Re “Brown Holds Thin Edge in Race for Mayor of Compton”
Dateline Compton – The longer Jacquelyn Deloatch spoke on this morning after the election, the more evident it became she could have made a smashing mayor in a community that regards transparency as a liability – somebody might be looking or listening.
Her responses were crisp, succinct, candid.
Exactly what you would expect of a great-grandmother and a mother of seven, who previously owned and operated her own businesses in seven Southern California communities before choosing Compton as home plate.
Disheartened by the raggedy state of nationally criticized city government, Ms. Deloatch decided on a January day to plunge into the political pool for the first time.
She ran for mayor along with 11 others, fed up with 20 uninterrupted years of what many see as slipshod governing inside of a glistening Compton City Hall.
And so this afternoon, while an ex-con former mayor and a young woman newcomer seem to be heading for a June 4 runoff, Ms. Deloatch is in Seventh Heaven, having finished in seventh place with 93 of the 5,390 votes cast.
Question: Does yesterday’s finish make you determined to try this again?
“Not at all,” she said, firmly stamping each of the three syllables.
She laughed heartily.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Ms. Deloatch said.
What is the lesson that you learned from your first campaign?
In fine fetter, perhaps even relieved, because now she can return to her normal, sub-divided, sub-sub-divided 20-hour days moving steadily among her various enterprises, she said she learned “it’s not about the signs,” and she laughed again.
When a reporter first contacted her this morning, Ms. Deloatch was too busy to visit – she was driving around town collecting the first of her 500 yard signs.
“We only have 72 hours to take them down,” she said.
Or else.
Many Compton residents have experienced the heavy-breathing Or Else summonses that they say come from City Hall in response to mystifyingly perceived violations of arcane, even invisible, laws.
When it was suggested that if Ms. Deloatch missed the deadline, she was in danger of being fined or driven from the city, she leaned back and enjoyed another laugh.
Looking up at the finalists from seventh place, how do you feel about your first run for office?
“That was an experience I needed,” she said.
Even more poignantly, “it’s something you only need to do one time.”
Will she endorse one of the finalists before the runoff?
Her response was conditional.
“As far as I am feeling right now, absolutely not.”
Why?
“I don’t feel our city will become any better with any of those three (Aja Brown, Omar Bradley, incumbent Eric J. Perrodin).”
Some persons close to Ms. Deloatch, including her office manager, the gentleman who drives a horse-and-buggy when she orders it, and a very longtime friend are sorry that she lost, and they will talk about her.
(To be continued)
