By Jorge Casuso
News Analysis

July 21, 2010 -- In the latest so-what-else-is-new move in the November race for Santa Monica City Council, incumbent Gleam Davis announced Tuesday that she wants to stay in her seat for another two years.

And, in another no-surprise, so does Terry O’Day and the three incumbents who will run for yet another term – Bob Holbrook, Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor, who have served a combined total of 48 years on the council.

The five incumbents were among 17 potential candidates who have pulled papers to run for a council seat. They have until 5 p.m. Friday August 6 to submit the valid signatures of 100 Santa Monica voters to the City Clerk.

“In my next term, I want to focus on livability and sustainability,” Davis said in a statement released Tuesday. “Just as important is the need to keep Santa Monica moving on its path to economic, environmental and human sustainability.”

They are goals likely shared by all the other potential candidates, a dozen of whom have run for a council seat before. Davis, however, can count on the backing of both Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) co-founder Dennis Zane and Chamber of Commerce stalwart Nat Trives, both of them former mayors from both sides of the political spectrum.

The biggest question won’t be answered until the signatures are submitted: Will Planning Commissioner Ted Winterer run against Davis and O’Day for a two-year term? Or will he take on the three incumbents for a four-year term?

Otherwise, the roster of potential candidates reads like a who’s who of elections past, with the most interesting bid likely mounted by Rent Board Commissioner Robert Kronovet.

A landlord and realtor, Kronovet pulled off the unthinkable two years ago, becoming not only the first non-SMRR candidate to win a seat on the rent board, but the first Republican to boot.

Jean McNeil Wyner, the Physician and Community Liaison at Santa Monica-UCLA Helath Center, who has previously flirted with a council bid, and David Ganezer, publisher of the Santa Monica Observer, also have pulled papers.

So have five other past council hopefuls. If he qualifies, Jon Mann would extend his record council candidacies to ten, while Jerry Rubin and Linda Armstrong would be mounting their fourth council bids.

Other previous council hopefuls who pulled papers are Brian Hutchins and Terrance Later. Newcomers Jeff Decker, Kenneth Wilson and Daniel Cody also have pulled papers.

Ted Winterer, who along with McKeown champions curbing large development, finished fifth in the race for four council seats in 2008. The last council incumbent to lose a seat was Michael Feinstein in 2004.

Any council hopeful will likely face an uphill battle. Holbrook has been on the dais since 1990 (making his the longest-serving council member after Ken Genser, who died in his 22nd year in office), O’Connor has been on the council since 1994, and McKeown served since 1998.

“In my next term, I want to focus on livability and sustainability. Just as important is the need to keep Santa Monica moving on its path to economic, environmental and human sustainability.”
    Gleam Davis