can make a difference. This is my home, this is my community.
“Where I come from, you give back to the community.”
McLellan said he is also looking at joining the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and other organizations that he can “give my elbow grease and my heart to.”
McLellan said the goal of his campaign last year was to introduce himself to the community and find out who the players are so that he could get involved. He said he was proud that he ran a very positive campaign during a time when there seemed to be a lot of attention focused on the attacks directed at McKeown, who was the subject of several mailers and cable television commercials blasting his record on homelessness and public safety.
Despite the attacks, McKeown received the most votes of any candidate with 14,000.
“I think that speaks volumes,” said McLellan, who believes there are still strong divisions in Santa Monica around issues of homelessness and development.“The organization that put all this money into the campaign, trying to attack his record, they need to look long and hard at what they were trying to do because it didn’t work.”
In the next year, McLellan said he will continue to learn from those who have the experience and try to earn a seat on one of the commissions where he can be a voice of reason in a community that is polarized.
Candidate Jenna Linnekens is also looking at joining commissions so that she can expand her understanding of the issues.
“I’m doing my best to remain active in the community and I just really want to spend more time within the community and, hopefully, the boards and commissions will help prepare me for a seat on the council in 2008,” said Linnekens, who came in sixth, with 4.2 percent of the vote. “We had every hope of winning, however, we knew if we didn’t, this was just the beginning for us.”
Linnekens, an event planner, said she took some time off during the holidays, but before she did so she went to local businesses including Panera Bread, Revolution Fitness, Yoga Hop and Wahoo’s and placed donation boxes at each one. She then collected donated toys and gave them to the Santa Monica Fire Department to distribute to children.
Linnekens also applied for seats on the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Recreation and Parks Commission. She said her experience working with the hospitality industry would make her a perfect fit for the CVB and she cares deeply about open space.
As for the tone of the election, Linnekens, who was a harsh critic of City Hall, said she felt she ran a positive campaign, but was disappointed that “nastiness”exhibited by others “overshadowed potential of the candidates.”
In the end, she and other candidates said they found a new respect for what it takes to hold public office.
“I have a lot of work to do,” she said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.