Compton Mayor Forced Into Runoff in Bid for Third Term

After eight stormy years in office, Compton Mayor Omar Bradley fell short Tuesday of the overwhelming victory he had predicted in his race for a third term. He now faces a June 5 runoff.

The mayor, who only two months ago said he expected to get two-thirds of the vote, won 44%, well below the 50% needed to take the seat outright. His opponent in the runoff will be political neophyte Eric Perrodin, a deputy district attorney who came in second with 20% of the vote with all precincts reporting.

Some 1,500 absentee ballots remained to be counted; they were expected to favor Bradley, but not by enough to spare him a runoff.

In that contest, Perrodin will start with an edge. Four major challengers representing 30% of Tuesday’s vote pledged to support the prosecutor if he came in second. They reiterated that support Tuesday.

“Sixty percent of the people believe the current mayor is not doing an adequate job,” Perrodin said. “I look forward to debating the issues with him. Hopefully he and his crew will run a clean campaign.”

Bradley held out hope that absentee votes would give him the magic 50%. If not, he said, “we want to thank our voters and hope they’ll come out and vote for us again.”

City Councilwoman Marcine Shaw, long seen as Bradley’s strongest challenger, came in third, with a disappointing 15%.

Bradley’s failure to win 50% of the vote, however, did not seem to weaken his influence over Compton’s political landscape. Candidates backed by the controversial mayor made runoffs in the two contested City Council races and in the city treasurer’s race.

In the 2nd District, Compton Community College Board member Melanie Andrews, with the mayor’s support, won 40% of the vote to 36% for Compton school board member Leslie A. Irving.

In the 3rd District, the city’s paid spokesman, Frank K. Wheaton, finished second to incumbent Yvonne Arceneaux by a 37%-29% tally. Arceneaux is Bradley’s strongest critic on the council.

In the treasurer’s race, the Rev. Stephen Randle, a longtime Bradley friend, received 32% of the vote to force a runoff with incumbent Douglas Sanders, who had 44%. City Atty. Legrand Clegg and City Clerk Charles Davis easily won reelection.

If Andrews and Wheaton win in June, Bradley would in effect control all five votes on the Compton City Council. The other members are the mayor’s aunt, Delores Zurita, and his closest political ally, Amen Rahh.

Just two weeks after census figures confirmed that Latinos are a majority in Compton, the election appeared to reaffirm that African Americans will continue to hold every citywide elected position. There is one Latino school board member who represents a single district of the Compton Unified School District. The most aggressive Latino candidate, City Council hopeful Evaristo Garcia, failed to make the runoff in the 3rd District race.

For voters, the issue was not race but Bradley. The mayor faced eight challengers in a bitter, personal race that saw the airing of unsubstantiated allegations ranging from cross-dressing to murder. The mayor was attacked repeatedly for his aggressive style--which has included threatening political rivals--and for disbanding the city Police Department last year and contracting for law enforcement services with the Sheriff’s Department.

“I know he’s controversial. I know he’s dogmatic,” said Roosevelt Beatty, 76, a retired county worker who said he voted for Bradley. “But you have to be forceful and take chances to run a city like Compton.”

Bradley called the election “not as much a referendum on me as people say. This is a referendum on the decision to go with the sheriffs.”

Turnout was estimated at just under 25%, which would be slightly above average for a city election in Compton, city officials said. Election supervisors said turnout appeared to be strongest in Bradley strongholds in the predominantly African American western half of the city. On the eastern side, which is more Latino, poll workers reported slow foot traffic all day.

Bradley, who heavily outspent his rivals, was the only candidate to send observers to all 31 precincts. They were joined by city firefighters, who have eagerly backed Bradley in hopes that he will close their department and transfer their jobs to the county, which they say offers higher status and benefits.

Perrodin, who said he spent less than $25,000, earned the backing of local public employees unions, whose members have been angered by Bradley’s willingness to contract out. Officials of Service Employees International Union Local 347 acted as observers at polling places on Perrodin’s behalf Tuesday, but his organization could not match Bradley’s.

Kimbrew, a political provocateur who devoted much of the race to accusing the mayor of various misdeeds, spent the day playing a game of cat-and-mouse with Bradley, his longtime nemesis. Wearing a bulletproof vest, Kimbrew challenged Bradley’s poll observers and drew the ire of election supervisors at more than half a dozen precincts for standing less than 100 feet from the front door while he handed out leaflets. At at least three schools, Kimbrew pulled out a tape measure to place himself as close to the polls as legally possible.

Six city election inspectors said they told the city clerk’s office, which runs elections, of activities by Kimbrew that might intimidate to voters. Two other inspectors reported similar actions by the firefighters.

Gisela Salcedo, parish administrator at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, which hosted two polling places, said she complained to the clerk about a lack of Spanish-speaking election inspectors and about Bradley poll workers, whom she found menacing.

“To be honest with you, I’ve never seen a day like this before,” said Beadie Carroll, election inspector at the Washington Elementary School polling place. “Mr. Kimbrew came in here with his tape measure. I had to report him, and eventually he left.”