Green Party candidate will continue to campaign
A division within a politically influential renters group may allow its unorganized opponents a shot at victory in this fall’s city council election.
Some believe a faction of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, splintered after the endorsement of local activist Abby Arnold, may coalesce around the campaign of Josefina Aranda, which may not leave enough votes for either candidate to win the city council seat held by Bob Holbrook, who is running for re-election.
“I think the effect of (Aranda) running is more likely to help elect people from the hotel, developer, landlord coalition,” said Denny Zane, a SMRR co-chair. “And I think that’s regrettable.”
Zane hopes Aranda will stay involved within SMRR but take the sidelines this election for the good of the group.
“I think Josefina is a gem and I really look forward to having her as a long-term member in the community and in SMRR,” he said. “But I think she should let these wounds heal and be a force united.”
Aranda supporters say they are not going to spoil this November’s election by continuing to promote her for a council seat.
“If anybody did any spoiling it’s those who spoiled the endorsement process with their manipulation, and it remains in the residents’ hands about who they want on the council to serve them,” said Mayor Mike Feinstein, an Aranda supporter and SMRR’s highest elected official.
Aranda, a Green Party member like Feinstein and current councilman Kevin McKeown, is a resident of the Pico neighborhood, an area of the city’s eastside that is marked by gang violence. For decades, the neighborhood has not had representation on the city council.
“I think that Josefina has every chance to win in November,” Feinstein said. “She is a natural listener and integrator that is exactly the right person for the political vacuum that has been created by the ill-conceived endorsement (of Arnold) that we have seen this past week.”
Arnold’s detractors say she does not believe in rent control and tenants’ rights issues strongly enough, and at least two council members believe she was endorsed because of the machinations of a local union representing hotel workers.
Aranda said she does not see herself as a spoiler and she vows to continue her campaign until the end.
“I don’t believe any candidate should look at themselves as a spoiler,” she said. “You are going to run a campaign because of the issues you believe are important to the community. I am about including as many people as possible into a campaign that can represent all voices of Santa Monica.”
And Aranda discounts the claims that her candidacy will only weaken SMRR’s chances of winning Holbrook’s seat.
“I think it’s just another way to paint some criticism for my candidacy,” she said. “I think people know better than that because my candidacy stands on its own and because there are issues that are important to me.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 12, 2002. Read the original PDF.