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# And they’re off! Candidate list finalized
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/and-theyre-off-candidate-list-finalized/
- Published: 2004-08-18T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:52:13.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Government & Politics, Malibu, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*Voters to sift through dozens of choices for local office*

CITY HALL — Santa Monica residents will have to pick from a pool of nearly 30 names on the ballot this November, as a diverse group of candidates will vie for a total of 12 open seats on four local boards.

Officials this week verified the last of 29 candidates running for one of four open seats on the City Council, two on the Rent Control Board, and three each on the local school and college boards. Hopefuls had until last week to turn in signatures and other nomination papers, which took several days to verify.

Three candidates fell out of the race for City Council after failing to meet county requirements — systems analyst Brian Andrus, businessman Stephen Silberkraus and engineer Mike Smith. Their departure leaves 16 people competing for council seats, including all four incumbents.

A total of seven contenders qualified for the ballot in the race to fill one of three open seats on the Santa Monica College board of trustees, including incumbent Margaret Quinones. She will be challenged by professor Susan Aminoff, retired professor Charles Donaldson, Malibu businesswoman Tonja McCoy, studio attorney Rob Rader, economist Susanne Trimbath and accountant Doug Willis.

Four residents have qualified to run for one of three open seats on the board of education for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District this November. Incumbents Jose Escarce and Maria Leon-Vazquez will run, alongside challengers Ana M. Jara, a Pico neighborhood parent, and local volunteer Kathy Wisnicki.

Seats on the local Rent Control Board were apparently in less demand. Only Deputy Public Defender Joel Koury and incumbent Jeffrey Sklar turned in nomination papers and qualified to run for the board’s two open seats.

With names verified and the ballot finalized, candidates can now turn their focus towards fundraising and securing valuable endorsements.

Already, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, a powerful political group that has supported a majority of elected leaders for most of the last 26 years, has handed out endorsements in all four races. SMRR backing is worth tens of thousands of dollars to candidates, as the group sends out election mailers and employs a team of supporters to canvass local neighborhoods before each election.

SMRR will back both Rent Control Board candidates. For SMC board seats, it dumped Quinones to support Aminoff, Rader and Willis. In the local school district race, it will back Escarce, Jara and Leon-Vazquez.

In the City Council race, SMRR members voted to back incumbents Mayor Richard Bloom and City Councilman Ken Genser, alongside former school board president Patricia Hoffman and Pico neighborhood activist Maria Loya. Though he had been supported by SMRR for the past eight years, City Councilman Mike Feinstein didn’t receive SMRR backing. He has since pledged to run as an independent.

Challenging the SMRR slate will be a group calling itself the “Team for Change,” which includes former newspaper columnist Bill Bauer, database analyst Kathryn Morea and David Cole, a Mid-cities neighborhood activist and the executive director of a senior care facility in Woodland Hills. The slate has criticized the current city administration for, among other things, allowing homelessness and bureaucracy to run rampant.

Also a contender this year will be the Chamber of Commerce, which is expected to endorse candidates sometime around Labor Day. Like the “Team for Change,” officials said the chamber plans to focus on City Hall’s policies towards the homeless and its excessive bureaucracy, among other issues.

Money may be the biggest issue for both groups challenging SMRR. Though fundraising has begun and the two groups have said they’ve amassed several thousand dollars, they will need to raise much more to match SMRR.

Meanwhile, the late addition to the City Council race of resident and hedge activist Bobby Shriver has caused waves among contenders. Shriver, a Kennedy family descendant with deep pockets and myriad family connections, is widely expected to win one of the seats. Those close to the situation disagree, however, over whether he will manage to wrest a seat from a SMRR candidate or one of the others.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)