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# SMRR opts to wimp out Saving us from federal tyranny
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smrr-opts-to-wimp-out-saving-us-from-federal-tyranny-editor/
- Published: 2008-08-11T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:37:18.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By When not attending political meetings, Bill Bauer*

ONE OF THE CITY’S MOST IMPORTANT meetings was held last Sunday at Olympic High School. The occasion: the Annual Congress of the city’s powerful political organization, Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights.

SMRR Congresses are informal home-comings with many old-timers showing up to socialize and politicize. Despite the casual, almost folksy atmosphere, during election years, this gathering is extremely important because candidates for office and ballot initiatives endorsed generally receive a large renter vote. Renters constitute about 2/3 of the city’s 57,455 registered voters.

The first real rift occurred over RIFT, the Residents Initiative to Fight Traffic. A debate on the ballot measure that restricts commercial development in the city for the next 15 years found City Councilman Kevin McKeown and Diana Gordon from the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (RIFT’s sponsor) taking the affirmative.

Former Rent Control Board Chair, Alan Toy and current School Board President Oscar de la Torre led the “Nays." Councilmembers Ken Genser, Richard Bloom and Pam O’Connor oppose RIFT as does veteran SMRR power broker and former mayor/councilmember Judy Abdo, who’s also co-chair of the business backed, anti-RIFT “Save Our City.”

After the debate, a nearly split membership vote was too close to call. (Too close to call?) Then the membership voted not to take any position to avoid nasty fighting in the ranks. It was especially fun to observe Abdo and others trying to manipulate the voting.

SMRR icon, former councilmember and Rent Control Board chair, Delores Press, differed with de la Torre who suggested “reaching out to the business community" opposing RIFT. She admonished members "not to climb into the politically soiled bed with developers and the Chamber of Commerce."

RIFT has placed SMRR between a rock and a hard place. With SMRR leaders and members alike deeply divided on the proposition, many felt that taking a stand would create party disunity Nevertheless, this still leaves an organization that always prides itself as “antidevelopment and slow growth” refusing to endorse a much needed ballot measure limiting commercial development.

We all know SMRR and it’s politicians aren’t really antigrowth — all that development pays for their social programs and public housing. But, by not taking a strong, slow growth stand, SMRR wimped out.

The three incumbents seeking reelection to the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees — Margaret Quiñónez-Pérez, Susan Aminoff and Rob Rader — received quick endorsements as did Rent Control Board candidates: incumbent, Joel Koury and newcomer, Christopher Braun.

With four open City Council seats available, the group quickly endorsed incumbents Richard Bloom and Ken Genser, but balked on endorsing newcomer, Ted Winterer. Strategically speaking, endorsing two candidates for four positions isn’t a smart move.

Leaving seats unopposed opens the door for non-SMRR incumbents (Bobby Shriver and Herb Katz) or maybe even a dark house candidate or two with strong special interest backing to pick up lots of renter votes and reduce SMRR’s grip on city government.

There are four open seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education. Three candidates were endorsed: veteran SMRR member and two-term school board member Maria Leon-Vazquez and longtime SMRR insider Ralph Mechur, an interim appointee who would serve the last two years in Emily Broomfield’s vacated seat. The membership also endorsed newbie Ben Allen, a former University of California Student Regent and a Santa Monica High graduate (1996) with degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and UC Berkeley Law School.

With a long string of school district screw-ups — the latest concerning the accuracy of student dropout figures supplied to the California Department of Education (due to supposedly mixed up exit codes) — and a decade long history of fiscal mismanagement, it’s obvious why BOE incumbents should be retired.

Two-termer, Leon-Vazques pitched her loyalty and years of service to SMRR and members responded with an endorsement. Two term incumbent, Jose Escarce, also endorsed previously, narrowly failed to win endorsement due to intense back room politicking by angry special education parents even though he had the classroom teachers union support. Because SMRR’s Steering Committee can endorse candidates and ballot propositions after the Congress, rumor is they still might declare “support” for Escarce at an upcoming Steering Committee meeting. Big mistake.

Unfortunately, former Samohi and John Adams school PTSA president, Judith Meister and high school teacher, Chris Bley were passed over — blowing an excellent opportunity to clean house on the troubled BOE while transfusing much needed new blood into the aging and weakening political group.

Because lengthy associations and party loyalty carry so much weight, competence and governing ability are often ignored during the endorsement process. It’s why SMRR recycles multi-term politicians who haven’t solved problems in three, four or five terms in office while new faces with fresh perspectives and exciting ideas languish on the sidelines.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 11, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081108.pdf?ref=smdp.com)