Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights ran roughshod over everybody and everything this election... and came out big winners.
One of the major contributors to SMRR’s success was the backlash against a witless and viscous attack campaign backed by Edward Bruce Slatkin and Thomas Slatkin and their Edward Thomas Management Company (owners of the Shutters on the Beach and Casa del Mar hotels) with support from local business interests.
ETMC, Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities and their SMSP Political Action Committee spent more than a half-million dollars promoting two candidates for City Council — four-term incumbent Bob Holbrook and newcomer Terry O’Day — while targeting council two-term incumbent Kevin McKeown.
I’d previously written that their “Get Kevin” campaign was in part a vendetta for McKeown’s vigorous support of a city-mandated “Living Wage” ordinance covering coastal workers and opposed by the hospitality industry in 2000 and 2002.
I’ve heard from several sources that their complaint was that McKeown asked potential guests not to register while on hotel property. My informants say this so angered ETMC management that they vowed to “make him pay."
I e-mailed McKeown about this and he responded, “I did go on property as a member of community delegations asking management to reconsider their rejection of more dignified treatment of their workers, but while there, I never spoke to potential guests.” McKeown said that when off site, when asked, he would respond by telling members of the public which hotels were union and treated their workers with respect, but never sought out potential guests.
Nevertheless, ETMC forged ahead with its ill-advised campaign which produced a backlash. When the dust settled, McKeown came out on top.
While SMSP spinmeisters are proclaiming “victory,” the truth is they and the hotel money machine lost big time. The backlash produced sympathy votes and made McKeown a winner. Holbrook retained his seat, so no gain there. O’Day lost despite his own $70,000-plus war chest (with numerous contributions from ETMC associates, real estate interests, developers, attorneys and architects) and a couple hundred thousand more dollars in support from SMSP’s PAC.
The hotel train wreck was so negatively received that O’Day may have also lost enough votes to finish out of the money. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the backlash had taken out third-place finisher Holbrook, too.
Once again, the hotels and political activists in the business community demonstrated that they can’t figure it out. The Slatkin brothers and ETMC president and COO Tim Dubois have managed to make bitter enemies throughout the community and have fostered animosities and distrust that will take years to recover from.
Seth Jacobson is the point PR man and dirty trickster leading the phony SMSP circus. His arrogant sidekick Bob Hattoy made repeated mindless pronouncements about ineffective community activists and conspiratorial pro-McKeown demonstrators, also raising community dander.
Westwood Village-based Dolphin Group, notorious for their inflammatory national political campaigns supporting mostly right wing causes, is also involved. And, there’s other “consultants” secreted behind the scenes. They’re all culpable for a public relations disaster of major magnitude. It’s time to clean shop and start over if the Slatkins, DuBois and their cohorts ever expect to win friends and be halfway politically effective.
The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City’s mailer accusing council three-term incumbent Pam O’Connor of selling out to special interests by accepting financial contributions from Macerich Company associates before she was to vote on a revised makeover for their aging shopping mall seemed to have little impact. O’Connor, also endorsed by SMRR, finished second.
The bottom line is that the overwhelming reason why votes fell where they did was SMRR’s ability to deliver.SMRR placed all four of its candidates on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board and all four of its endorsees on the College Board of Trustees.
They even prevailed on endorsed ballot measures. The school bond measure and civil service amendments were approved handily, and the Clean Water and Beaches measure is leading by the slimmest of margins (as of this writing.) Despite talk of dissension and disagreement within the ranks, SMMR has flexed its muscles and scored a knockout. In the mean-time, the opposition can only spit out inanities like a potty-mouthed child while flat-out refusing to connect with the community Pathetic. But, it all washed out in the voting booth.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.