Latino Group Will Take Its Cause to the Voters in Compton Elections : Politics: After months of accusing city officials of racism, a coalition will mount challenges against two council members.

After months of tense negotiations with black city officials about gaining more power, a Latino activist group is taking its cause to the voters, lining up challengers to two incumbent council members in the April 18 Compton city elections.

Eleven candidates are running for council seats in the 1st and 4th districts, but most attention probably will be on the incumbents and on challengers backed by the Latino United Coalition.

“A few years ago we had no candidates. Now we’ve got a few,” said Pedro Pallan, coalition president. “I feel excited about that. The Latino community is waking up to the fact that they need to participate.”

In the 1st District, first-term Councilman Ronald J. Green, considered the closest council ally of Mayor Omar Bradley, will be challenged by Compton school board member Gorgonio Sanchez Jr., the coalition candidate. Also running are five-time candidate Alfonso Cabrera, former city parks and recreation commissioner; Toi Jackson, another school board member; Rev. Walter Goodin; Stephen J. Randle, and Delores Zurita, who ran unsuccessfully last year for city treasurer.

The coalition decided to support Sanchez over Latino candidate Cabrera because Sanchez has shown that he can win an election, Pallan said.

In the 4th District, longtime Councilwoman Jane D. Robbins faces coalition candidate Lorraine Cervantes, a community activist who has been attending council meetings regularly for more than 20 years. Also running are Fred Cressel, a business owner and past president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, and Richard Bonner, who unsuccessfully ran against Robbins four years ago. Cressel ran twice for the council in the 3rd District but lost.

Green couldn’t be reached for comment, but Robbins said she isn’t concerned about the effort to elect a Latino to a seat she has held since 1976.

“The Mexican Americans most likely to vote in my district have attended the school named for my father,” Clarence A. Dickison, said Robbins, a retired teacher and principal in Compton schools. “They know me. They know that I was raised colorblind.”

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For months, Latino leaders have accused city officials of racism and of locking Latinos out of city jobs.

The coalition, which includes such organizations as the Latino Chamber of Commerce and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has been negotiating with city leaders for changes to the city’s affirmative-action hiring plan, but no agreement has occurred.

The council voted to create an Office of Human Relations, which the coaltion sought, but the office has yet to be established.

Tensions between African American city leaders and the city’s growing Latino population came to a head in August after television stations broadcast a videotape depicting a black police officer beating a Latino youth.

In the weeks that followed, Latino activists held several demonstrations in front of City Hall and the Police Department. Michael Jackson, the officer involved in the beating incident, remains on paid administrative leave and the district attorney’s office is still investigating the case.

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Mayor Bradley, who has been embroiled in public sparring matches with the Latino coalition in recent months, is supporting Green and Robbins but said he welcomes the Latino candidates. “I’m very happy to see two Latinos running in the 1st District,” Bradley said. “Because now the campaign won’t be about race. They will have to focus on the issues. And those issues aren’t black and white. They’re human.”

Council members are elected at large by city voters, but they must reside within the district they represent. The 1st District covers the northwest area of Compton; the 4th District covers the southeast section.

If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the April primary, the top two vote-getters in each race will face each other in a June runoff.