Compton’s Bradley Unable to Avoid Mayoral Runoff

Mayor Omar Bradley added to his substantial lead in late returns in the Compton city elections Wednesday, but not by enough to avoid a June 5 runoff against upstart prosecutor Eric J. Perrodin.

With all precincts and absentee votes counted, Bradley, who is seeking a third term, finished with 4,312 votes for 44.2%, according to the city clerk. Perrodin, a deputy district attorney who is making his first run for office, was second with 1,983 votes, or 20.3%.

Councilwoman Marcine Shaw was third with 16%. Shaw, 70, who is well-known in the city as an aide to the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, said she was retiring from politics. Railroad engineer Juan Mora, who had barely organized a campaign, finished fourth with 7.1%, ahead of three more prominent candidates: school board members Basil Kimbrew (4.4%) and Saul E. Lankster (3.4%) and former City Councilman Fred Cressel (3.1%).

In the two City Council races, Bradley-backed candidates Melanie Andrews and Frank K. Wheaton each made the runoffs. In the 2nd District, Andrews, a Compton Community College trustee, led school board member Leslie Irving 40.3% to 34.6%. In the 3rd District, Wheaton, with 27.7%, trailed incumbent Yvonne Arceneaux, a critic of the mayor.

In a sign that the city’s Latino majority is beginning to assert itself politically, two little-known Latino candidates each finished third in those races. Maintenance engineer Roberto Carrillo had 16.9% of the ballots in the 2nd District, and community activist Evaristo Garcia tallied 14.7% in the 3rd District.

The incumbent city treasurer, Douglas Sanders, won 45.1% of the vote, not enough to avoid a runoff with the Rev. Stephen John Randle, a Bradley-backed candidate who got 30.5%. City Clerk Charles Davis won 63% of the ballots to defeat the mayor’s candidate, landscaper Aaron Ennis, who had 20.4%. City Atty. Legrand Clegg II ran unopposed.

Bradley also did not fare well on the election’s ballot question, an advisory measure asking whether public schools in Compton should secede from the Compton Unified School District, whose state managers the mayor strongly opposes. Sixty percent of voters opposed the idea.

City officials said 10,042 people--about 28.2% of registered voters--cast votes, slightly above average for a city election.