Unity candidates shuffle positions but keep top spots after Wednesday update

The Unity Slate backed by Santa Monica’s progressive establishment appeared to win all four seats on City Council Tuesday night and the group has only increased its margin of election victory with subsequent vote counts. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, the results for City Council were: 

Snell overtook Zernitskaya for third place but all four Unity Slate candidates remained in position to win all four open seats for City Council.

Hall, Raskin, Zernitskaya and Snell ran as a slate as did Brock, de la Torre, Roknian and Putnam. 

“It was really exciting to see the fruition of such a long campaign, or the support of the different organizations and the people and the volunteers who have been out there knocking on 12,000 doors this cycle for me and for our slate,” said Hall after seeing the first wave of results. “I hope the results hold, but so far, it looks promising and just really grateful for all the work that everyone's done, because we know Santa Monica needs to change, and we're excited that things are looking good so far."

Raskin was also cautiously optimistic after seeing the early election results. 

“It's promising, but still very preliminary,” he said. “I think one of the things that we saw in 2022 was that the very first round of returns was really the high water mark for progressive candidates, and so I'll be curious to see if there's a similar trend as results continue to come through.”

He said the results reflected the fact that voters desperately want progressivism and candidates who really stand for the values that voters search for in the race. 

“And I hope that we can get back to a sense of ending this divisiveness that's really come over us for the last few months. And I hope we can turn a corner and start a new day in Santa Monica, no matter what, no matter what the end result is.”

While there was some minor rearranging of candidates as vote totals increased, the Unity Slate’s dominance in the election has not changed and the fifth place candidate, Brock, has remained about 1,000 votes behind the fourth place candidate, Snell, throughout several result updates. 

Outside the Council race, voters approved a pair of local tax increases, one on parking lots and the other on business licenses. Voters also approved new school bonds for both Santa Monica and Malibu. 

Beyond City Council

The election for Santa Monica's Measure QS, needing 55% of the vote to authorize $495 million for facility work like repairing and replacing leaky school roofs, had 62.51% of the vote as of Wednesday morning. While less than the 72% approval for 2018's Measure SMS, the bond's likely passage (along with 60.33% of the vote for Malibu's Measure MM) was greeted enthusiastically by Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board officials.

"These strong results not only demonstrate the community's trust in our mission, but also affirm their understanding of the critical need for improved facilities that will directly benefit our students' academic success and overall well-being," SMMUSD Superintendent Dr. Antonio Shelton said.

Michael Dubin, co-chair of the Measure QS committee, added that the likely passage shows "continued support from the community for public education in Santa Monica."

"Obviously, people know that we need upgraded facilities," Dubin said. "Some of it, the facilities are 60, 70 years old and haven’t been upgraded to the point of replacement which they need."

Elections for Rent Control Board and Santa Monica City College were canceled due to a lack of candidates and while there was an election for School Board, the lone challenger pulled out of the race after qualifying leaving the three incumbents (Jennifer Smith, Maria Leon Vazquez and Jon Kean) functionally unopposed. 

At the County level, the proposal to expand the Board of Supervisors remains too close to call Wednesday morning. Incumbent District Attorney George Gascon lost his seat to challenger Nathan Hochman. 

Statewide, voters rejected efforts to expand rent control, but supported a proposition to tighten criminal penalties. 

Reactions

Speaking to the Daily Press on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Phil Brock said, "We don't have any idea what the final results of the election in Santa Monica will be at this point. So Election Day returns have not been posted, so there's, there's a large number of votes still to count, so I have no idea how it will turn out.

"If I am ultimately defeated, I'll hold this memory of the honor of being the mayor of the city of my birth, near and dear to me the rest of my life, If I'm able to continue on the city council, I will stand firm and my support for all the residents of our city."

If de la Torre had been successful in his re-election bid, he would have become Mayor in 2025. If he is not re-elected, Vice Mayor Lana Negrete will become Mayor.

"What I'm looking forward to is bringing together people and running a smooth meeting," Negrete said, adding, "I'm looking forward to working together, on whatever we can, and allowing people to have their space, to have that conversation without it devolving into a [late night] catastrophe."

She stressed that the role of Mayor carries no additional power over any other councilmember, "except for the fact that we attend a lot of more ceremonial things and there are a few more meetings involved," she said.

"My only concern is that there won't be as much of a diversity of voices, but I hope that I can help engage young people in our meetings and engage parts of the community that haven't been paying very much attention to our city council meetings, get them involved in our boards and commissions and get them involved in local politics.

"I can tell you that really late meetings, arguing over non-related issues and needlessly diving down irrelevant rabbit holes, is not how you get people excited to engage in civic duty," Negrete said, adding, "I do hope so very much that we don't lose the opportunity to have civic engagement and political discussions that are robust and still include a variety of voices from the community."

Matthew Hall, Thomas Leffler and Scott Snowden