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September 2004, Volume 15, Issue 1 - Help Is On The Way |
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By Martin M. Goldstein
I went to the SMRR (Santa Monicans for Renters Rights) Convention on August 1, and it was a fascinating glimpse of participatory democracy at its finest. Not only did the good guys win, SMRR, now 25 years young, seemed newly energized. There were a lot of different people under the big tent of progressive politics in Santa Monica, and we were led and coordinated and united as never before. It was fabulous.
It was the end game of a long period of hard work extending from the middle of the spring into the depths of the summer, and no amount of praise is really sufficient for Ken Mason and Andrew Walzer, who spearheaded this effort. Their goal was to forge alliances with other groups in the city. If we all were to work together to endorse and support the same candidates, our collective chances of winning the SMRR endorsement were greater, and the SMRR endorsement is, as they used to say about the Democratic nomination in the deep South, tantamount to winning the election.
The theme of the SMRR meeting was unity, the same kind of unity just shown by the national Democratic Party in lining up behind John Kerry. Unity in order to win. There are real foes out there for SMRR, especially in the City Council races, and with the Chamber of Commerce already having a war chest of some $300,000 to spend. They already sent out two full color glossy mailings, a brochure and a flyer, and they are looking for ways to weaken the SMRR-led pro-renters rights faction that has controlled the City Council for 19 of the last 25 years. It’s going to be a fight.
So fighting from within was verboten, and it was made very clear to, and agreed by all participating that however the voting came out, by the time everyone left the room they all were going to get behind everyone SMRR endorsed, no matter who they were for when they entered the room. It’s party politics, and its how you win, and we all know that, so we all agreed to it.
It was all the more essential that this be understood given the number of new faces now coming into view. The labor groups and community organizations, plus the Education Coalition (SMC faculty and Unified teachers) who live in Santa Monica, made for a very crowded room. In fact, the Fire Marshall did come to check it out, the auditorium at Olympic High only holding 280 legally. There were more people than that, but many stayed outside for want of room, until those who were not voting SMRR members were asked to step outside so that all who were voting could find seats or space on the floor or standing room in the back. It was that packed.
The process of getting the SMRR endorsement had actually begun a week before, when all interested candidates had been interviewed by a SMRR nominating committee in a day-long open session which many of us attended. Our two candidates for the Board of Trustees, Susan Aminoff and Doug Willis, had been so interviewed, as had Rob Rader, a SMRR initiated candidate, and Margaret Quinones, currently a Trustee, as well a recent appointee to the State Community College Board of Governors, courtesy of Piedad Robertson and Richard (“dirty, ugly girl”) Riordon, the Secretary of Education. Quinones had always been a SMRR candidate, dating from her prior service on the School Board, but the recent troubles had clearly given SMRR reason for reevaluation. Of the four, SMRR was going to endorse three. Graham Pope and Annette Shamey had chosen not to run again, and with SMRR mainstay Nancy Greenstein already in place, those three open seats would give this “Education Coalition” a clear majority of the Board if SMRR didn't endorse Quinones. Her seat, it was clear, was the swing seat, and early in the game the chances of SMRR rejecting her had been assessed as none all way up to slim, but seemingly no better. Politics is about loyalty, and she had rights to claim it.
So, come nominating convention time, it was going to get interesting. Would our Education Coalition hold enough sway to get all our candidates nominated? That was a tall order, but we were ready to go for it. We believed it could be done, and more importantly, decided that we should try to do it.
And to our collective amazement and relief, Doug Willis and Susan Aminoff won on the first ballot, and blessing of blessings, in the run-off between Rob Rader and Margaret Quinones, Rader won, thus getting the third and last SMRR endorsement, and Quinones, who is staying in the race, will be running not just without the SMRR endorsement, but against her pledge to support the choices of the nominating convention. In addition, she did pick up the endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce, SMRR's main political opponent in Santa Monica.
So it was a splendid victory, an alliance of new blood with old, the truly astonishing grass roots organization, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, begun in 1979 to try to keep our community livable. They've been fighting for 25 years for that, and they're still fighting for it, and we are proud to be allied with them in the fight, along with our new and good friends from the community.
There's a lot at stake in this November election, both locally and nationally, and if our SMRR convention and the Democratic convention are any indicators, we can win if we're smart and loyal and hard working. So to all involved in this effort, and most especially Ken and Andrew, many, many thanks. As Susan Aminoff said, echoing Kerry's DNC acceptance speech, “Help is on the way.” Indeed it is. We have not won yet, but we can, and if we all work together on it, we will. Trust me, they're already getting nervous.
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