Santa Monica’s election season continues to simmer with a handful of candidates establishing the financial infrastructure to run for elected office.
Daniel Ivanov, Brett Morrow, Caroline Torosis and Derrick Townsend have opened accounts to support a run for City Council. Alicia Mignano has opened an account in support of a run for School Board and an organization calling itself Santa Monicans for Reliable School Funding has filed the form in support of a ballot measure.
Torosis is the first incumbent to open her account and she reported a total of $12,175 on hand after raising $5,575 in the most recent fiscal reporting period. According to the report, $250 of that came from Brett Morrow suggesting the two will run as part of a slate this year. Like Torosis, Morrow is a county employee and works as Chief Communications Officer for the County’s Department of Public Health (Torosis is the Policy Director for County Supervisor Holly Mitchell).
Townsend has also filed additional paperwork showing a loan to himself of $3,500 and $500 raised from the public so far. Townsend works for the National Association of Home Builders as an aging in place specialist.
While not a council incumbent, Ivanov is a member of the Santa Monica Rent Control Board.
Three seats will be up for election on the Council this year. They are currently held by Torosis, Lana Negrete and Jesse Zwick. Negrete and Zwick have yet to make official statements regarding their future although Zwick has expressed reservations about running again due to family obligations and restrictions on his participation imposed by state regulators due to his job as a housing advocate.
Mignano is the current President of the school board and the first of four incumbents to file. The other three with terms expiring this year are Laurie Lieberman, Stacy Rouse, and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein.
No candidates have opened accounts for the Rent Control Board or SMC Board of Trustees yet.
Candidates for local office must be U.S. citizens, at least 18 years old by Election Day and registered to vote in Santa Monica when nomination papers are issued. Filing is limited to a specific nomination period each election year, typically running from mid-July into early August ahead of the November general election.
Prospective candidates must pick up an official nomination packet from the City Clerk's Office at the start of the nomination period. The packet contains required forms and petitions for collecting voter signatures. Candidates need at least 100 valid signatures from registered Santa Monica voters to qualify for the ballot. All nomination papers, including signed petitions and other forms, must be submitted to the City Clerk by the filing deadline.
Candidates must pay a $25 filing fee when turning in their nomination documents. They may also submit an optional candidate statement for inclusion in the official voter guide mailed to voters, though the city charges about $1,100 to print a council candidate's statement in the sample ballot pamphlet. Both the filing fee and any statement fee must be paid by the close of the nomination period.
Candidates who expect to raise more than $2,000 or spend more than $1,000 must establish a campaign committee by filing a Statement of Organization with the California Secretary of State and registering with the City Clerk's Office. Santa Monica also enforces local limits on individual donations to council campaigns.
California's Political Reform Act requires periodic disclosure of all campaign contributions and expenditures. Local candidates file routine campaign finance reports, including pre-election and semi-annual statements, through Santa Monica's electronic disclosure system.
Several individuals have expressed some level of interest in running this year but have yet to fill out any paperwork including Doug Trussler (Co-Founder and Partner at Bison Capital Asset Management) and former Mayor Phil Brock. Ericka Lesley, also a current member of the Rent Control Board, has also said she plans to run.