Another Low-Key Campaign for Robbins : Politics: Longtime City Council member is making a bid for a sixth term. But she doesn’t raise campaign money, engage in debates or walk precincts.

One of the mysteries in Compton politics has been sitting quietly on the City Council dais for nearly 20 years.

From her position in the 4th District seat, Jane D. Robbins has remained safely removed from the political storms that have swept over many of her colleagues. She listens quietly to issues and, more often than not, votes without comment.

She doesn’t raise campaign money, engage in debates or walk door to door seeking support. And yet, she has been elected five times, mostly by narrow margins.

During this month’s municipal election, Robbins, 75, will again try her luck with voters. True to form, she has already filed a statement with the City Clerk indicating that she will not raise or spend more than $1,000 on her reelection effort.

For some, Robbins is a dignified, low-key politician who provides the council with a sense of history. As the council’s only white member, her presence is a reminder of the city’s demographic shifts over the last three decades.

To others, Robbins is a nice old lady who hasn’t done anything--good or bad--on the council for years.

“She’s just sitting there,” said Fred Cressel, 57, a stationery store owner who is challenging Robbins in the April 18 election.

“She does nothing but vote with the majority,” said longtime community activist Lorraine Cervantes, 53, another challenger.

Besides Cressel and Cervantes, Robbins also faces challenges from Richard Bonner, who owns a beauty salon. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the top two vote-getters will face a runoff election in June.

By her own admission, Robbins is not the most active council member.

“It’s not the job of council members to be activists,” Robbins said, looking steadily out of her black-framed cat’s-eye glasses. “With all these new people on the council, I feel I need to stay there to keep them in line, to make sure they don’t go against the charter.”

That steadying influence is mostly exerted outside of the public eye--in executive sessions or in individual conversations before council meetings, Robbins said.

When asked to cite some action that she initiated, Robbins refers to her successful effort in 1987 to persuade the council to save a neglected sycamore tree at Poppy Avenue and Short Street that dates back to the time of the Spanish land grants.

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But her apparent passiveness may be attractive to some voters, said Mayor Omar Bradley.

“People vote for Jane because she’s consistent,” Bradley said. “She’s not going to do something outlandish and embarrass anyone. You won’t open the newspaper and read about Jane Robbins doing something foolish.”

Bradley counts Robbins as a council ally, even though Robbins is firmly opposed to Bradley’s favorite upcoming ballot measure that would give the mayor and council members full-time status and hefty pay increases.

That measure, which would raise council salaries from $24,000 to $60,000 a year, also appears on the April 18 ballot. Robbins said she voted to put the issue on the ballot, despite her opposition, so that the voters can decide.

In many ways, Robbins’ opposition to full-time City Council members is indicative of her political character.

She hasn’t publicly opposed the measure or criticized colleagues who favor a full-time council. But the proposal, she says, runs counter to what would have been the wishes of the city fathers--including her own father, Charles Dickison, Compton’s first mayor, who served from 1924-36.

“The whole of city government was conceived in the 1920s as a city manager form of government (which includes part-time council members),” Robbins said. “My father was mayor then and helped write the City Charter. It’s written in the charter. It shouldn’t be changed.”

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Born in a small house on the city’s east side, Robbins has never strayed far from her roots. For more than half a century, she’s lived in a house one block from where she was born.

In 1938, she followed her father’s footsteps into teaching and eventually became principal of the Charles Dickison Elementary School, named in his honor. Her father was a teacher in Compton and a principal in Compton and Los Angeles.

In 1945, friends arranged a blind date for Jane Dickison. Three days later, she married Robert Robbins, who was an officer for 18 years in the Compton Police Department. He died in 1993 after a long battle with cancer.

They had two daughters, one of whom continues to live in a house next door. Robbins and her husband stayed on in their little house, even as most other whites were fleeing Compton in the 1960s. The 1990 Census showed that nearly 53% of the city’s population was African American, 44% Latino, nearly 2% Asian and 1.5% white.

“I’ve always lived in Compton and always will,” Robbins said. “I love Compton.”

For the past two decades, Robbins has been the only white council member and has often been the only woman on the governing body. Robbins said that it was her “colorblind” upbringing that made her a political survivor.

“When I was in the first and second grades, we had Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese--everybody was here in Compton,” Robbins said. “Color has never meant anything to me.”

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Robbins said she had never seriously considered running for the council until a group of parents approached her in 1976 to enter a special council election to replace two councilmen who had been convicted of extortion. She was principal of Dickison at the time.

She topped a field of six candidates--without campaigning--and has been winning ever since.

Her strongest base of support consistently comes from the precinct surrounding Dickison school. She always includes her maiden name on the ballot.

If Robbins has a political nemesis, it would be Richard Bonner, who has challenged her in five of her six campaigns. One year, Bonner lost to Robbins by just 37 votes.

Yet, when asked why he wants to replace Robbins, Bonner will only say that he wants the opportunity to represent voters.

“She’s had that opportunity. Now I would like the chance,” Bonner said.

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This year, as in all other campaign years, Robbins will not meet her challengers face to face. She has never held a public debate with a challenger. She said she prefers to avoid confrontations and “bad feelings.”

When asked how the city has changed over more than seven decades, she insists that it hasn’t really changed at all. When asked about such issues as crime, racial tensions or poverty in the city, Robbins changes the subject or simply says the issue isn’t relevant and has been overblown in the media.

Despite her lack of campaigning, few would be particularly surprised if Robbins won again without spending much money or energy.

“That’s the mystery of all time,” said former council colleague Maxcy D. Filer. “She doesn’t campaign, but they still vote for her.”