’t want a politician in charge,” he said of the group, which is primarily made up of political foes of the mayor.

Last September, Peoples and the group began circulating a petition to get a measure on the ballot proposing a switch from at-large to district elections.

Peoples said district elections would provide people in all areas of the city better representation and he said he will push for the change if elected to the council.

Peoples, 59, a retired museum administrator, said he would bring financial expertise to the council, which he believes ought to run the city with the fiscal savvy of a corporation.

Other names mentioned as possible candidates include McDonald’s son, Keith McDonald, who was her campaign manager, and businessman Harold C. Williams.

Neither could be reached for comment, but Keith McDonald has previously said he would weigh a run if the council called a special election.