A flurry of endorsements for local races was announced today with three organizations taking positions on candidates and/or ballot measures.
Incumbents were generally favored across all races but in some cases, the number of endorsed candidates didn’t match the number of open seats.
The Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City singled out incumbent Sue Himmelrich for their sole City Council endorsement. Himmelrich is one of three incumbents running this year including Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor.
“Councilmember Himmelrich shares our reasonable growth and transparent government goals and actions. She has been a strong voice for residents on the Council to hold developers accountable for the impacts their projects would have on the livability of our city. She is a formidable advocate for affordable housing. She has been reachable and responsive to residents on many issues,” said the endorsement.
SMCLC also supports Measure TL to establish term limits for the City Council saying long-term incumbents become less responsive to the public over time.
Community for Excellent Public Schools opposes Measure TL citing the need to work with consistent civic leaders over the long-term.
CEPS said it identified four qualified candidates for the three seats available on City Council. They endorsed all three incumbents plus challenger Greg Morena. With four seats available on the SMC Board of Trustees, CEPS has backed incumbents Nancy Greenstein, Louise Jaffe, Barry Snell and challenger Sion Roy.
CEPS only backed three candidates for four open seats on the SMMUSD Board. Incumbents Craig Foster, Laurie Lieberman and Richard Tahlvidaran-Jesswein were endorsed. Incumbent Oscar de la Torre was the only incumbent left off the CEPS list.
CEPS supports measure SMS to establish a new bond for school construction projects and they support Measure RR to revise rules for serving on boards/commissions.
A coalition of municipal employees also announced their endorsements Tuesday, backing all three incumbents for City Council.
“The Coalition of Santa Monica City Employees is proud to endorse Councilmembers Sue Himmelrich, Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor for reelection to the Santa Monica City Council.” said Micah Michalski, Coalition PAC President in the release, “Our slate of endorsed candidates have a proven record of standing up for Coalition member priorities, fighting to protect services that Santa Monica residents expect, and ensuring that Coalition members, especially those at the bottom end of the salary scale, are paid a fair wage in keeping with the great work they do for the City of Santa Monica. In addition, these Councilmembers have a vision for Santa Monica that is in tune with our own and we look forward to mounting an aggressive campaign in support of their election.”
The Coalition PAC includes of non-sworn employees in all City departments.
The glut of endorsements this week precedes endorsements from the Santa Monica Democratic Club that will occur on Sept. 20 and 26. Last week, Santa Monica Forward listed their endorsements backing McKeown, O’Connor and Morena for Council, Leibermann and Tahvildaran-Jesswein for School Board and Greenstein, Jaffe, Roy and Snell for SMC Board. Forward opposed Prop 6, Measure SM and TL. They support County Measure W, Measure SMS and Measure RR.
