ELECTIONS / INGLEWOOD : Controversy, Barbs Mark City Council, School Races

More than 90% of Inglewood voters shunned the polls during the general election in April, but that hasn’t changed a city tradition of noisy election fights.

In the campaign for the June 6 runoff races for one City Council and one school board seat, the competing candidates have not hesitated to fling a variety of charges and countercharges. In the Inglewood Unified School District race, board President Lois Hill Hale and challenger Gloria Dean Gray blame each other for mudslinging and diverting the campaign from school issues.

But it has been the match-up of City Councilman Garland L. Hardeman and challenger Ervin (Tony) Thomas in District 4, which covers southeast Inglewood, that has raised the most dust. Hardeman called this week for an investigation into published allegations that Mayor Ed Vincent--one of Thomas’ backers--plotted to have Hardeman attacked.

Hardeman cited a Los Angeles Sentinel story in which community activist Lou Hollingsworth is quoted as saying that Vincent asked him to hire gang members to “crack open” Hardeman’s head with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Hollingsworth said he never intended to carry out the scheme.

Vincent called Hardeman “wacko” and suggested that Hollingsworth has a vendetta against city officials. Thomas called the allegations “absolutely absurd.”

But Hardeman said that he didn’t bring the charges. “I only asked that the charges of the co-conspirator be investigated, to find out whether they were true. If so, Ed Vincent should be indicted.”

Hardeman has also been accused of wrongdoing. On Tuesday, Inglewood Police Chief Oliver Thompson said two officers spotted Hardeman tearing down Thomas’ campaign signs at about 2 a.m. Monday near Century Boulevard and Prairie Avenue.

“The officers did recognize Councilman Hardeman,” Thompson said, adding that he planned to take the matter to the district attorney’s office.

Hardeman, however, said he was “in bed at home asleep” at the time.

“I have been falsely accused,” he said. “How can [the officers] make a positive identification? They didn’t stop this individual, they just said it was me.”

Past Hardeman-Thomas matchups also have been dogged by controversy. Thomas beat Hardeman in a 1987 City Council race, but a judge ruled that Thomas’ supporters intimidated voters and that absentee ballots showed irregularities. During a court-ordered special election in 1989, Hardeman knocked Thomas out of office, and defeated him again in 1991.

Thomas says it is time for a change. “He’s been in office for six years and I can’t put a finger on anything he’s done,” Thomas said.

Hardeman admits that he has sparred with other council members, but says he is fighting to help his district. Among the accomplishments he cites: jobs programs for teen-agers and expansion of a community center.

In the school board race, Hill Hale is seeking a third four-year term. She says that Gray is a “puppet for city officials” because her campaign is supported by Vincent and several council members.

“They want to come in and control the board so they can hire people they want to hire, run the school district for their own political gain,” Hill Hale said.

But Gray says that Hill Hale’s comments show that “Lois has lost the support of the city.”