ELECTIONS / INGLEWOOD : 3 Incumbents Win Big; 1 Runoff Ahead

By MARC LACEY and KIM KOWSKY

April 4, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Inglewood voters swept three incumbents back into office Tuesday but forced activist school board member Zyra McCloud into a runoff with Pentecostal minister Loystene Irvin.

Reelected by overwhelming margins were District 3 Councilman Jose Fernandez and school board member Lois Hill-Hale. District 4 Councilman Garland Hardeman, an outspoken renegade who faced three opponents, also won a solid victory.

The election drew the lowest turnout officials could remember, with 8.6% of the city’s 41,272 registered voters casting ballots.

The Irvin camp was disappointed that its candidate, with 47.4% of the vote compared to McCloud’s 31%, did not reach the 50% mark and avoid a June runoff. Both sides in that race predict a vicious battle in the coming months between the powerful newcomer and the controversial incumbent.

“It’s going to be the Persian Gulf War all over again,” predicted Terry Coleman, president of the Inglewood Democratic Club, who did not take a position on the race.

“It’s going to be worse,” added McCloud, who predicted that she will “whup” her opponent in the second round.

“She should have won when she had a chance,” McCloud said of Irvin. “She has given me time to regroup. She has rejuvenated me. I’m running mad. It will be nonstop.”

Irvin supporter Jewett Walker Jr. said the runoff will be like “a one-on-one dogfight.”

The McCloud-Irvin battle was fierce the first time around.

One Irvin hit piece, sent out in the final days of the campaign, declared: “Amateur Hour is over.”

Students supporting McCloud were accused of stopping in front of the Irvin home and blaring pro-McCloud chants over a loudspeaker.

Each side accused the other of uprooting campaign signs.

Irvin, 44, pastor at the House of Prayer Pentecostal Church in Los Angeles, said she plans to devote “three times the effort that we put into this campaign.” She said her strong showing at the polls indicates that “the community of Inglewood is looking for somebody that is able to go in and bring things together.”

She said her rival “lacked the ability to work with her colleagues in the area of problem-solving.” She called her opponent “intimidating and confrontational.”

Observers attributed Irvin’s strong showing to broad political support. Three of McCloud’s colleagues on the board, along with numerous other elected officials, said they backed Irvin because McCloud confused her role as a board member with her former position as a PTA activist.

“I had the whole political machine stacked against me from Congressman (Mervyn M.) Dymally on down,” said McCloud, referring to Irvin’s endorsements. “I could not receive the contributions from political people. I was getting a dollar here and there from students and small donations from generous business people.”

In the other school board race, Hill-Hale won 2,223 votes or 74.6% compared to challenger Mildred McNair’s 758 votes or 25.4%.

Hill-Hale, 56, the board president and a former deputy for state Sen. Diane Watson, said she will spend the next four years attempting to improve student test scores in the district, which ranked in the bottom 10% statewide last year for high school seniors.

“The Inglewood Unified School District has all the ingredients,” Hill-Hale said. “If we never got another textbook or computer, we’d still have the committed teachers to provide a quality education.”

McNair, an outspoken gadfly at school board and council meetings, said she was not disappointed by the results but was instead enthusiastic that she has 758 supporters.

“If I can get that many votes, that means some people are believing what I’m saying,” said McNair, 49, a bilingual coordinator in Los Angeles schools, who said Hill-Hale has failed to solve serious problems facing the district.

“If I’m the perennial candidate I’ll continue running until more people believe me.”

In the City Council election, Hardeman attributed his District 4 victory to negative campaigning by the opposition and a desire by residents to question the status quo in City Hall.

“I stand as a voice for the people and as a change agent,” said Hardeman, 34, whose opponents had criticized his confrontational style. “I’m not polarizing the council. I’m bringing forth the agenda of the people.”

Tuesday’s election was the fourth matchup between Hardeman and second-place finisher Ervin (Tony) Thomas. Four years ago, Thomas narrowly won the District 4 seat in a runoff with Hardeman, but his election was eventually set aside when a Superior Court judge found election irregularities. Hardeman won a special election in October, 1989, and served the balance of the term.

Hardeman said his victory Tuesday was partly due to Thomas’ negative campaign tactics, which included brochures complete with Hardeman’s name and photograph. One of those brochures was a simulated FBI Most Wanted poster with Hardeman’s photo under the word UNWANTED.

Hardeman, who is a Los Angeles police officer, also came under attack from Thomas at a City Council meeting last week, when Thomas said that an on-duty shooting March 23 in which Hardeman wounded a transient showed poor judgment.

The final results gave Hardeman 534 votes or 63% of the total. Thomas won 152 votes or 17.9%, while Virgle Benson won 88 votes or 10.4% and William McKown won 73 votes or 8.7%.

In the District 2 contest, Fernandez, who won 89.3% of the vote to challenger E. David Lawrence’s 10.7%, called his strong showing “a reaffirmation of a mandate” he received two years ago when he was elected to replace Councilwoman Ann Wilk, who died in office.

“People are telling me to stay the course, keep doing the things I’ve been doing,” said the 31-year-old insurance and real estate broker, the first Latino to serve on the council.

In two unopposed city races, Hermanita Harris was reelected as city clerk and Wanda Brown was returned as city treasurer.

The election results left some political observers scratching their heads because of the vastly different styles of the candidates returned to office. Fernandez is a conservative councilman, while Hardeman has been frequently challenged by his council colleagues for bucking the system.

At the same time, observers said it was McCloud’s activist nature and clashes with her colleagues that gave Irvin strong political endorsements, campaign contributions and, consequently, a 16-percentage point margin over McCloud.

Councilman Daniel Tabor, who favored Hardeman and opposed McCloud, saw a difference between their styles, although he conceded that both are challenging the Establishment.

“It’s all right to have a strong position and belief and to make challenges against the system,” Tabor said. “People see the difference between being genuinely concerned about an issue and grandstanding for issues. They are voting the difference.”

Coleman said the results in McCloud’s race showed voters “are just not sure which way to go.”

He said this is demonstrated by the strong finish by first-time candidate Sandra Mack. Irvin garnered 1,469 votes or 47.4% compared to McCloud’s 959 votes or 31%. Mack, 51, a parent, had 669 supporters or 21.7% of the vote.

ELECTION RETURNS

* INGLEWOOD

City Clerk

35 of 35 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Hermanita V. Harris 2,603 100

City Treasurer

35 of 35 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Wanda M. Brown 2,574 100

City Council District 3

35 of 35 Precincts Reporting

CANDIDATE VOTE % Jose Fernandez* 703 89.3 E. David Lawrence 84 10.7

City Council District 4