Marcus Sebastian Mason

According to the November 3, 1993 issue of Ebony Magazine, Marcus Sebastian Mason is the youngest person to have successfully managed a campaign for the United States Congress. At the age of 21, Mason managed the 1992 contest between Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker, III and Compton School Board Member Lynn Dymally, daughter of then Congressman Mervyn Dymally, that resulted in a primary victory for then Mayor Tucker. Following the primary, Mason managed a general election campaign that yielded one of the highest margins of victory for a congressional candidate that year. Despite the near three-to-one funding advantage that Dymally enjoyed over Tucker, Mason's ability to build coalitions among labor organizations, activists and the ecuminical community proved valuable. Mason also implemented a strategy that organized key areas of the newly formed congressional district at the precinct level in an effort to increase voter turnout among certain demographics.

The most significant event of the campaign was the acquittal for four Los Angeles Police Department officers in the beating of former cab driver Rodney King. The acquittal resulted in public outrage that triggered a four day uprising known as the L.A. Civil Unrest or the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The disturbance quickly engulfed the South Central area of Los Angeles into violence which spread south to the City of Compton, where Walter R. Tucker, III was serving as mayor. Tucker unoffically suspended his campaign for congress to attend to the needs of his city. Despite the city council's attempt to censor him, Tucker was able to convince Governor Pete Wilson and President George H.W. Bush, a former resident of Compton, to come to the city in its time of need.

Tucker's leadership at that time resonated not only with the residents of the City of Compton but with those in other parts of the 37th Congressional District. On Tuesday, June 7, 1992, he won the Democratic nomination for the newly formed southbay congressional district.

Mason was born in Compton, California in 1970 where he lived until his family moved to Palos Verdes, California in 1986. In 2007, Mason published the spy thriller All the King's Horses - A Task Force Black Talon Novel (AuthorHouse) under the pen name Sebastian Cheney.

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