Second in a series
Re “Hahn to Bradley: ‘They’ Made Me Support Your Opponent”
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Mr. Bradley
Dateline Compton – At first, former Mayor Omar Bradley was stunned by the voice on the telephone when U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn told him last month an undefined “they” were forcing her to endorse his opponent, Aja Brown, in the June 4 runoff.
Not for long, though.
“Now I know who the ‘they’ is,” Mr. Bradley said. “I understand that last week, SEIU 721 had a major celebration for Aja Brown,” who won the mayor’s chair to succeed Eric J. Perrodin.
“Since the SEIU lost with Wendy Greuel (in the race for mayor of Los Angeles last month), this is one victory the union can brag about.
“But how can you treat the mayor of Compton like the mayor of L.A.? I mean, this is not like you won a pot of gold.”
Years ago when he was in office, Mr. Bradley sparred with the hardline union. Bygones evidently are not, and this is a matter to be revisited.
A Personal Comeback
At that moment, however, the 55-year-old Mr. Bradley needed to address more pressing concerns, starting with his impaired health. He is recovering from a heart attack suffered two weeks before the runoff.
How does he feel today?
“I think I am getting better, slowly but surely, as my (late) father used to say in his unequivocating way.”
Mr. Bradley endured a 99 percent blockage of his coronary artery. “I had just a 1 percent blood flow for 27 minutes,” he said.
“By now, I am coming along. But it is a take-time process. You have to be realistic. When I first got home, they told me I couldn’t lift anything over two pounds. Then they said, ‘Okay. Go ahead. You can walk for 10 minutes.’
“Now I can walk for 30 minutes, and I can lift 15 pounds. I am getting better. But this is a very slow process.”
Mr. Bradley has learned to practice caution. “You can’t rush it,” he said, “because the heart is a muscle.”
Another Calling
But that has not altogether sidelined the former educator. In his role as an ordained minister, yesterday he presided over the funeral of a cousin.
Elsewhere, the last Compton mayor of the 20th century and the first Compton mayor of the 21st century says the runoff that Ms. Brown ostensibly won three weeks ago today with 63 percent of the vote is not necessarily final.
He suspects funny business went on when people were not looking.
“It appears,” he said, tantalizingly, “the citizens are not accepting the outcome of this election. They are organizing themselves into a unit to protest the results.
“They say they have the evidence the election was stolen.”
(To be continued)
