The Santa Monica City Council race had largely been shaped as a showdown between two incumbents from opposite sides of the Democratic party. On one side, you had progressive mayor Caroline Torosis, on the other more moderate former-mayor Lana Negrete. Voters apparently couldn’t decide between the two as Negrete and Torosis will both be returned to office as the top two vote-getters in a race where the top three candidates are elected.
Negrete leads for the top spot at the moment, but that could change as more votes come in. In recent elections, progressives have benefitted from mail-in vote counts.
For the third spot on the council, marine biologist Ashley Oelson currently holds the third spot with a significant but not insurmountable lead over Doug Trussler, Danny Ivanov, and Brett Morrow. Given past trends, one would expect Ivanov or Morrow to make a strong charge at Oelson’s lead as the ballots come in, but given the endorsements that Trussler has earned he may prove a spoiler.
The Other Elections
The election for Rent Control Board saw a return to city politics for former mayor Sue Himmelrich. Himmelrich led all candidates after the first count with 14,625 votes, followed by incumbent Kurt Gonska and Heather Thomason for the top three spots. Soledad Marcial and Zoe Muntaner ran outsider campaigns, but trail by too many votes to catch up.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District election saw the re-election of incumbents Alicia Mignano, Laurie Lieberman, and Stacy Rouse and their slate-mate Robbie Staenberg with 15,463. Harry Leshner ran a campaign calling for major school district reforms. Despite enough discontent with the district to defeat a ballot measure to help fund the schools, Leshner’s campaign will also fall short of unseating an incumbent.
And in the college board race, the political comeback that nobody asked for is naught to be. Controversial former city councilmember and SMMUSD School Board Member Oscar de la Torre is now officially on a losing streak, having lost the school board race after his defeat for re-election to the City Council two years ago.
Instead, the slate of Sion Roy, Tom Peters, Luis Barrera Castanon, and Kera Blades-Snell will serve four year terms.
Ballot Measures
Five local ballot measures produced decisive results, with four winning approval and strong support for tenant protections. Measures RR and TT received the highest levels of support, each winning more than 70% of the vote.
The proposed school funding tax, Measure ES, was the lone measure to trail, with 46.96% voting yes and 53.04% voting no. The measure proved controversial and drew fire from multiple sides including anti-tax organizations, community group leaders, and progressives angered by school policies on everything from turf fields to traffic safety.
The measure’s apparent failure creates an immediate crisis for the City Council which will now have to weigh continuing a contract for public use of SMMSUD property at the cost of $12 million or making other cuts in its budget.
The other four measures appear to have passed:
- Measure GG, updating the city charter to affirm just-cause eviction standards and adjust Rent Control Board commissioner terms, passed with 59.17% support.
- Measure RR, restricting evictions over minor overdue rent amounts, won overwhelming approval with 70.64% voting yes.
- Measure TT, authorizing and maintaining hotel transient occupancy tax rates, passed with 72.95% support.
- Measure VV, extending eviction protections to tenants renting single-family homes and condominiums, received 61.32% support.
