Political Novices Forge an Upset of Compton’s Longtime Leader

Omar Bradley lost?

At Compton’s Chicken ‘N Waffles on Central Avenue, where the Omar Bradley special occupies a place on the menu between dishes named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Charles Drew, manager Bernard Heath couldn’t believe it.

“I thought he would be mayor as long as he wanted,” Heath said.

In front of City Hall, former Police Chief Hourie Taylor, a key supporter of the mayor-elect, Eric Perrodin, was just as incredulous.

“I’m at a total loss to explain this,” Taylor said. “We were a bunch of amateurs in this campaign. We didn’t know what we were doing.”

The 261-vote victory by Perrodin, a deputy district attorney taking his first run at politics, was a stunning end to a contentious mayoral race. Perrodin, who expects to take office July 1, pending a possible challenge of the results by Bradley, still wore a look of disbelief when reporters came calling Wednesday.

The man he defeated had, for better or worse, come to define Compton for many Southern Californians. In eight years as mayor, Bradley had created a political machine that made the streets safer and cleaner while punishing anyone who objected to his autocratic ways.

Not only does he lose his $70,000-a-year salary for the part-time mayoral job, but also this spring he was informed that his contract as a Lynwood public school administrator will not be renewed.

Perrodin’s low-rent, all-volunteer campaign was born in the bitter legal struggles surrounding Compton’s decision last year to dismantle its Police Department. It gained momentum from the over-the-top incumbent, who scared a coalition of unions and ministers into Perrodin’s arms.

And it concluded last weekend with Perrodin’s use of a notorious political provocateur whose election eve mail campaign may have turned the tide.

While Perrodin’s supporters explained the victory as an act of God, Bradley’s camp immediately questioned the results. The mayor said Wednesday that some Latino voters may have been noncitizens, that city poll workers handed out Perrodin literature, and that he found the absentee ballot count suspicious. He promised to ask for a recount and stall the City Council from certifying the results next week.

City Clerk Charles Davis, who oversaw the election, said he had looked into Bradley’s charges and found nothing irregular.

“I faced an amalgamation of attacks that proved to be more than even I could stand,” said Bradley, who repeatedly accused the Los Angeles Times of using unfair reports about a no-bid trash contract and his use of an honorary doctorate to swing the election.

“I left Compton in better shape than I found out it, but I had to be taken out,” the mayor added. “I’m the black boy who won’t take orders from the boss.”

Perrodin, who is also black, said Bradley should be investigated for registering multiple voters at a family home. The mayor-elect, looking slightly dazed, told reporters that his first act in office would be to seek an outside auditor to go over all the city’s books. He said he is concerned about how Bradley used city funds to build a political machine in his eight years in office.

“Given what I was facing, people in Compton have reason to be surprised with the outcome,” said Perrodin, 42. In the latter days of his campaign, the challenger expressed little confidence about his chances.

“Nobody knew who I was,” he said, laughing Wednesday. “I don’t think even my mother thought I was going to win.”

From its beginnings, Perrodin’s campaign was a family affair. His brother, former Compton Police Capt. Percy Perrodin, who blamed the mayor for the loss of his job, ran the operation from behind the bar of his Long Beach home.

Among the earliest volunteers last fall were top city law enforcement and fire officials who had quarreled with the mayor: former Police Chief Taylor, former Fire Chief Milford Fonza and Battalion Chief James Murphy. Each was outraged by Bradley’s push to dismantle the Police Department in August 2000 and contract with the county sheriff for policing.

Murphy, Taylor and Percy Perrodin all brought lawsuits against the city; that litigation had put them in close contact with officials of the unions representing city employees. By early 2001, Service Employees International Union Local 347 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees had staffers in Compton working to unseat Bradley, who was threatening to outsource other city services.

Eric Perrodin entered a field crowded with four other well-known challengers, all of whom had held elective office. They agreed to unite behind whoever finished second to Bradley in the April 17 election. To the surprise of many, Perrodin-- presenting a calm demeanor that contrasted with the incumbent’s--secured the backing of a prominent ministers and local Democratic Party officials. He also received the nod of the Long Beach Press-Telegram after the mayor stormed out of an endorsement interview.

He also won over the unions, who provided critical phone bank services.

“Eric made a strong case,” said Fred Fox, field representative for SEIU, Local 347. “And we were able to unite all the unions in support. But I don’t think anybody really thought this was going to succeed when we started out.”

On April 17, Perrodin finished second with 20% of the vote to make the runoff. But he was 24 percentage points--and 2,300 votes--behind Bradley.

The news quickly got worse. The third-place finisher, City Councilwoman Marcine Shaw, declined to honor her pledge to support Perrodin in the runoff. With Bradley badly outspending the Perrodin camp, union officials and ministers began emphasizing the need to keep their coalition together even after Perrodin’s likely defeat.

“For days, I felt a low-level depression about the election,” said Father Stan Bosch, a Catholic priest who was a leader of the ministers’ group.

“In the back of my mind, I always hoped,” said Taylor, the former chief. “But I saw us being outspent by people who had experience winning elections. I thought we were finished.”

In the last days of the election, Perrodin’s campaign turned to Basil Kimbrew, a political consultant who six years ago was a major but unindicted figure in a Compton bribery scandal. Some Perrodin volunteers called Kimbrew “the king of sleaze,” but he was brutally effective at communicating negative messages to voters.

Kimbrew put together a series of mailers focusing on Perrodin’s history growing up and serving as a police officer in Compton, and attacking Bradley and his slate of candidates for City Council. Perrodin also may have been helped by a community backlash over an anonymous mailer accusing the prosecutor of being a cross-dresser; it employed decade-old pictures from a skit at a police benefit.

Narrow Victories in Latino Areas

Bradley and Perrodin supporters agreed that Kimbrew’s mailers were effective in convincing voters in areas where Perrodin is not well-known. Bradley overwhelmingly won precincts near his home in northwest Compton. But Perrodin piled up narrower victories in the predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the eastern half of the city near the Long Beach Freeway.

As the votes were counted Tuesday night, Bradley’s team sat silent and stunned.

“I’m shocked. The mayor, too, is shocked,” said his spokesman, Frank Wheaton, who lost his own race for a City Council seat. “I’m certain that everyone in this city is shocked.”

The result turned Compton upside-down Wednesday. Officials canceled a morning City Council meeting that had been called to approve a number of last-minute financial items, including a donation of surplus city vans to a nonprofit organization founded by Bradley’s aunt, City Councilwoman Delores Zurita.

“You didn’t hear much talk before the election, but you do hear it today,” said William Turner, 31, a barber at the Locker Room.

At Compton’s Chicken ‘N Waffles, staffers said they remain fans of the mayor but would welcome Perrodin. “If he comes in to eat a few times,” said Heath, the manager, “we’ll start thinking about naming something on the menu after him.”

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