First of two parts.
By the end of two years in office as the colorful mayor of Hawthorne, there were too many battles, personal and professional, for a single person to simultaneously fight and survive.
That is a central reason ambitious, imaginative, risk-prone 33-year-old Chris Brown was bounced lopsidedly yesterday by voters, 60 percent to 22 percent to a dreaded rival, Hawthorne City Councilman Alex Vargas. Mr. Vargas’s slate carries scuffmarks. But picky, picky. He outpolled Mr. Brown almost 3 to 1, 2182 votes to 796.
Be clear, though. Not a sunnier politician than Chris Brown breathes in Southern California. He promises to be heard from again. Soon.
Not even if his name had been Roosevelt could Mr. Brown have survived some tribulations — three times in two years, he and his family were confronted by evictions.
“When one door closes,” Mr. Brown told the newspaper this morning, “three more fly wide open.”
He will tell you that the economic and structural changes he has brought to Hawthorne were worthy of a full four-year term.
Voters, however, weighed imperfections against accomplishments, and accomplishments finished second.
If his dauber ever is down, it only shows in private.
“Phone calls from last night to this morning came from people who may have been baffled,” he said. They thought I might have been upset at the city of Hawthorne over what has happened the last six months,” a series of disputes over the city’s fiscal state. I am not.”
(To be continued)
