Santa Monica’s Voter Confusion

On Election Day, Nov. 4, door hangers appeared in the apartment building where I reside. “Vote Today” for “the Team for Santa Monica Renters,” the public was advised. I expected to see the candidates of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights: David Finkel, Julie Lopez Dad and Dolores Press.

Instead, I was dismayed to find that this hanger recommended the slate of the All Santa Monica Coalition, the coalition of the big developers and landlords, the organization that has all along opposed any renters’ rights policy. This organization is diametrically opposed to everything that Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights stands for.

The All Santa Monica Coalition, without anywhere mentioning its name, asked that the renters vote for William H. Jennings, David G. Epstein, Christine Emerson Reed and Alan Katz. The voting records of these candidates, open to public inspection, reveal they are not the champions of renters’ rights!

A deliberate attempt was thus made by the All Santa Monica Coalition, the originator of this hoax played upon the Santa Monica voting population, to delude the public into mistaking the All Santa Monica Coalition slate for the Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights slate. SMRR is the membership organization that founded the strong tenants’ movement some eight years ago and has worked actively to bring it to the effective organization it is today.

I cannot help questioning how many voters thought they were voting the true Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights slate when they bought the deliberate attempt to deceive them into the polling place. There is an imperative need for clarification. Are the tenant voters of Santa Monica willing to accept the switching of their voting rights, their birthright as citizens?

SYLVIA MAJOR

Santa Monica