OCEAN PARK — Santa Monica’s most influential political organization threw its weight behind Torie Osborn for the 50th Assembly District at its meeting Sunday despite calls from Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom to not endorse in the primary.
Bloom, who is also running in the 50th along with Assemblywoman Betsy Butler and Republican candidate Brad Torgan, refused to attend the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights general assembly meeting, calling the process unfair.
“Today’s meeting was never advertised as an endorsement meeting, although a series of e-mails forwarded to me by those handpicked to receive them clearly indicate a plan to accomplish exactly that,” Bloom wrote in a statement which was read aloud at the Sunday meeting.
Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, or SMRR, is a powerful organization that supports rent control, affordable housing production, education and the environment, amongst other policies. Receiving an endorsement has proven critical in local elections where strict campaign contribution limits reduce a candidate’s reach but do not inhibit independent committees like SMRR, which can pay for mailers and have volunteers go door to door in support of their slate.
Bloom, who has been endorsed by SMRR in five successive council elections since 1998, alleged that neither he nor his fellow candidates were given much warning about the endorsement vote, a departure from the normal process which he believed was specifically done to flood the meeting with Osborn supporters.
If so, it worked. Of the 85 votes cast, 57 went to Osborn, with Bloom picking up 15 and Butler snagging another 12. One person voted against endorsing altogether.
“There is nothing wrong with anyone organizing to support their candidate,” Bloom wrote. “It is wrong to subvert the process to accomplish that end.”
Osborn’s campaign was having none of it.
“It’s tiresome to hear the cries of sour grapes every time Torie Osborn wins an endorsement from grassroots groups in this district,” said Dave Jacobson, a spokesperson for the Osborn campaign. “The progressive voters of this district are looking for a champion and time after time they’ve chosen Torie.”
SMRR co-chair Patricia Hoffman said she was “disappointed” by Bloom’s decision not to attend, and denied any change in the normal SMRR endorsement process.
Instead, the vote reflected both Osborn’s ability to rally her supporters and a disillusionment with some of Bloom’s pro-development stances, Hoffman said.
“I think that now the membership is really divided, and Torie comes across as more in line with the values of SMRR,” Hoffman said.
Opinions on exactly how SMRR endorsement meetings are usually run differs, even amongst the organization’s key players.
Barry Snell, a member of the SMRR steering committee, admitted that the process could have been more clear both regarding what the meeting was meant to accomplish and what options voters had to endorse or not endorse.
“I felt that we could have allowed our membership a little more information as to what the day was going to be about,” Snell said.
Former steering committee member Bruce Cameron, however, was unequivocal.
As a member of the steering committee, he put together candidates’ forums in 2000 and 2006. In both years, there was outreach to all the candidates and they figured out a common date that would work for all, Cameron said.
While Sunday’s meeting was not a question and answer format as in the past, it wasn’t meant to be, said Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, SMRR’s other co-chair.
“Our community has had many different open forums for the candidates to express their positions and what they would do for the new district,” Tahvildaran-Jesswein said.
Instead, candidates, or their representatives, were given a specified amount of time to speak before the membership voted.
“I have the utmost respect for Richard Bloom for being a stalwart supporter of renters’ rights in our community,” Tahvildaran-Jesswein said. “Certainly, with democracy, you have messy moments.”
This isn’t the first time that SMRR’s endorsement process has been criticized. In 2010 the steering committee chose to back Councilwoman Pam O’Connor and school board incumbents Oscar de la Torre and Ralph Mechur despite all three failing to win an endorsement from the party’s members at their convention.
That move to include them on SMRR mailers angered many who attended the convention who felt that their wishes were dismissed by a chosen few.
Under SMRR's bylaws, the steering committee is allowed to decide which candidates to support only when convention voters fail to endorse a complete slate, which occurred at that 2010 convention.
SMRR members also made changes Sunday to the organization’s platform, by reducing their emphasis to support moderate-priced housing and increasing their call for a mix of unit sizes to be built in the city.
Both come out of a housing study session before the City Council last month that pointed to a market saturation of moderate priced housing as well as a proclivity for developers to build mostly one bedroom and studio apartments.
ashley@www.smdp.com
