Candidates Galore Line Up to Succeed Late Mayor Tucker : Politics: Three of four Compton City Council members declare interest. So does Tucker’s son, saying, ‘It’s the Lord’s will.’

COMPTON —  Three of the four City Council members have announced plans to run for mayor in a special election in April to replace Mayor Walter R. Tucker, who died of cancer Oct. 1.

As council members began announcing their intentions Tuesday during the council meeting, Councilman Maxcy D. Filer, acting as chairman, turned to the audience and remarked, “Is there anyone else that wants to announce for mayor?”

Filer and Councilwomen Bernice Woods and Patricia A. Moore said they plan to run. The fourth council member, Jane Robbins, announced that she will seek reelection to the council in April. Filing for the election does not begin until February.

Tucker’s son, Walter Jr., also said he plans to run. Tucker, a 33-year-old lawyer, has set up a committee to begin raising money for his campaign.

“After a lot of prayer . . . and contemplation, I believe that it’s the Lord’s will,” Tucker said. “And also I believe that it would be in honor of my father to take the baton and carry on the dream and the principles that he began.”

The council unanimously agreed Tuesday to combine the special mayoral election with the April 16 municipal elections. Under the City Charter, the council could have appointed a new mayor or ordered a separate mayoral election before April.

Personal ambitions and a 2-2 split on the council, however, made it unlikely that the four could agree on an appointee. And City Clerk Charles Davis insisted that it would be too expensive and too time consuming to hold a separate election before April.

The decisions by Moore and Woods to run for mayor had been expected. However, Filer’s entry into the race comes as a surprise to many. Filer, 60, had been telling people that he would not seek reelection to the council when his term expired in April. He and Robbins, 71, were first elected to the council in a special election 14 years ago.

Filer said he decided to stay on and run for mayor because winning would offer him a better chance to influence city policy. People perceive that the mayor’s position has more authority than it actually has, Filer said.

“I want to move Compton forward, and the only way to do it is to shift over to the other seat,” he said.

In Compton, the mayor is elected by the voters, performs ceremonial duties, is chairman for council meetings and represents the city with other government bodies. But the mayor has just one council vote.

The campaign is expected to be lively. Moore and Woods, a former school trustee, were elected to the council last year, ousting longtime incumbents. However, the two quickly became rivals, sniping at one another during council meetings and voting on opposite sides of many issues.

Filer and Moore have been political allies on the council. On Tuesday, however, Moore cast the only negative vote when the council selected Filer to serve as mayor pro tem until after the election. She said the job should be rotated among the four council members.

The winner in April will fill out the remaining two years of Tucker’s term. There are no provisions in the charter for a runoff, if one candidate fails to receive a majority of votes in a special election.

In the race for council seats, however, regular election procedures will prevail. If one candidate fails to get a majority, the top two vote-getters would be forced into a runoff. The council seats held by Robbins and Filer will be on the April ballot.

If Woods and Moore are losers in the mayoral contest, they will still hold seats on the council. Filer, however, would be out of office if he loses. His term expires in April, and mayoral candidates cannot run for that office and for election to the council at the same time.

In Compton, council members run for four district seats. They must live in the district they represent but are elected in a citywide vote.

A long line of council candidates is already forming. Two of them--Basil G. Kimbrew and the Rev. Walter Goodin--are political allies of Moore’s.

Kimbrew, 37, is a community activist and professional political consultant working as assistant political director of Democrat Dianne Feinstein’s gubernatorial campaign. He managed Moore’s campaign last year. He is running against Robbins in District 4.

Goodin, 39, is assistant pastor of Faith Chapel Baptist Church in Los Angeles and is a member of Compton Block Club Commission. He is running in District 1 for the council seat Filer is vacating.

Moore and the two council candidates said they are not running as a slate, but they acknowledged that they are supporting one another.

Also running in District 1 is John Steward, a trustee in the Compton Unified School District. Steward, a probation officer, announced his candidacy Tuesday when he heard that Filer would not seek reelection to the council.

Richard Bonner, who owns a beauty salon in Compton, repeated Tuesday that he will run for Robbins’ seat.

Fred Cressel, who owns an office supply business in Compton and has run unsuccessfully for office before, said he is considering a mayoral or council bid.

Chuck Esters, who forced Tucker into a runoff last year, said he did not know if he would enter the contest this time. He said he would not make a decision until early next year, when he returns from Africa, where he is scheduled to travel in December on business for his new commodities trading company.