City Councilman Mike Feinstein isn’t one of them
By JOHN F. MULLER Special to the Daily Press
In the first of a series of endorsements for City Council candidates by local political groups, a group of living wage supporters voted this week to back two incumbents and two challengers in November’s race.
Presented with the same council choices the Santa Monican’s for Renters’ Rights will face this Sunday, the Coalition for the Living Wage voted to support Mayor Richard Bloom and City Councilman Ken Genser, as well as former school board member Patricia Hoffman and Pico neighborhood activist Maria Loya. City Councilman Michael Feinstein did not earn a nod.
None of the other 30 council hopefuls interviewed with the living wage group, whose members cast their votes through secret ballots following a series of interviews. The coalition, which has been in existence since 1996, will provide its candidates of choice with volunteer campaign workers from its union base.
Coalition members wouldn’t elaborate on why Feinstein didn’t get the endorsement, but he has not gone without criticism in recent years by community members.
For the past three and a half years, Feinstein has been battling accusations that he misappropriated money within the Green Party. A former Green Party member donated $10,000 intended for the Los Angeles County Green Party, but the check was deposited into a personal account Feinstein controls. He hasn’t show bank records to Green Party officials, despite repeated requests from them.
Feinstein has declined to comment about the Green Party controversy to the Daily Press.
Feinstein also criticized the coalition’s choice not to endorse a fellow Green Party member in 2002.
“There were 31 people voting, and there were probably 31 ideas of why they voted the way they did,” said Vivian Rothstein, a member of the coalition and the director of the Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART). Rothstein has been a key player in several of the living wage proposals. “I don’t know why they didn’t choose Feinstein.”
Abby Arnold, who is also a member of the coalition and received its endorsement in 2002 when she made an unsuccessful run for a council seat, said she thought many coalition members were unhappy with Feinstein’s criticism in 2002. She also pointed out that he has traditionally had strategies for implementing the living wage that differ from the coalition’s.
“A lot of people are angry at Michael because he ran a candidate against me for the coalition’s endorsement two years ago and actively promoted her campaign even though she wasn’t endorsed by either SMRR or the coalition and did a hit piece on me the day before the election,” she said. “Some people see that as not being loyal to the Coalition for the Living Wage and SMRR.”
Feinstein issued a statement via e-mail to address the coalition’s decision.
“My unwavering commitment to improving the lives of working people speaks for itself,” he said in the statement, “and no political process will derail it.”
The City Council took steps last month to establish an $11.50 minimum wage for local government workers and government contractors at the urging of Rothstein and SMART. Next year’s budget has $300,000 set aside to cover the added expenses of the new policies, which are expected to be passed by the council sometime this fall, city officials said.
In a contentious community battle, a living wage proposal was narrowly defeated in 2002 that would have required businesses in the coastal zone that made more than $5 million in revenue annually to pay their employees $10.50 an hour with benefits, or $12.50 without.
The coalition’s choices might have an impact on how SMRR will act on Sunday, Arnold said.
“The coalition’s endorsements could be an indicator,” she said. “You never know though. There are all kinds of rumors flying around about who’s bringing who to the SMRR convention and what they’re going to do when they get there... The fact is that SMRR has something like 8,000 members in Santa Monica, the vast majority of whom have never been to any events. On a good year we get 250 or 300 people at a convention out of the 8,000. If people get some of those other people to show up, you can never tell what’s going to happen.”
Along with its council choices, the coalition announced it would back incumbents Jose Escarce and Maria Leon- Vasquez as well as Kathy Wisnicki, a Malibu parent who has been active in school and city politics. It also will endorse Doug Willis and Susan Aminoff for the SMC Board of Trustees.
Those five candidates also got the nod from the Education Team, a group of Santa Monica and Malibu teachers and faculty.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 29, 2004. Read the original PDF.