Despite a national rejection of progressivism in the 2024 presidential race, Democratic leaders in the Los Angeles area called Santa Monica’s election results a bright spot amidst the party’s disappointment.
On Nov. 13, the Santa Monica Democratic Club hosted an analysis panel of elections on the national, state and local levels; including comments from the City Council race’s victorious Unity Slate. Former Los Angeles City Councilmember called the win for Dan Hall, Ellis Raskin, Barry Snell and Natalya Zernitskaya a “beacon of hope” in the area for its new progressive supermajority, a trend that also extended to city elections in spots like Culver City and West Hollywood.
Zernitskaya, the city’s first openly bisexual council elect, said that people have given her similar sentiments and that the results showed “that when we work together, we win.” She added that it may be “kind of silly,” but she will be bringing a Robert’s Rules of Order book to her first council meeting as a sign of respect to ethics.
“I’m really looking forward to returning to our progressive values, and I’m really looking forward to just making a difference and working with folks who I know are going to do the work and are going to be committed to working collaboratively and ethically and with integrity,” Zernitskaya said.
In another first, Santa Monica’s first openly homosexual council elect Hall stated that while he wants to be “sensitive” to the lost diversity on council, he is proud of his group for its own diversity, including himself, Zernitskaya, and Snell being the first Black councilmember in decades. Raskin added that he’s looking forward to collaborating “with a really amazing group of teammates” on a host of issues.
“We face some unprecedented challenges locally, but I know that I and my fellow councilmembers look forward to the challenge, and I am always going to be available to meet with you … we’re a city where you can still get to know people face-to-face, and I look forward to meeting so many great people in this city over the next few years,” Raskin said.
The analysis panel, which also included Councilmember Caroline Torosis and Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Mark Ramos, attempted to conflate the fact that Santa Monica voters picked progressive candidates while still voting for the tough-on-crime Proposition 36 statewide as well as Nathan Hochman for the county’s District Attorney position. Bonin theorized that losing the “narrative war” when it comes to public safety played a large role, allowing right-wing media to group progressivism alongside crime and homelessness issues.
“We have allowed the question to be ‘crime is skyrocketing, do we need more cops or do we need to put more people in jail?’ instead of (asking) what is the best way to keep our neighborhoods, our families, our community safe,” Bonin said. “Those lead (to) two different answers.”
He added that Hochman’s campaign was successful by narrowing the definition of crime, leaving little mention of subjects like wage theft, environmental crimes and hate crimes, while Torosis added that George Gascón’s election as District Attorney wasn’t followed up with requisite support for his policies, hurting his re-election chances.
While safety conversations were molded by right-wing influence on the state level, the panel stated the same narrative controlling took place nationally when it comes to economic issues, clearing the way for President-Elect Donald Trump to sweep swing states and return to the White House for a second term. Torosis said that while she was “so inspired” from attending the Democratic National Convention over the summer, the party must do a better job of attracting moderate voters and showcasing its message of “uplifting everyone” economically.
“The post-pandemic inflation was really ginned up a little bit with the Trump campaign, economic instability for folks, and I think that the message was sent that our Democratic candidates just didn’t have an effective message in other parts of the country to address rising costs of living,” Torosis said. “I think that it showed that our focus on these progressive social justice issues are really important, but that’s not helping us reach these working class voters in purple areas (of) the country.”
Ramos said that the real question is why Trump was victorious, rather than why Vice President Kamala Harris was defeated, pointing to reasons like free media coverage of Trump’s follies and more surface-level messaging that appealed to the working class.
“People are hurting, people (are) willing to take a chance, and people are angry … (when) Kamala Harris is talking about ‘I’m going to go after price gougers,’ I’m not really sure that resonated, but (Trump’s message of) ‘I’m going to put a tariff on China because they’re screwing us’ makes sense to people in a very visceral way,” Ramos said. “Regardless of whatever the tariff means, they just know that it sounds angry … when people feel like they have been left behind in this economy … (they) were willing to take a chance on someone like Donald Trump.”
He added that although tensions are still high post-election, insulting Trump voters is “shortsighted” due to the potential of appealing to them in future election cycles, something Democrats need to be willing to do.
“I am committed to do this work, and I ask all of us to do this thing together,” Ramos said. “(It’s) okay to feel bad today, but let’s get back to work.”
