By Jonathan Friedman
Lookout Staff
October 2, 2009 -- Election Day is more than a year away, but Mayor Pro Tem Pam O’Connor has already launched her campaign for a fifth term on the City Council.
A historical preservationist, O’Connor, who also is a member of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, held a fundraiser breakfast last week with “people related to business,” she told the Lookout News.
“I decided to get started early this time instead of waiting until the last minute,” O’Connor said. “A campaign is tougher when you’re on the City Council because you still have to do your council duties, and I also have my work on the Metro board, and then my regular job.”
O’Connor said she decided after the 2006 campaign that if she were to run again, she would begin early. Her fundraiser earned $6,000, with participants limited by law to donating no more than $250 each. O’Connor said she will do other fundraisers in the near future, although none are currently scheduled.
“There are many elements to a campaign,” O’Connor said. “There is fundraising, but I am also talking to people, telling them I’m running again, getting endorsements.”
O’Connor placed second in the 2006 election for three seats with 13,315 votes, behind Kevin McKeown’s 14,000 and ahead of Robert Holbrook’s 13,041. The 2010 election will also be for three seats.
The longtime council member is a centrist, making her a target of both ends of Santa Monica political battles.
In 2006, the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City issued an attack mailer portraying O’Connor as being in the pocket of developers. O’Connor said the incident was not a factor in deciding to run again.
“Whenever you run for office, something like that can happen,” O’Connor said. “If you can’t handle that, then you shouldn’t run.
“A number of things still need to get done,” said O’Connor, about her reason for seeking a fifth term.
Among them is Phase 2 of the Exposition Light Rail, a massive public transportation undertaking that would connect Culver City to Santa Monica.
Currently in the environmental documentation phase, it is targeted for a 2015 completion. Another item O’Connor mentioned is the update to the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), which would help shape traffic and development for the next two decades.
However, there could be other issues that will become a major part of the campaign that are not currently on anybody’s radar.
“In the heat of the campaign season, you can have your platform, and I will have my platform,” O’Connor said. “But we can’t predict what the times will be. Sometimes external factors that I can’t predict will define what the issues of the campaign are about.
"We do know about the concerns that often come up -- traffic, public safety and infrastructure. They’re the typical city issues. But there could be something in particular that becomes an issue of concern that I can’t predict.”
Transportation has always been a significant issue for O’Connor, who has been on the MTA Board since 2001 and served as its chair in 2007-08.
She also has a key interest in the city’s homeless problem. In 2002, O’Connor co-sponsored the ordinance to curb programs that hand out free meals in public spaces.
