All but one of the local incumbents who are up for re-election this year will appear on ballots this November, meaning there will some stiff competition when voters go to decide who will hold one of the 13 seats available on City Council, School Board, Rent Control Board or the SMC Board.
The General Municipal Election will be held in the City of Santa Monica on Tuesday, November 3, but to qualify for the ballot, Santa Monica’s municipal code requires candidates to gather no less than 100 voter signatures as part of their nomination. Thanks to a second revised twenty-first supplement to Santa Monica’s local emergency declaration, candidates only had to gather 30 original signatures this year due to the risks posed by personal contact in the COVID-19 environment.
The deadline to submit signatures passed at 5 p.m. Friday, but with SMMUSD’s Ralph Mechur opting not to file — potential SMMUSD school board candidates now have an additional five days to submit paperwork for the open seats on the local school district’s Board of Education.
City Council
City Council has a total of four full-term seats and one partial-term seat up for grabs this year. Incumbents Gleam Davis, Ted Winterer, Ana Maria Jara, Terry O’Day and the recently appointed Kristin McGowan all submitted their signatures ahead of Friday’s deadline.
Tom Ciszek, Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre and Christine Parra are but a few of the 24 challengers who hope to successfully win a full-term seat on City Council come November, while Micah Cohen is the only resident challenging McGowan for the partial-term seat.
Santa Monica-Malibu School District Board
There are three SMMUSD board of education seats up for election and a total of 13 residents, including incumbents Jon Kean and Maria Leon-Vazquez, are attempting to land one of the available spots in November. But more residents may toss a hat in the ring in the coming days since the last day to file nomination papers has been extended to Wednesday, Aug. 12, since Mechur chose not to run for reelection.
Rent Control Board
There are two seats available on the city’s Rent Control Board and both incumbents, Caroline Torosis and Anastasia Foster, have submitted the proper paperwork and signatures. Aishah Newson is the only challenger in the race.
Santa Monica College District Board
Santa Monica College’s board of education only has one challenger this year as well as Brian O’Neil is hoping to beat out one of the incumbents — Rob Greenstein Rader, Margaret Quinones-Perez or Susan Aminoff — when they face off in the election for the three available SMC board positions.
