CITYWIDE — The makeup of the City Council will remain the same, at least for another two years, as all three incumbents were re-elected Tuesday night.
Kevin McKeown came out on top with 12,033 votes, followed by Pam O’Connor with 11,374 votes,and Bob Holbrook with 11,142 votes, according to county election officials.
Planning Commissioner Terry O’Day, making his first run for the council, made an impressive showing, coming in fourth with 9,927 votes. He was followed by newcomer Gleam Davis, an education advocate who pulled in 8,162 votes.
Event planner Jenna Linnekens, who also made her first run for council, came in sixth with 2,578 votes. Entertainment consultant Terence Later finished seventh (2,217 votes), followed by real estate agent Mark McLellan (1,861 votes), homeless advocate Linda Armstrong (1,532 votes) and flight attendant Jonathan Mann (1,369 votes).
While the results will not be finalized until Dec. 5, as the Los Angeles County Registrar/Recorder continues to count absentee and provisional ballots, political pundits do not expect any dramatic changes.
For McKeown, the victory was monumental given the fact that he received more votes than any other candidate despite a heavily-financed campaign by the hospitality industry to remove him from office.
The Beverly Hills-based Edward Thomas Management Company, operators of Shutters on the Beach and the Casa del Mar Hotel, spent nearly $400,000 on a combination of negative campaign ads that blasted McKeown and mailers supporting Holbrook and O’Day.
McKeown said he will use the next four years to get a comprehensive, campaign finance reform package passed to lessen the influence of political action committees that are not hindered by the strict fundraising laws that candidates for City Council must abide by. “(The results) tell me Santa Monicans pay attention to the real issues and are resistant to distorted, although, well-funded messages,” McKeown said Wednesday, one day after his election triumph. “This wasn’t about me. This is about our community coming together to make a statement about where we together wanted to go... No future candidate should have to go through being a human piñata to serve her or his neighbors.”
While many would see McKeown’s re-election as a defeat for Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities (SMSP),which coordinated the anti-McKeown campaign, Seth Jacobson, a spokesman for the group, said he was happy with the election results because Holbrook was re-elected along with O’Connor,a moderate on the council who has been able to connect with both the business community and Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR), the city’s ruling political party that has often bumped heads with developers.
“We knew from our polling that the incumbents had a significant advantage,” Jacobson said. “And our priority was always to support Mr. Holbrook and try to get Mr. O’Day elected... We are happy that after a stream of attacks — including six extremely vicious direct pieces of mail attacking Mr. Holbrook and Mr. O’Day, one as late as Tuesday morning from SMRR, we were able to assist in Holbrook’s re-election.”
Jacobson said despite O’Day having zero name recognition coming into the race, the candidate performed “extremely well” and that he has a future in local politics if he chooses to run again. Jacobson also expressed regret that the negative attacks by SMRR and the SMSP campaigns overshadowed the “80 percent” of positive campaigning SMSP engaged in on behalf of Holbrook and O’Day.
The attack ads on McKeown and the attention they generated may have made if difficult for O’Day, Davis and other newcomers to reach voters, overshadowing their efforts.
“I think even though we didn’t engage in any negative campaigning, we ended up associated with some of that, and that was tough to overcome as a first-time candidate,” O’Day said. “We did everything we could... and I realized just how hard it is to beat an incumbent in this city.
“For a first-time candidate, I think we made a great showing.”
“For a first-time candidate, I think we made a great showing.” — TERRY O’DAY CITY COUNCIL RUNNER-UP
Now that she has another four years on the dais and the MTA board, O’Connor said she is looking forward to using some of the bond money approved by voters statewide to extend the Exposition Light Rail line to Santa Monica and fund other traffic improvement projects to help relieve congestion on the Westside. She also looks forward to continuing her work on updating City Hall’s land use policies to bring them up to date.
A veteran with 12 years of experience on the council, O’Connor said she was never nervous on election night.
“You can never get anxious about the election because whatever happens is going to happen,” O’Connor said. “You’ve got to trust that you’ve done everything you can do during the campaign season and then you sit and wait for the outcome. I’ve always said being on the council is something I enjoy doing, but it does not define who I am.”
With another term in front of him, Holbrook said he is looking forward to continuing working on reducing the homeless population in Santa Monica. He said progress has been made, including an agreement that moves the feeding of the homeless indoors, and in turn, out of the city’s parks and off the lawn of City Hall.
Holbrook said he will also push for more improvements to the city’s infrastructure, which includes paving pockmarked streets and improving storm drains and water mains.
“I think we have put a good foot forward,” Holbrook said.“We just need to focus on fixing Santa Monica.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 9, 2006. Read the original PDF.