Endorsements flowing in for campaign 2004
By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer
ST. ANNE’S CHURCH — Three local incumbents failed this week to garner the support of the Santa Monica Democratic Club in their repeat bid for Santa Monica City Council.
The club elected to endorse Mayor Richard Bloom, councilman Ken Genser and former school board president Patricia Hoffman. Pico neighborhood activist Maria Loya initially failed to garner the 60 percent vote, but was endorsed in a run-off with Matteo Dinolfo.
Dinolfo, incumbent Herb Katz and Bobby Shriver didn’t receive enough votes to be endorsed.
There are 15 candidates running for four open City Council seats. Up for reelection are Mike Feinstein, Katz, Genser and Bloom.
Incumbent candidate Margaret R. Quinones didn’t receive backing in her run for the Santa Monica College board of trustees, despite having been a member of the club for more than 10 years. Professor Susan Aminoff also came up short, with the endorsement going instead to local attorney Rob Rader and Doug Willis, an accountant. There are three open seats on the SMC board.
Members also voted to endorse incumbent Maria Leon-Vazquez and local volunteer Kathy Wisnicki in the race for the board of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, shutting out incumbent Jose Escarce and Pico neighborhood parent Ana Maria Jara. There are three open seats on the school board.
“It is unusual for an incumbent not to be endorsed,” said club president Julie Lopez Dad. “What happened this year is that we had a lot of good candidates. In practical terms, that means someone who is good won’t get in.”
“It is unusual for an incumbent not to be endorsed.” — – JULIE LOPEZ DAD Santa Monica Democratic Club President
Flanked by posters demanding an end to the war in Iraq and declaring 2004 the “Year of the Democrat,” each of the candidates took the microphone at St. Anne’s Catholic Church Wednesday night and told the audience of about 75 people why they wanted the club’s endorsement.
Members then cast votes for four of the seven city council contenders who are Democrats, and three each of the four school and college board candidates. Candidates who received 60 percent of the votes were automatically endorsed. The candidates who received at least 20 percent were entered into a run-off election.
Already, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, a powerful political group that has supported a majority of elected leaders for the last 26 years, has handed out endorsements in all four races. SMRR’s backing is worth tens of thousands of dollars to candidates, as the group sends out election mailers and employs a team of supporters to canvas local neighborhoods before each election.
For the SMC board, it dumped Quinones to support Aminoff, Rader and Willis. In the local school board race, it will back Escarce and Leon-Vazquez and Jara.
In the City Council race, SMRR members voted to back incumbent Mayor Bloom, alongside Genser, Hoffman and Loya.
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 group has criticized City Hall for, among other things, allowing homelessness and government 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 toward the homeless and its excessive bureaucracy, as well as other issues.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 27, 2004. Read the original PDF.