Fifteen candidates are running for five open Santa Monica City Council seats, but only twelve of them were required to file campaign disclosure statements. In the race for those seats, the City of Santa Monica and California’s Political Reform Act both mandate candidates must periodically disclose the sources of their campaign contributions. The most recent deadline was Oct 5 for the period that ended on Sept 30. This is the second to last deadline. The last one is Oct 21.
So far, incumbent Terry O’Day had received $48,226, which was the highest amount of any candidate. Planning Commissioner Ted Winterer came in second with contributions of $39,061. Incumbent Robert Holbrook came in third place with $37,874, and Jean McNeil Wyner’s $17,214 in contributions placed her in fourth. Close behind in fifth place was incumbent Gleam Davis with $16,862. Sixth place went another incumbent, Kevin McKeown who had $12,739 in contributions. Seventh place also went to an incumbent, Pam O’Connor who had contributions of $10,293.
Coming in next, in eighth place was David Genezer with $9,460 and close behind in ninth place was Robert Kronovet with $9,346 in contributions. Daniel Cody came in tenth with $7,970 and Susan Hartley took the eleventh spot with $2,494 in contributions.
Hartley missed the filing deadline because she was “distracted by my law practice and my tenants’ rights clinic” (Santa Monica Tenants’ Rights Clinic), of which she is the founder and director. Her reported amount was given to the Mirror over the phone, whereas the other candidates officially came from the City’s campaign disclosure office. Hartley is normally on time with her reporting and is willing “to personally pay for any penalties and not take the money from my donations.”
Terence Later came in last with $1,250. The candidates that were not required to file campaign disclosure statements are Linda Armstrong, Jon Louis Mann and Jerry Rubin. These candidates are not putting money from themselves or others into their campaign.
The maximum campaign contribution that can be made by an individual or entity to a candidate running for office in Santa Monica is $250. Some of the totals for the incumbents reflect amounts that were unused amounts from prior campaigns that have been added to contributions received for their 2010 campaign.
The public can view the campaign disclosure statements by going to http://www01.smgov.net/cityclerk/index.htm.
