College and school board races still open
CITY HALL — The race for four open seats on the Santa Monica City Council shrank to 19 people on Monday, the last day for hopefuls to submit their paperwork and land on the November ballot.
Some 16 of the 35 residents who pulled nomination papers have since quit the race, including Pico residents Don Gray and Peter Tigler, and regular public speakers Jerry Peace Activist Rubin and Pro Se.
Of the 19 now in the running, four were qualified for the ballot. The other 15 were waiting to have signatures and other campaign documents verified by election officials — a process that can take several days.
All four incumbents whose terms will expire plan to run for re-election — Mayor Richard Bloom, City Councilmen Michael Feinstein, Ken Genser and Herb Katz. Bloom and Genser will be backed by Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, City Hall’s ruling party for 19 of the past 26 years.
Also endorsed by SMRR were Pico neighborhood activist Maria Loya and former school board president Patricia Hoffman. Backed by SMRR in his previous campaign, Feinstein lost his bid for an endorsement by the group this year.
Challenging SMRR for the first time will be the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, which has formed a political action committee and will choose candidates to endorse later this fall. The chamber was expected to endorse the incumbent Katz, as well as local doctor Mat Dinolfo and Tom Viscount of the Red Cross.
Local resident and hedge activist Bobby Shriver also formally joined the race on Monday, though he said he would not seek endorsements. (See related story below).
Additionally, a group calling itself the “Team for Change” is expected to announce its slate of candidates at a press conference in front of City Hall this morning. Included are former newspaper columnist Bill Bauer, a vocal critic of City Hall; David Cole, former co-chair of the Mid-cities Neighbors group; and Kathryn Morea, who has worked to improve the cramped parking situation around Santa Monica High School.
Other challengers include nurse Leticia Anderson; systems analyst Brian Andrus; data entry operator Linda Armstrong; flight attendant Jonathan Mann; hedge activist Leah Mendelsohn; resident Stephen Siberkraus and engineer Mike Smith.
Several of the hopefuls filed into the City Clerk’s office just before closing on Monday, turning in their paperwork at the last minute to qualify for the ballot.
Besides the chamber’s political action committee, this year’s election also will see the premier of a group representing City Hall workers and another group designed to represent hotel worker unions. Endorsements have been handed out by the hotel union group, which backed the same four candidates SMRR later did.
The race for three open seats on both the local school and college board were left open until later this week. As of Monday, school board contenders included incumbents Jose Escarce and Maria Leon- Vazquez, and challengers Ana M. Jara and Kathy Wisnicki. Escarce, Jara and Leon- Vazquez will be backed by SMRR.
For the open seats on the Santa Monica College board of trustees, contenders included incumbent Margaret Quinones; professors Susan Aminoff and Charles Donaldson; Malibu businesswoman Tonja McCoy; studio executive Rob Rader and economist Susanne Trimbath. Despite receiving the SMRR endorsement, along with Aminoff and Rader, resident Doug Willis had not filed his nomination papers as of Monday, according to City Clerk Maria Stewart.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 10, 2004. Read the original PDF.