ELECTIONS: Beating the Voter Backlash

Like other ethnic groups before them, American blacks are steadily climbing the political ladder, winning more state, local and national offices each election. Some 90 black mayors are now serving in U.S. cities and towns, including Newark and Gary. That is not surprising, because those cities have black majorities. But last week brought the most dramatic evidence yet of black political progress. Los Angeles, the nation's third largest city, elected its first black mayor, although the Negro population is a distinct (18%) minority. City Councilman Thomas Bradley won because enough whites regarded him not as a black politician but simply as a man deserving of their vote.

No Replay. At first the election looked like a rerun of 1969. Once again, Bradley, now 55, faced Incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty, 63. Once again, Yorty played on white fears. Once again, there were predictions of a last-minute backlash that would throw the election to Yorty. But this time the backlash did not develop, and Bradley defeated Yorty by a surprising 56% to 44%.

Bradley won not only 92% of the black vote and 51% of the Mexican-American vote (which in the past had gone to Yorty) but also half of the white vote. "I have never run as a black," he said after his victory. "I am a politician who happens to be a black. This will be the new style. We [blacks] will achieve political influence because of our stand on all the issues."

Bradley's campaign strategy was to reassure whites. He constantly referred to his 21 years' service on the Los Angeles police force, in which he rose to lieutenant; he let nobody forget that he stood for law-and-order. He carefully disassociated himself from the Black Panthers, antagonizing the more militant blacks. In his low-keyed TV commercials, he was mainly seen with whites, who praised him for his police work or his efforts to save parks and beaches from developers. At all times he appeared dignified, unruffled by occasional taunts from hostile whites. Once when he encountered a belligerent crowd, he good-humoredly told an aide: "Write that one down as doubtful."

Sam Yorty, on the other hand, had lost much of his following. He had stayed in office for twelve lackluster years largely by entertaining Angelenos, but they had begun to tire of the show. In his last term, he spent one out of every four days outside the city. Most of the time he was overseas, garnering publicity and decorations, and his wanderings had become a joke. Cracked Bradley: "People ask why Yorty doesn't go to Watts. But the mayor has an answer. He says that just as soon as Pan Am flies there, he'll go."

Yorty showed no awareness that people were fed up with growing pollution, traffic congestion and haphazard development. He continued to refer to environmentalists as "kooks." When Bradley proposed a moratorium on highway building and the start of a rapid transit system, Yorty objected that highways "really move a lot of automobiles very efficiently." When Bradley urged a halt to drilling for oil on beaches, Yorty replied: "We ought to do everything we can to develop our oil."