> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Spirited campaigns cloud the living wage issue - URL: https://www.smdp.com/spirited-campaigns-cloud-the-living-wage-issue/ - Published: 2002-11-04T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:50:40.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Voters left guessing on the living wage campaign* The coastal fog you think you are experiencing these days may not be from the weather. Instead, it may be the result of an emotional campaign high on platitudes and ground troops. And the ability to understand the living wage proposal is clouded by a campaign so aggressive that the debate now sounds like rhetoric and misinformation. The contentious battle between business interests and union supporters to make certain companies pay their workers a higher wage has put voters in the middle of a high stakes campaign to sway public opinion. The unintended consequence could be that voters are turned off, and they may stay away from the polls out of frustration or confusion. Special interests opposing the ordinance have used slick mailers and paid walkers to argue that the ordinance requiring businesses near the coast to pay their workers $12.25 an hour will hurt more than it will help. Their message is that the law is discriminatory and will harm businesses in Santa Monica. Meanwhile, the supporters of Measure JJ claim to have thousands of community backers who believe lifting low-wage workers out of poverty is the right thing to do. They say it’s a grassroots campaign. But it also is backed by its own array of special interests, specifically the hotel and restaurant workers union. The group has attempted for years to unionize local luxury hotels in Santa Monica. For the past several weeks, Santa Monicans have been inundated with phone calls and political door-to-door sales people. Mailboxes have been stuffed with brochures. Opinion pages of local newspapers have been filled with arguments over the living wage. What is fact and what is fiction can be impossible to determine. Both sides accuse the other of being disingenuous and using less than ethical tactics in their campaigns. A notable gimmick on the pro-living wage side offers Santa Monicans the opportunity to win a month’s free house cleaning from hotel housekeepers if they put a “Yes on JJ” sign in their lawn. Over on the anti-living wage side, a slick color mailer with a photo of the Montana Avenue Branch Library under construction indicates that it looks depilated when, in fact, it is undergoing a significant renovation. The mailer says libraries already are in trouble, and the living wage will hurt them because it will cost a cash-strapped city government at least $3 million to implement. Opponents suggest that because the city is facing millions of dollars in shortfalls, library budgets could be cut in the future. The reality, however, is that the city is actually investing in its libraries and will even build a new one in January. “That is just wrong,” said one resident, who asked not to be named. Asked why the campaign chose that tactic, “No on JJ” spokesman Seth Jacobsen quipped, “We couldn’t offer a free month of house cleaning.” “It’s hard to break through all of the clutter and you have to be dramatic sometimes,” Jacobsen added. “We have focused on the personal element of what are people really going to care about?” As of Friday, the opposing side had raised well over $600,000 from luxury hotels, area businesses and retailers in an attempt to tell voters they shouldn’t be forced to pay people $12.25 an hour. About 50 percent of that money has gone to paid canvassers, mostly workers at the hotels and restaurants, who have knocked on the doors of every citizen who has voted in the last two elections. The anti-living wage side also has many volunteers who are willing to spend their weekend knocking on doors. One beach hotel has reportedly offered workers as much as $26 an hour to go door to door on Election Day to convince last-minute voters to vote “no,” according to sources. Supporters of the living wage have run a much leaner campaign, raising more than $200,000 as of Friday. But clearly they have used their widespread community support as a foundation to get their message out. Their campaign also has focused on people walking door to door. Those walkers are either paid or would benefit from the wage increase. Others believe in the cause enough to volunteer their time. Hundreds of people took to the streets from both sides this weekend — the third sweep for opponents and the second for supporters — in a last ditch effort to pitch their views. Both sides have used a personal approach. They have been playing on what they believe is most important to Santa Monicans. Proponents play to emotions by telling stories of low-wage workers, mostly female housekeepers who can’t afford to live a decent life. 434,“We try to have a conversation with people for personal persuasion,” said Vivian Rothstein, head of the “Yes on JJ” campaign. “It’s a regular grassroots campaign.” > “No On JJ” — — VIVIAN ROTHSTEIN — SETH JACOBSEN > “Yes on JJ” While supporters have used emotional pleas, opponents have relied on classic “not in my backyard” issues they think are important to Santa Monicans — city services, children and school funding. They’ve also used personal pleas from hotel and restaurant workers, who tell people they are afraid of losing their jobs if the measure passes because they’ll be dismissed by businesses looking to preserve their bottom lines. “We are not saying the sky is falling,” said Jacobsen. “We’re just saying it will have an impact on workers and businesses. We’re making a personal appeal.” > “We are not saying the sky is falling. We’re just saying it will have an impact on workers and businesses. We’re making a personal appeal.” Both sides have used the media. But the measure’s supporters have been more successful in making front page headlines by staging countless rallies and protests with high-profile supporters. Folk singers Peter, Paul and Mary, for example, sang at a rally in front of City Hall, which drew many people who were just fans of their music. The claim by supporters that they have widespread support from across the city has been backed up by hundreds of civic leaders, educators, economists and clergy who endorse the cause. They have been seen protesting in front of hotels and at rallies. Their names are attached to dozens of guest commentaries in the local press. “We try to do events because we don’t have the money they do,” Rothstein said, adding the cause is reflective of how Santa Monicans feel about social justice. “To me, this is fighting for the heart and soul of this town, and they are trying to take it away from us.” The mailers — with both sides using high-profile endorsements — center around the campaign themes. Proponents use a central argument that over 100 economists agree the living wage will lift people out of poverty and allow them to avoid relying on government subsidies. For that reason, it’s the right thing to do and is supported broadly by the community, supporters argue. Opponents have used mailers mostly to stir up doubts by claiming that public funding for schools, senior programs and libraries could be cut. Some mailers say the law is discriminatory and will hurt hundreds of local businesses financially. They also say the law will prevent new business from coming to Santa Monica and will shrink the workforce here. One mailer shows a housekeeper from a hotel not affected by the proposed law saying she’s against it for those reasons. “The other side has been unbelievable,” Rothstein said, adding the anti-living wage side has outspent and outmailed her campaign. “I’ve gotten 10 pieces of mail so far and that doesn’t include the broadsheet from the hotels that say how wonderful they are.” > “The other side has been unbelievable. I’ve gotten 10 pieces of mail so far and that doesn’t include the broadsheet from the hotels that say how wonderful they are.” However, Jacobsen doesn’t believe supporters of the living wage have been honest either. He thinks the most disingenuous strategy has been hatched by a mail campaign telling sob stories from hotel housekeepers who in reality are paid close or at the proposed “living wage.” Some of the women profiled even get health insurance even though they say they don’t, he maintained. 592,“They have been playing the side of women who have issues of hardship and it’s hard to fight that,” Jacobsen said. “It’s disingenuous, and we’ve had to come back and fight that emotional argument.” Not suprisingly, Rothstein categorically denies Jacobsen’s claims. She said the housekeepers profiled in the mailers aren’t paid a decent wage. All voters are left with is their own intuitions about what’s truth and what isn’t. Jacobsen said the “No on JJ” campaign hasn’t done traditional phone banking like the supporters have. But opponents do have people calling voters to get them to turn out on Nov. 5. “I’ve been called six times by the labor organizations,” he said. “They are voracious.” And of course, Rothstein also claims the opponents are hitting the phones just as hard. Another effort, called “stunt” campaigning, is used by backers of the living wage. Supporters have walked into hotels and told workers how much they could benefit from the living wage law. Last week, supporters were reportedly kicked out by Shutters on the Beach security personnel after they attempted to hand out pamphlets to employees there, according to sources. And within the past few months, a few protests by supporters picketing hotels have been orchestrated. With so much about the living wage open only to speculation, much of what voters have to go on will come from guesswork. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110402-03_01.jpg) Canvassers get ready at campaign headquarters to walk door to door to drum up support in an effort to pass the proposed living wage law. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110402-03_02.jpg) of Seth Jacobsen Opponents of the proposed living wage measure include business interests, hotel and restaurant workers and citizens of Santa Monica. (Photo: Photo courtesy) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)