Inglewood City Clerk Reelected

Capping an especially contentious campaign season, Inglewood City Clerk Yvonne Horton beat two challengers to win reelection Tuesday, capturing nearly 60% of the vote.

Pastor Johnny J. Young won the race for Office 5 on the Inglewood Unified School District board, while Eloy Morales Jr., an aide to Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood), appeared to have narrowly defeated attorney Trini Jimenez for the City Council’s District 3 seat.

There will be runoffs, however, for council District 4 and for school board Office 4, but the races were so close it was unclear which candidates would be in the June 3 election.

Elections were also held Tuesday in Glendale. Two incumbent city councilmen, Rafi Manoukian and Gus Gomez, and school board members Pam Ellis, Mary W. Boger and Lina M. Harper easily won re-election. But two of the three incumbents on the Glendale Community College board, Robert K. Holmes and Martin Pilgreen, were ousted by college dean Kathleen Burke-Kelly and attorney Ara James Najarian. Anita Quinonez Gabrielian was the only incumbent reelected.

“I think this shows we’re doing the right thing,” Ellis said.

There will be no runoffs in any of the Glendale races, even though none of the candidates received more than one-third of the votes.

The balloting in Inglewood brought only a partial end to a tumult that began with special elections in November and continued with a runoff in January.

“I’m going to sleep. I’m tired,” said Horton, who, since winning the full-time post in January, has been pelted with criticism.

Meanwhile, complaints about possible election day irregularities surfaced in Inglewood.

Supporters of a City Council candidate reportedly took down posted lists of registered voters at two or more polling places. A representative from the city clerk’s office was dispatched to explain that the rolls were not to be removed.

Also, Councilwoman Lorraine Johnson said she saw supporters of one of her challengers passing out doughnuts and campaign literature outside the polls. Electioneering closer than 100 feet to a polling site is prohibited by law.

Generating substantial controversy in Inglewood was the race for city clerk. Opponents of Horton, along with Mayor Roosevelt Dorn, tried to have others take over supervision of the election.

They said Horton appeared to have a conflict of interest because she was supervising her own contested election and because her husband, Assemblyman Horton ), was backing candidates in each of the other contested races.

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley sent monitors to oversee balloting and vote tabulations Tuesday.

County elections officials said it is legal -- and fairly common -- for elected city clerks to supervise municipal elections even when they are running for re-election.

In the Glendale council race, quality-of-life issues dominated the campaigns.

Candidates talked about good schools, a healthy business environment, improved public safety and the curtailing of development of the hills above the city.

The major issues for the school board and community college board candidates centered on looming state cuts in education funding and how best to counter any cutbacks.

Times staff writer Stephanie Stassel contributed to this report.