Jeremy Tunis, 27, a Democratic fund-raiser from Washington, D.C., said he was in town this week to assist Los Angeles mayoral Jim Hahn’s re-election campaign and awoke with a hangover at the Hotel California on Santa Monica beach Wednesday when the onslaught began.
“I thought it was an earthquake,” Tunis said. “I was dreaming about the last time I ate an In-N-Out burger when I felt a rumble in my stomach. I woke up, and the room was shaking. I stood up, feeling like I had to throw up, and I looked out the window and saw a deli across the street explode. Then I looked offshore and saw the (expletive) ships.”
“I thought, ‘Great, this probably means my flight will be delayed.”
Many Santa Monica residents witnessed what would be dubbed the Battle for Santa Monica, but most of them were wearing sunglasses and driving their Mercedes and talking on the phone and quite frankly, too busy to get involved in a political quagmire.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2005. Read the original PDF.