Last night the Santa Monica Democratic Club held their endorsement meeting for the fall election. For the City Council, the club had to choose between six candidates that took part in their endorsement process, and overwhelmingly settled on: Dan Hall, Barry Snell, Ellis Raskin and Natalya Zernitskaya. For the Rent Control Board, the Club endorsed Kay Ambriz and Phillis Dudick.
The Dem. Club is now the fourth major endorsement to go to the “Unity Slate” of Hall, Snell, Raskin and Zernitskaya following the endorsements of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR), Santa Monica Forward and Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS).
In a sign of the changing politics in Santa Monica, the Dem. Club had more participants at their endorsement meeting than SMRR, 117 participants at SMRR and 121 at the Dem. Club.
Patricia Hoffman, a member of the SMRR Steering Committee and Dem. Club executive board has been vocal about the efforts of left-leaning groups to endorse earlier than usual this year. Many members of SMRR and the Dem. Club believe that if both organizations had endorsed either Raskin (endorsed by SMRR) or Zernitskaya (endorsed by the Dem. Club) in 2022, they would have won the third seat on the council held on to by Councilmember Lana Negrete.
Candidates cannot “pull papers” to gather signatures to declare their candidacy until July, and so far none of the four incumbents have confirmed they are running for re-election. Incumbent Gleam Davis announced she is not running. Oscar de la Torre’s candidacy was confirmed in the press last week but he said he was still considering it at this week’s council meeting, and Mayor Phil Brock and Councilmember Christine Parra have also not announced a decision.
