Twelve candidates running for three offices in this year’s mid-year elections stumped the Santa Monica Democrats meeting on Wednesday at the Main Library, hoping to land an endorsement from the local “blue” affiliated club.
By meeting’s end, only Derek Cressman and Sheila Kuehl walked away with endorsements for their respective races.
The Santa Monica Democrats were unable to reach a consensus of which candidate to support for the 33rd Congressional District, meaning no candidate seeking to replace Henry Waxman will receive an endorsement from the club for the June 3 primary election.
All seven Democratic candidates for the 33rd Congressional District seat, including Wendy Greuel, Kristie Holmes, David Kanuth, Ted Lieu, Matt Miller, Barbara Mulvaney, and Zein Obagi, were present at the Santa Monica Democrats endorsement meeting. There were two rounds of voting to decide whether any of the candidates would earn the club’s endorsement.
After the first round of voting failed to yield enough votes to earn the endorsement, the top two vote getters – Greuel and Lieu – faced each other in a runoff. However, neither candidate earned at least 60 percent of the vote in the second round, so neither Greuel nor Lieu would receive the Santa Monica Democrats’ endorsement.
Interestingly enough, a similar situation occurred when the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) voted on its endorsements a few weeks ago, where neither Greuel nor Lieu crossed the group’s required 55 percent threshold. Accordingly, just like the Santa Monica Democrats, SMRR did not endorse any candidates for the 33rd Congressional District.
Waxman announced in January he would not seek reelection in the fall for Congress.
Of the three Democratic candidates running for California’s Secretary of State, political reform activist Derek Cressman earned the Santa Monica Democrats’ endorsement over software engineer Jeff Drobman and State Senator Alex Padilla.
Only Cressman and Drobman attended the endorsement meeting.
Cressman, Drobman, and Padilla are among a field of seven candidates seeking to replace outgoing Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who is termed out from seeking re-election.
Meanwhile, Kuehl, a L.A. County Supervisor candidate (Third District), received the Santa Monica Democrats’ endorsement ahead of John Duran, Pamela Conley-Ulich, and Bobby Shriver.
Shriver was the only supervisorial candidate not in attendance.
All four Democratic candidates are seeking to fill the supervisorial seat to be left open by Zev Yaroslavsky, who is termed-out from returning to the County’s most powerful board of elected officials.
Endorsing only Democratic Party candidates, the April 23 round of endorsements was the first of two meeting where the Santa Monica Democrats officially extend its support to candidates of county, state, and federal offices in the June 3 primary election.
The Santa Monica Democrats will endorse candidates for the 26th State Senate District, 50th Assembly District, and Controller at its May 14 meeting.
