It’s been a week since City Council candidates declared their intention to run in the November election, but the race for council’s 2-year seat has already been whittled down to one candidate.
The General Municipal Election will be held in the City of Santa Monica on Tuesday, November 3, and the deadline to submit the necessary 30 signatures to qualify for the ballot passed on Friday, Aug. 5, with 21 residents vying for council’s four available full-term seats and one resident running for the partial-term seat.
Incumbents Gleam Davis, Ted Winterer, Ana Maria Jara, Terry O’Day have all qualified for the ballot along with recently appointed councilwoman Kristin McCowan, who was set to be challenged by Micah Cohen until Cohen failed to secure enough signatures from registered residents of Santa Monica.
The election for the partial 2-year seat will proceed as scheduled and McCowan’s name will appear on the ballot unopposed, according to the City Clerk. However, there is still the write-in period from Sept. 8 to Oct. 20, for those who might still be interested in running for office.
The write-in process is the same as the regular nomination process, meaning candidates must submit 30 signatures from registered residents in the jurisdiction they are running, according to the clerk’s office.
A write-in candidate’s name will not be on the ballot and they will not have a candidate statement if they qualify. In order to be counted, the voter has to write in the candidate’s name on the ballot.
The Santa Monica City Council unanimously appointed McCowan to fill a position that was vacated by councilmember Greg Morena in June when the product of SMMUSD and Santa Monica College was selected from a pool of 109 eligible candidates.
McCowan, who is the city’s first Black councilwoman, said on Inside the Daily Press shortly after her appointment that she is hard at work learning the various ins-and-outs of her new position, but she was excited about campaign season.
“I’m going to be pounding the virtual pavement and I’m going to meet as many of my constituents as possible, and I’m going to fire up people to vote for me for my two-year term,” McCowan said. “And I’m fired up to get more people involved — more young people, people like me, moms for Kristin, the whole bit. We’re going to do it and I’m excited.”
School Board race
All eight residents who intend to run for a seat on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s board of education successfully qualified for the ballot, but with Ralph Mechur opting not to file for reelection, Keith Coleman has taken the opportunity to toss his hat into the race as well, whereas Seth Jacobson has withdrawn from the race.
