By Jorge Casuso

October 2, 2020 -- A recent poll of registered Santa Monica voters forecasts trouble for local incumbents, with less than 10 percent of the respondents saying they plan to support the current Council members.

The telephone survey of 305 likely voters conducted for Eyes on Local 11, an anti-hotel union watchdog group, found that 53.29 percent of the respondents have not decided who they will vote for.

More than a third -- 35.53 percent -- said they planned to vote for "someone new," while 9.21 percent said they planned to back the incumbents. About 2 percent refused to answer.

The poll was conducted by Roosevelt Opinion Research between September 19 and September 22 and has a margin of error of plus-minus 5 percent.

"The poll results strongly suggest a dissatisfaction among residents with the current status quo in Santa Monica," said Charlyce Bozzello, communications director at the Center for Union Facts.

"Growing anxiety over crime and safety may be the result of city leaders who continue to put special interests, including hotel-worker union Unite Here Local 11, ahead of actual community concerns," she said.

Asked if they believed the current City Council "has done a good job," 54.05 percent of the respondents answered "no" and 18.62 percent "yes." The other 27.3 percent said they were undecided.

The Eyes on Local 11 poll -- which focuses on crime and safety issues in Santa Monica -- found that 49.46 percent of the respondents felt less safe in Santa Monica than they did two years ago.

Only 13.51 percent said they felt more safe, while 28.92 percent said they felt the same. Of the remainder, 6.49 percent were undecided and 1.62 percent refused to answer.

Half of the eight questions focused on voters' attitudes toward the City's handling of homelessness.

Asked how they would rate the City’s performance in "managing homelessness," 41.12 percent rated it as "poor," 28.17 percent as "fair" and 11.42 percent as "good."

Of the rest, 13.45 were undecided, while 5.84 refused to answer.

Asked to choose who "should be held most accountable when it comes to homelessness and safety," 51.4 percent said the City Council, 23.74 percent said the State of California and 5.34 percent said the police.

Four percent said none of the above, 9.50 percent were undecided and less than 1 percent refused to answer.

Editor's note: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that only one of the four City Council incumbents seeking a full term identified themselves as a Council member in their ballot designations. On the City Clerk's election page, only Councilmember Gleam Davis identified herself as a Councilmember above her campaign statement. The ballots, however, list all four incumbents as Council members.