The cash is flowing and the mud is slinging in the race for Santa Monica City Council.
With a Thursday deadline to report fundraising showing another massive influx of cash into the race, candidates vying for this year's four open seats are now moving into the name-calling and accusations stage of the election.
The latest round of fiscal disclosures features a whopping $275,000 warchest controlled by the local hospitality union Unite Here Local 11 and a pair of vastly smaller purses from two local groups.
“Renters and Workers for Santa Monica in support of Hall, Raskin, Snell, Zernitskaya, and Against Brock for City Council 2024, Sponsored by UNITE HERE Local 11” reported a total of $275,000 in their filing this week. While they have budgeted for expenses of $87,500, the group still had $187,500 cash on hand as of Thursday.
Most of that cash came directly from the union’s national office who donated $150,000. Another $50,000 came from the Los Angeles office. Streets for All PAC donated $37,500 as did Abundant Santa Monica, Sponsored by Effective Government.
As the name suggests, the money will be funding a slate of challengers including Dan Hall, Ellis Raskin, Natalya Zernitskaya and Barry Snell. The quartet have positioned themselves in opposition to another slate featuring Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, Vivian Roknian and Jon Putnam who received their support from a rival committee, “Santa Monicans for a Real Positive Future Supporting Brock, de la Torre, Roknian and Putnam for Council 2024”. With a pair of $100,000 donations from Douglas Emmett Properties and Jerry A. Greenberg at the top, the group has picked up additional donations from Kilroy Realty ($25,000), Ben Marcus ($4,900) Boa Santa Monica ($1,000) and Sushi Roku Santa Monica ($1,000). After spending over $50,000 on candidate mailers, the group still has $181,557 in the bank.
A third organization representing the Santa Monica Police Officers Association has reported $25,177.50 in fundraising and $17,673 in expenses. The group’s cash on hand surpassed their total fundraising as it began the political season with a balance of $82,133.87. The group is backing an alternate group of candidates that features Erika Lesley, Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre and Vivian Roknian.
Santa Monica Forward reported total fundraising of $8,620 with an ending cash balance of $7,835.16.
The combined financial clout of the groups surpasses half a million dollars in funding for the Santa Monica City Council race without including donations to the individual campaigns.
Those individual campaigns have raised varying amounts so far but all are dwarfed by the independent expenditure figures.
Roknian was in first with $61,852 but more than half of that came from a $35,000 loan to herself. She ended the period with $19,235.13 in the bank.
According to the most recent filings Zernitskaya has raised the most without loans reporting $55,777.68 and $51,641.96 remaining. Hall is second, having raised $51,980.95 inclusive of a $1,000 loan and has $44,545.11 remaining. Third is Snell with $32,491.01 raised and $19,473.91 remaining. In fourth is Raskin who has raised $28,271 and has $13,283 remaining. Putnam reported $24,179 with a $4,000 loan and $6,013.85 on hand. Brock is next, having raised $24,395.01 with $10,176.53 remaining. Oscar de la Torre has reported the least with a total of $24,395 (including a $5,000 loan) and $16,218.48 remaining.
While Ericka Lesley shared the police union endorsement, she is not part of either slate. She reported a fundraising total of $11,207 (including a $6,000 loan) with an ending cash balance of $6,654.33.
The fiscal disclosures prompted a press release from Barry Snell’s campaign featuring the three current councilmembers who are not running this year. In the statement Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick criticized the donation from Douglas Emmett Properties specifically saying Brock and de la Torre will end rent control, increase homelessness and waste taxpayer dollars.
Torosis referenced a 2022 proposal that would have replaced the universal rent increases in rent controlled units with a split system allowing higher annual increases on units that were already in the top 50% by price and lowering rents on those in the cheaper half. She said that was a plan to gut rent control.
“Rent control is on the ballot this November, why else would landlords be cutting these massive checks?” she said.
In the statement, Councilmember Jesse Zwick said “Voters will not be fooled this election. No amount of money poured into this race by landlords will convince Santa Monica’s renters that they have their best interests at heart.”
Councilwoman Gleam Davis coined a new insult in her statement.
“The Change Slate should be called the Sellout Slate, because they are selling Santa Monica to the highest bidders,” stated Councilmember Gleam Davis. “Selling out renters, selling out our neighborhoods, and selling out our city’s commitment to transparency and rule of law.”
Both Brock and De la Torre responded by calling the attacks fiction designed to distract voters from the public safety crisis that they attribute to the city’s long standing political establishments who have endorsed their opponents.
"Voters in Santa Monica deserve better than the lies and fear mongering espoused by the establishment slate,” said de la Torre. “Who can trust Gleam Davis? A politician that claimed to be a "genetic Latina" for the purposes of thwarting Latino voting rights and fair elections in Santa Monica. I have a long history of supporting rent control and I have voted consistently to protect renters. In 2022 we voted to decrease the rent hikes to protect renters from evictions and displacement. Truth be told, I have done more in my 30 years of activism and public service to protect renters from displacement than the entire establishment slate put together. It's disappointing that Barry Snell would stoop so low as to engage in dirty politics when his record on the DTSM Board is abysmal. His failed leadership resulted in the worst economic downturn for the 3rd St Promenade hurting local businesses. How you run for office is an indicator of how you will govern. Voters in Santa Monica should take notice of the mud slingers trying to take power to ruin our City.”
Brock issued a lengthy statement disputing the accusations and saying the attacks were an attempt to sell a utopian ideology rather than deal with the city’s homelessness and crime problems.
“It is clear who the sellouts are,” he said. “The SMRR and pseudo-democratic ticket have sold out our safety and security and allowed the Promenade to deteriorate for almost a decade by being unwilling to own up to the economic disaster that was brewing in our city and reigning in homelessness. It’s no longer “WOKE” time in the city we love. It is time to have compassionate accountability toward the homeless who inhabit our streets, parks, and alleys. There is no longer time to ignore the needs of our residents and businesses to have a safe environment. Ask yourself if SMRR’s policies have made you safer, as demonstrated by the three incumbents listed above (Davis, Torosis, Zwick)."
