The nomination period has closed for most of the 2018 election races and 24 individuals have filed paperwork to run for one of the 14 seats available this year.
Several candidates are still waiting to officially qualify for the ballot. Potential candidates have to gather 100 signatures from registered voters and those signatures must be validated by the County. That process will take several days and the wait time is often longest at the conclusion of the nomination period as the county deals with a flood of deadline-beating submissions.
All eligible incumbents filed to run in the Council, Rent Control and School Board races. One eligible incumbent for the College Board, Andrew Walzer, did not file to retain his seat and the nomination period for that race will be extended to August 15.
Nine candidates have filed paperwork for one of three seats on City Council: Sue Himmelrich (Incumbent), Ashley Powell, Kevin McKeown (Incumbent), Greg Morena, Scott Bellomo, Whitney Scott Bain, Pam O’Connor (Incumbent), Nathaniel I. Jones Jr. and Geoffrey Neri.
Five individuals have submitted for the three seats on the Rent Control Board: Lori Brown, Naomi Sultan, Steven Duron (Incumbent), Nicole Phillis (Incumbent) and Jon Mann.
Five applications were received for four seats on the School Board: Laurie Lieberman (Incumbent), Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein (Incumbent), Craig Foster (Incumbent), Ann Thanawalla and Oscar de la Torre (Incumbent).
Five residents applied for four seats on the Santa Monica College Board: Nancy Greenstein (Incumbent), Barry A. Snell (Incumbent), Louise Jaffe (Incumbent), Sion Roy and Patrick Acosta II.
Potential candidates have one more chance to participate in the election as Write-in candidates.
Write-in candidates must gather 100 signatures, pay a nominal fee and fill out an application with the City Clerk before they are qualified. The process is similar to that of other candidates but write-in candidates do not appear on the ballot. Voters will be given a list of valid write-in candidates on election day.
The nomination period for Write-in candidates is from September 10 – Oct. 8.