COMPTOM ELECTIONS : Runoffs for Mayor, 3 Other Posts : Elections: Bradley and Moore will battle for city’s top post; 2 council seats and treasurer’s job also to be decided in June 1 vote.

A teacher who often talks about the “hood” he came from and a political street fighter with an outsider’s reputation will face off in a June runoff election to decide who will become this city’s next mayor.

Councilman Omar Bradley, a Lynwood High School teacher who likes to remind voters of his neighborhood roots, and Councilwoman Patricia Moore, one of Compton’s most controversial and outspoken leaders, bested a field of seven candidates in Tuesday’s mayoral election. Because neither won more than 50% of the vote, voters will choose between them June 1.

Bradley and Moore outdistanced their chief rival, Kenneth Tucker, the youngest son of what is arguably Compton’s most politically influential family. Tucker came in third with about 25% of the vote, just 76 votes behind the second-place Moore.

Tucker said Wednesday that he plans to ask the city clerk for a recount.

Tucker’s defeat means that for the first time in two decades a member of the Tucker family will not sit on the Compton City Council. Tucker’s father, Walter R. Tucker II, was elected to the City Council in 1973 and became mayor in 1981. When he died in 1990, his son, Walter R. Tucker III, won a special election to replace him. Tucker III served less than two years, however, before winning a seat in Congress last year. Kenneth Tucker had hoped to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother by keeping the seat in the family.

Tucker said his loss is “probably good for Compton for right now. People can see for themselves how government will act without a Tucker. . . . Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Several other races are also headed for runoffs.

In the City Council’s 2nd District, retired county employee Marcine Shaw was the top vote-getter and will face Compton Unified School District trustee Lynn Dymally. In the 3rd District, incumbent Councilwoman Bernice Woods dominated the race, but fell short of the 50% plus one needed to win. She will face Yvonne Arceneaux, a Compton School District personnel clerk, in June. And in the treasurer’s race, Douglas Sanders, son of late treasurer Wesley Sanders, and Delores Zurita, an administrator for a senior citizens lunch program, beat a field of 11 candidates to square off. Sanders was the top vote-getter.

*

The only outright winners Tuesday night were City Atty. Wesley Fenderson, who will go on to a fourth term, and City Clerk Charles Davis, who won his sixth consecutive term with 64% of the vote.

“I don’t even know why people run against me anymore,” Davis said with a smile after overseeing a tense night of vote-counting Tuesday.

Davis said voter turnout was higher than usual, with about 23% of the town’s 35,000 voters turning out at the polls. After the polls closed, dozens of voters joined the candidates and their supporters in the City Council chambers to watch as ballots were inspected and tallied.

To many, the surprise of the evening was Moore’s strong showing. Though one of the city’s best-known leaders with a fiercely loyal following, Moore lay low throughout most of the campaign, shunning candidate forums in favor of door-to-door pleas for votes. She raised only $9,000, substantially less than her two major opponents. On Tuesday night, Moore avoided the council chambers where most other candidates gathered to watch the vote count. Instead, she stayed home.

Moore has often been criticized for her involvement in high-profile issues outside the city, and her anti-Establishment rhetoric has irked many of Compton’s political veterans.

Her campaign was thought to have been hurt badly by her remarks at the funeral of a slain Compton police officer. The remarks, which were interpreted by many as anti-police, caused a furor and prompted the father of the officer and Moore’s colleagues on the council to call for a public apology.

Moore refused to apologize, claiming her comments were exaggerated. As the controversy continued to build, she took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper containing a transcript of her remarks. She urged people to demand to see a videotape of the funeral and judge her based on her complete text.

“I was attacked viciously on the remarks I made,” Moore said. “But I think people realized I was not guilty of saying the things people said I did.”

Moore said in a phone interview early Wednesday morning that her critics underestimated “my name, my credibility.” But she said that she would now need the support of everyone who voted against Bradley to win on June 1. She predicted it would be tough to beat Bradley, who outpolled Moore by more than 700 votes.

While Moore relaxed at home, Bradley and his supporters gathered in his back yard for a victory celebration complete with a champagne-gushing fountain, balloons and a banner proclaiming Bradley the next mayor of Compton.

The councilman expressed confidence that he would prevail in the runoff and delighted in his victory over Kenneth Tucker. Bradley and the Tucker family began feuding last year after Bradley and fellow council members Woods and Jane Robbins tried to strip Mayor Walter Tucker III of some of his powers during the spring riots. The trio complained that Tucker was getting most of the media attention and was exploiting the unrest to further his congressional campaign.

“I told them one day we would get them (the Tuckers) back, and that day has arrived,” Bradley proclaimed to cheers from family and friends.

Bradley said that the fact he and Woods were the top vote-getters in their races also proved that people supported their controversial approval of a multimillion-dollar entertainment center, which includes a card casino. Bradley, Woods and Robbins voted in favor of the project despite protests from many residents, who said they should be allowed to vote on the issue.

“We did not want to offend people with our vote on the card casino . . . but the city was in dire straits,” Bradley said. “We were willing to risk our careers to keep the city solvent.”

The casino vote became the cornerstone of the Tucker campaign against Bradley. Tucker likened Bradley to a dictator who had robbed the people of their right to vote. The battle between the two became so heated that a Superior Court commissioner ordered Tucker and his family and Bradley and his family to stay at least 100 yards away from each other after a political forum erupted into a near-brawl.

Both men ignored the order Tuesday night to watch the four-hour-long ballot count in the City Council chambers. As the final tallies showed that Tucker would not make it to the runoff, Bradley, sitting in the front row, turned and flashed a huge grin at the people behind him, including Tucker and his supporters. The Tucker family appeared not to notice.

Later, Bradley said that he knew Moore would outpoll Tucker because Tucker had just graduated from college and had no experience in office. “In this contest, experience will always win out over inexperience,” Bradley said.

Tucker said he was surprised and encouraged by the results.

“I’m surprised not a lot of voters heard the (anti-casino) issue. But I’m encouraged that every other member of my team is in the runoff.”

Indeed, Kenneth Tucker was the only person on the four-person team put together by Rep. Walter Tucker III (D-Compton) to lose. The others are Shaw in the 2nd District council race, Arceneaux in the 3rd District, and Sanders in the treasurer’s race.

In the 3rd District, Dymally, whose low-profile campaign left many wondering if she was a serious candidate, said she was “humbled and honored” that she made the runoff election.

A no-show at political forums and council meetings during the campaign, Dymally said an eye infection and dislike of political forums kept her home much of the time.

“I’ve been an elected official for 10 years, and I can’t really say what good those forums are,” Dymally said. “It’s mostly about bashing each other in front of a few audience members who are already committed to a candidate. I don’t know if I will attend a forum this time. Maybe if it appears on cable television, I will.”

Questions of residency and her affiliation with the troubled Compton Unified School District Board dogged Dymally throughout the primary campaign.

“At least they’re admitting I live in Compton now,” she said, refusing to give her current address because of a dispute with her estranged husband. “I’m a big girl and I can take the heat.”