Hotel Owner Makes Campaign to Oust McKeown Personal

October 23 -- Reversing years of campaign tactics, a prominent hotel owner is trying a personal touch to sway voters to eject Council member Kevin McKeown from the City Council.

Thousands of handwritten letters signed by Hotel Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach head Tim Dubois have been landing in Santa Monica mail boxes as the November 7 elections fast approach.

As in previous mailers, the letters are aimed at urging local voters to sever Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights’ (SMRR) one-vote council majority by not voting for McKeown, who is widely viewed as representing the group’s liberal faction.

“Please take time this election to learn about the candidates and vote for someone other than Kevin McKeown,” the letter states. “He is not helping Santa Monica.”

What is different this time is that the message came with a name.

“Tim felt it was important to put a face on the message, so it’s not just coming from these monolithic hotels,” said Seth Jacobson, who oversees the campaign for Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities (SMSP).

The group is bankrolled by the Edward Thomas Management Company, which owns the two luxury beachfront hotels, and its president, Dubois, according to a campaign statement filed with the City Clerk.

Through September 30, SMSP had spent $90,000 boosting the candidacies of Mayor Bob Holbrook and Planning Commissioner Terry O’Day, leaving $270,000 in their coffers, according to the campaign statements filed October 5.

The Edward Thomas Management Company paid an additional $72,000 for the letter opposing McKeown, according to a campaign finance statement filed October 20.

The letter was a departure from the group's previous campaign tactics, Jacobson said.

“This is the first time we’ve sent a letter like this,” he said. “The letter is to help tell a personal story of a family business that has suffered extreme hardship from a certain faction of City Council members.”

Since 2004, when SMSP was formed, it has operated as a 501(c) 4 non-profit that did not have to reveal the source of its contributors, according to State campaign laws.

SMSP issued several high-gloss “News Updates,” both in the current election and in the 2004 council race, criticizing SMRR council members, but as a non-profit was not obligated to disclose its donors. (see story)

On September 11, that all changed when the group formed a Political Action Committee, which mandates that it openly reveal its funding.

As a PAC, rather than a non-profit, SMSP can now expressly campaign for, and against, candidates, instead of just focusing on issues.

And SMSP is now taking full advantage as the hotly contested race for three open council seats heads for the homestretch.

As an individual, the Edward Thomas Managemnet Company can also spend unlimited funds "as long as they don't give the money directly to a candidate and as long as they follow the Politcal Reform Act disclosure requirements," said City Clerk Maria Stewart.

The Edward Thomas Management Company has done both, City officials said.

“My reason for writing you today is to express our frustration with City policies that make Santa Monica less attractive,” the letter states.

“I’m talking about aggressive panhandling, intolerable traffic, poor city planning and a homeless problem that has grown out of control.”

Dubois believes McKeown is adding to those problems.

“His support of lenient policies has attracted criminal vagrants to our City,” Dubois wrote. “Simply put, Councilman Kevin McKeown’s actions make Santa Monica less attractive to residents and visitors.”

In 2002, shortly before running for a second term, McKeown voted against an ordinance that makes providing meals without County and City permits in a public park or space a misdemeanor. And last year, he voted against a law to prohibit “humans” on the steep cliffs towering above Pacific Coast Highway.

McKeown, who recently backed an effort to move programs that hand out free meals to the homeless indoors and approved the hiring of a homeless czar to wrangle regional support to tackle the issue, defended his record on homelessness.

“All I've ever done is try to make effective enforcement humane: try to find shelter for those rousted, so they don't just end up in a residential neighborhood sleeping in someone's carport,” he said.

“That's just common sense," he said. "Move feedings indoors, I said four years ago. That's what we're finally doing.”

McKeown said he believes there are other reasons behind the attacks, namely development, which he stands against.

“The big developers and luxury beach hotels targeting me stand to reap millions by turning our Santa Monica into Miami Beach,” he said.

“The real reason for their attacks on me is my strong defense of our coast, and of Santa Monica's human scale and character. They know I will fight inappropriate development in Santa Monica.”

This is not the first time SMRR and Dubois have locked horns.

In 2000, McKeown was major proponent behind a living wage law that targeted large businesses in the coastal zone, specifically hotels.

Ultimately the law, which was approved by the council, was narrowly defeated after a campaign that broke local spending records was mounted by the luxury hotels.

While that may have been the beginning of tensions between McKeown and Dubois, it is not the main reason for the strong campaigning against the two-term council member, Jacobson said.

“It was definitely a lightening rod that created some adversary relationships,” he said. “The living wage, however, is ancient history.”

While far from being water under the bridge, McKeown agreed the living wage is not SMSP’s primary motivation for attacking his candidacy.

“I was certainly a leading advocate for affording workers the dignity of a wage that could support their families, and the Edward Thomas Management Company was a lead opponent,” McKeown said.

“However, I don't think anyone would be spending the kind of money this current negative campaign is costing over a six-year old grudge."

To counter the attacks, SMRR is using a door-to-door canvassing effort to back its slate, which is composed of McKeown, incumbent Council member Pam O’Connor and Gleam Davis.