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# SMRR convention settles endorsements
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smrr-convention-settles-endorsements/
- Published: 2002-08-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:35:20.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*All candidates pledge to uphold group’s tenets*

*By JASON AUSLANDER Special to the Daily Press*

Amid calls for improved public schools, social and economic justice and continued protection from landlords, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights elected its 12th slate of candidates Sunday.

“There was lots of competition this year,” said Denny Zane, the party’s co-chair. “The only surprise was how well everybody got along.”

The powerful, so-called “non-political” party controls a majority of seats on the city council, rent control board, school district board and the Santa Monica College Board.

The group also threw its support behind several ballot measures, including the living wage proposal and a plan to raise the parcel tax $300 to benefit the school district.

Topping the list of Santa Monica City Council candidates who will be officially endorsed by SMRR on the Nov. 5 general election ballot were incumbents Pam O’Connor and Kevin McKeown. Joining them was activist Abby Arnold, whose endorsement was opposed by Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein and councilmen Richard Bloom and Ken Genser — all SMRR members.

Pico neighborhood resident Josefina Aranda and physician Matteo Dinolfo did not receive enough votes to get the SMRR endorsement.

Three seats on the seven-member council will be open in November. SMRR currently controls five of those seven seats.

For the four open seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board, the tenants’ rights party endorsed incumbent Julia Brownley, as well as Missing out on an SMRR endorsement were Shane McLoud, Ann Cochran and Brenda Gottfried. SMRR currently controls five of the seven seats on the school district board.

Hammering out the endorsements for the Santa Monica College Board was perhaps the most complicated and oddest portion of the afternoon.

First, while there will be four seats open on the board in November, Zane told members that SMRR will only endorse two candidates. He later explained that because three SMRR incumbents will be returning to the board, it would be “unhealthy” for the party to win every spot on the seven-seat board. The group currently controls four of the seven seats.

Second, during the course of making their three-minute presentation to the party faithful, two candidates for the SMC board — Patrick McGuire and Ryan Flegal — withdrew from the race. Both threw their support behind Nancy Greenstein, who served as moderator for most of the day’s business.

Greenstein and incumbent Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison eventually garnered the endorsements. Nancy Cattell and Joe Weichman were not endorsed.

Betty Mueller, Alan Toy and Jennifer Kennedy received endorsements for the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, whose five seats are currently controlled by SMRR.

All candidates pledged to uphold the group’s tenets, including protecting tenants’ rights, resisting large and inappropriate development, allocating more funds for public education and continuing to stand up for social and economic justice.

Many of those themes were highlighted during explanations of six November ballot measures the party feels strongly about. Two of these — the Santa Monica Living Wage Law and a $300 increase in the parcel tax — were cited and endorsed by nearly every candidate who spoke.

The living wage law would raise the minimum wage for low-income workers at coastal Santa Monica luxury hotels that earn more than $5 million a year from $6.75 to $10.50 with health benefits or $12.25 without benefits.

SMRR officials also urged party members to vote yes on a measure that makes it illegal to evict renters if the person whose name is on the lease dies or is incapacitated, and another to double the pay for rent control board members from $75 a meeting to $150 a meeting, plus health benefits.

SMRR officials recommended to vote “no” for the so-called Veritas measure, which would create a more powerful mayor and allow residents to vote for only the councilmember in their district, instead of all seven. They also urged a “no” vote against a condominium-coversion measure, which SMRR says will result in tenants being kicked out of their apartments.

Approximately 250 people attended the annual meeting, held at Olympic High School, 721 Ocean Park Blvd.

“This is the largest Santa Monica Renters’ Rights Convention I’ve ever seen,” said Councilman Kevin McKeown, a veteran of six such conventions.

Denny Zane, who has been involved with SMRR since it began in 1976, said it wasn’t the largest SMRR convention he’d seen, but the “competition was stronger than normal.”

“There were lots of good candidates,” he said. “For every seat, there is somebody that our members would say, ‘I wish there was one more seat.’”

> “There were lots of good candidates. For every seat, there is somebody that our members would say, ‘I wish there was one more seat.’” — — KEVIN McKEOWN Santa Monica Councilman

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)