No quips about quitting, Morea asserts she’s still here
By SUSAN TAM Special to the Daily Press
City Council candidate Kathryn Morea felt her campaign was cruising along just fine, that is until one resident told her he was surprised to hear she was still running.
According to Morea, when she announced her recent decision to leave the Team for Change slate, a whole contingent of voters may have assumed she was dropping out of the race altogether.
“I think people just see ‘Morea quits’ and jump to the wrong conclusion,” she said.
According to Morea, a number of people have stopped her to inquire as to why she had dropped out of contention, run-ins the would-be councilmember found disheartening to say the least.
Last week, Morea voluntarily resigned from the Team for Change slate — which also includes Bill Bauer and David Cole — over a conflict of interests stemming from her endorsement by the local chamber of commerce. Morea’s decision to split with her former running mates left her scrambling to come up with new mailers, lawn signs and her own Web site. She estimates the whole process has set her back more than $1,000.
“I’ve more than made up for it, the money is definitely coming in now, in droves,” she said. “I never stopped fundraising.”
Morea attributes her recent momentum to the chamber endorsement, which, she feels, elevated her visibility in business circles. Still, it’s the voters who will decide whether or not she will take a seat on the City Council in November, so the misinterpretations of her split with Cole and Bauer is bothersome.
“When you work so hard, and people believe that you’ve given up because they didn’t read (all the information), it’s terrible,” she admits.
“It bothered me and I want to set the record straight.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.