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By Jorge Casuso

December 3 – Republican landlord Robert Kronovet became Santa Monica’s first candidate opposed by the city’s powerful tenants group to win a seat on the Rent Control Board, while Council member Bobby Shriver posted the second-best showing ever in a local council race, according to the final vote tallies certified by the Los Angeles County registrar Tuesday.

Kronovet squeezed past Chris Braun by 62 votes -- 15,186 to 15,124 -- thanks to a surge of absentee ballots cast in his favor and counted after election day, when the tally showed him 576 votes behind Braun.

Both Braun and incumbent Rent Board President Joel C. Koury, who won in a landslide with 22,601 votes, were backed by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMMR), which had won every rent board seat since rent control was established in 1978.

“We are very happy wit the results,” said Kronovet, a realtor and chairman of the Pico Improvement District. “It’s a great thing to finally be able to reshape the rent board. It’s exciting.”

Also making history was Shriver, who garnered 24,298 votes, the second-highest total in Santa Monica council history.

Shriver fell some 1,500 votes short of the record 25,780 votes received by former Mayor Ken Edwards 24 years ago. Edwards, whose name adorns the local community center, died of cancer in the 1980s.

Shriver finished with a commanding lead over fellow Council members Richard Bloom, who finished with 20,232 votes; Ken Genser, who finished with 19,145 votes, and Mayor Herb Katz, with 17,202 votes.

Although Shriver won by 4,066 votes, his margin of victory was not as wide as the 6,550 votes in his first election bid four years ago. (“Shriver Victory Gap Largest in 20 Years,” December 13, 2004)

Despite his resounding victory, and the fact he has never served as mayor, Shriver could face an uphill battle when his council colleagues choose a new mayor next week. That’s because he broke ranks on two key initiatives.

Shriver joined Kevin McKeown as the only council member to back Prop T, a failed measure that would have capped most commercial development in Santa Monica at 75,000 square feet a year for the next 15 years. He was also the only council member to oppose Prop SM, the successful measure to extend the City’s Utility Users Tax.

Making history of a dubious sort was perennial City Council challenger Jon Louis Mann, who lost his record ninth bid, finishing last with 2,378, just 20 votes shy of 12th place finisher Linda Armstrong, who lost her third council race with 2,398 votes.

Finishing ahead of the other challengers was Ted Winterer, a City Recreation and Parks Commissioner who finished fifth with 12,047 votes, followed by Susan Hartley, a former member of the Airport Commission, with 9,924 votes. Both were vocal proponents of Prop T.

Finishing a distant seventh was Michael Kovac, who garnered 6,345 votes in his first council bid, followed by Jerry Rubin, a peace activist and founder of Treesavers who received 6,076 votes in his third run for council.

Linda Piera-Avila, a Green part member, got 4,623 votes, followed by Herbert Silverstein, a retired New York stock broker, with 3,449 votes, and John Blakely with 2,784 votes. All three were making their first appearance on the local political scene.

In the race for three open seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board, challenger Ben Allen finished first with 26,171 votes, followed by incumbents Maria Leon Vazquez, with 24,996 votes, and Jose Escarce, with 22,107 votes.

All three were backed by SMRR, which has won every seat on the School Board in the past two elections.

Chris Bley, who ran a well-heeled independent campaign bankrolled mostly by friends and family, finished less than 1,000 votes shy of winning a seat, with 21,240 votes.

In the race for three open seats on the College Board, all three SMRR-backed candidates won, making it the second college board race that the tenants group makes a clean sweep.

Susan Aminoff finished first with 25,070 votes, followed closely behind by fellow incumbents Rob Rader, with 24,341 votes, and Dr. Margaret Quiñones-Perez, with 23,256 votes, according to the final vote count.

Challenger Heidi Hoeck finished a distant fourth with 14,771 votes.