> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # An elephant for every five donkeys - URL: https://www.smdp.com/an-elephant-for-every-five-donkeys/ - Published: 2008-01-26T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T18:13:02.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import NORTHEAST Just ring the doorbell at the Abrahms residence and the tune of “God Bless America” freely flows down the corridor of the townhouse complex. It’s music to the republican’s ears. Yes, there are republicans in Santa Monica and expect them to be out voting for their favorite elephant on Feb. 5. “I am a republican because I believe in individual liberties and with that the responsibility of the individual,” Adam Abrahms said on Wednesday. “I believe the Republican Party embodies closest to the ideals of our founding fathers.” The lawyer and Santa Monica resident and proud owner of the “God Bless America”door bell is one of the more than 10,000 registered republicans in Santa Monica, a city known for its large democratic voter base and moniker, “The People’s Republic of Santa Monica.” It was a town that at one time elected republicans to state and national offices — the 1960s and ‘70s saw Paul Priolo, a local businessman and former president of the Santa Monica Junior Chamber of Commerce who served in the state Assembly, and Alphonzo Bell Jr., whose congressional district encompassed the Westside, according to Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP consultant. Many of the coastal communities along Southern California leaned toward the right during a time when the Republican Party included a considerably large socially moderate faction. It wasn’t until the 1990s when the party started becoming more conservative on social and environmental issues that the moderate faction gradually disappeared, a change reflected in the political shift in the coastal towns, Hoffenblum said on Wednesday. “Almost all the coastal areas were republican and now with the exception of Newport Beach, all are represented by democrats now and I think that is a reaction to the party becoming dominated by the socially conservatives and religious right,” he said. The political landscape of Santa Monica began to change during the 1970s when former state Sen. Tom Hayden rolled into town and took up the cause of rent control, Hoffenblum added. “It was the beginning of the end of republican dominance,” he said. But Denny Zane, a political consultant and pioneer of rent control in Santa Monica, said that while the elected members of city government tended to be conservative, the demographic of the city has been democratic for a long time. Conservative rule on the City Council ended in 1981 when the pro-rent control faction won control of the council, said Zane, who is the president of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR). “The rent control movement motivated renters to vote and so the true nature of the political demography, which had been liberal democratic in state and national elections a long time, became liberal democratic in local elections as well,” Zane said. Every single member of the Rent Control Board has been endorsed by SMRR since the board’s inception in 1979\. In 2006, property owner and real estate management firm proprietor Robert Kronovet unsuccessfully ran for the Rent Control Board. Though he ran without a party affiliation, Kronovet is a registered republican. Kronovet said he plans to take another shot at the board in November and will do so until he wins. “I feel a certain aspect of the Democratic Party represents my interest,” said Kronovet, referring to social issues such as abortion. “Concerns with the government’s role not to stick their nose in issues of a girl.” When it comes to local issues,it isn’t a matter of republican versus democrats, said Polly Benson-Brown, a registered republican who worked on William Buckley’s campaign for the New York mayoral race during the 1960s. “There’s the perennial problem of parking and traffic, which are not democratic or republican issues,” Benson-Brown said on Tuesday. “It’s just a problem. It doesn’t have to do with party lines.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 26, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)