Santa Monica voters reelected City Council incumbents Lana Negrete and Caroline Torosis and approved a series of tenant protection measures in Tuesday's election. Newcomer Ashley Oelsen will take the third open council seat as consecutive updates have only widened her lead over other candidates.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's 9:21 a.m. update showed 34,311 ballots counted in Santa Monica. That's about 49% of the city's 69,904 registered voters. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can still arrive through next week, and results will not be certified until Nov. 27. However, given Santa Monica’s likely total voter turnout based on past elections, fourth place candidate Doug Trussler would have to secure about 45% of the remaining votes to surpass Oelsen, more than double his average so far.
City Council
Negrete led the 12-candidate field with 13,567 votes, or 16.1%. Torosis was second with 12,992 votes, or 15.4%. Oelsen was third with 11,745 votes, or 13.9%.
Doug Trussler was fourth with 10,155 votes, 1,590 behind Oelsen. Oelsen's lead grew from 1,511 votes after the latest update. Brett Morrow had 9,676 votes and Daniel Ivanov had 9,655. Phil Brock was next with 5,840.
Ericka Lesley, Derrick Townsend, Eli Gill, Lindsay Davis and Wade Kelley each had less than 5% of the vote.
Rent Control Board
Sue Himmelrich, incumbent Kurt Gonska and Heather Thomason won the three Rent Control Board seats. Himmelrich led with 19,194 votes, followed by Gonska with 17,190 and Thomason with 14,180.
Thomason was 7,420 votes ahead of fourth-place Soledad Marcial, who had 6,760. Zoë Muntaner had 5,913.
School and college boards
Incumbents Alicia Mignano, Laurie Lieberman and Stacy Rouse were reelected to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education. Robbie Staenberg also won a seat. Mignano led with 21,542 votes and Staenberg was second with 19,964. Harry Leshner finished fifth, 8,857 votes out of a seat.
On the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees, incumbents Sion Roy, Tom Peters and Luis Barrera Castanon were reelected and Kera Blades-Snell won the fourth seat. Oscar de la Torre was fifth with 11,951 votes, 5,091 behind Blades-Snell.
Local measures
Voters approved four tenant and tax measures by wide margins:
- **Measure RR** bars evictions for nonpayment when a tenant owes less than one month of fair-market rent. It was passing with 71% of the vote.
- **Measure TT** keeps hotel tax rates and lets the city tax long corporate stays during major events. It had 73.1%.
- **Measure VV** extends eviction protections to tenants in single-family homes and condominiums. It had 61.8%.
- **Measure GG** updates the Rent Control charter. It affirms just-cause eviction rules, allows commissioners to serve three terms and raises the cap on registration fees. It had 58.9%.
Voters have rejected Measure ES. The $495-per-parcel tax would raise about $12 million a year for Santa Monica-Malibu public schools. It had 47.1% yes to 52.9% no, a gap of 1,804 votes. While the race is still close, the no side grew its lead slightly in Thursday's update and the outstanding ballots would have to differ significantly from those counted so far to make up the difference.
Regional races
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., won reelection in the 36th Congressional District with 71.7% of the vote over Republican Houston Brignano.
In the 24th State Senate District, Brian Goldsmith beat fellow Democrat John Erickson, 57.2% to 42.8%. Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles, was reelected in the 51st District with 62% over Colin Hernandez.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna was reelected with 69.2% over former Sheriff Alex Villanueva. County Measures A and E were both passing.
In the Los Angeles mayor's race, Nithya Raman beat Mayor Karen Bass with 52.1% to 47.9%, a lead of 34,654 votes. About 884,000 Los Angeles city ballots had been counted.
Statewide, Democrat Xavier Becerra was elected governor with 64.4% of the vote over Republican Steve Hilton.
The county's next results update is scheduled for 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday.