Santa Monica is facing a strange and significant 2022 election season – Santa Monica Daily Press
CLARA HARTER & Emily Sawicki / SMDP Staff Writers
With nine months to go until Election Day 2022, Santa Monica is preparing for an unusual election season in which the seats of the District Overseer, State Assembly, State Senate, and House of Representatives are all up for election.
There is much in the air at the local level as well, including whether there will be general or district-based elections in Santa Monica as a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act is pending final judgment from the California Supreme Court.
Filed in 2016 by Maria Loya, wife of current Councilor Oscar de la Torre, and the Pico Neighborhood Association, the case aims to shift the city to a district-based electoral system based on the fact that the current overall system discriminates against Latino candidates .
However, it is not yet clear how the court will decide when changes could be made or what impact that would have on the 2022 elections.
If the CVRA case is ruled in favor of the city, the general election will resume as usual and the seats of Council members Sue Himmelrich, Kristin McCowan and Lana Negrete will be up for election in November. There is also a choice of four seats on the SMMUSD School Board, four seats on the College Board and three seats on the Rent Control Board.
Santa Monica Democratic Club President Jon Katz said he thought the 2022 city council election would serve as a referendum on city council decisions made over the past year or a year and a half since a number of new members entered the city in leadership positions .
“Some of the big issues I was paying attention to in Santa Monica were the responses to the police oversight board and the way they were recorded,” said Katz. “Then some of the ordinances proposed last year related to freedom of speech and the right to protest in Santa Monica. And then there were some decisions about hotels, hotel development. And in general there is of course the ongoing topic of development opportunities in the city. “
At the county level, current State Assembly member Richard Bloom is running for LA County’s Third District Supervisor because current Supervisor Sheila Kuehl is not running for re-election. Bloom is a Santa Monica resident who served on the city council for 13 years and served on the California 50th Congregation for the past nine years.
Several other notable politicians have also thrown their hats into the ring around Kuehl’s seat, including Senator Henry Stern von Calabasas, West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey Horvath and LA City Controller Ron Galperin.
While the Third District retained most of its territory during the redistribution, it absorbed several conservative neighborhoods in the north of the San Fernando Valley such as Chatsworth, Porter Ranch and Granada Hills, which will change the voting dynamics in this traditionally very liberal district.
Santa Monica’s State Assembly District has changed dramatically. Rather than encompassing all of the beach communities from Santa Monica to the Ventura border, it now consists of just 4.75 miles of shoreline and extends inland to Griffith Park.
This change removes Santa Monica from the 50th Congregation District and places it in the newly drawn 51st Congregation District.
Speaking to the Daily Press in December, Bloom – who is leaving his seat to run for the district office – named the 51st line’s new lines.
Katz said he agreed with Bloom’s take on Santa Monica’s new congregation district, adding that the Hollywood and West Hollywood congregations would have a huge impact on who is chosen as the new congregation member for District 41.
“It just means that there are other types of communities that go with it [district] who will speak, who may have different views on these issues, and that could lead to a loss of influence, ”said Katz. “Santa Monica will always be influential in whatever borough it’s located in because the percentage of people out of Santa Monica comes out to vote. But I think if there are other big churches like West Hollywood and Hollywood, the Fairfax area, all of those areas will be very important to the support of every congregation member as well. “
Rick Chavez Zbur, the executive director of Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ + civil rights organization, announced his candidacy for the state assembly and moved from District 50 races to District 51 when the lines were redrawn.
Chavez Zbur, a progressive Democrat, has already drawn up an impressive list of supporters, including State Senators Ben Allen and Henry Stern and CA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, as well as several union federations and other elected officials from across the state.
It was not initially clear whether other candidates for the 51st Assembly District had thrown their hats into the ring.
For the Senate of the state, Santa Monica is moving to the newly drawn Senate District 24, where the current Senator and native Santa Monica Senator Allen is running for re-election. No challenger has announced plans to remove the incumbent who is running for his third term.
At the federal level, Santa Monica is located in the new Congressional District 36, where current House Member Ted Lieu is up for re-election. Lieu, who was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2014, sits on the Justice and Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. So far, no further candidates have announced campaigns in the race for the 36th district.
On December 27, the state’s Independent Redistribution Commission provided certified cards to the California Secretary of State’s office. By January 3, candidates for various offices were cleared with June 7, 2022 primaries to begin filing nomination signatures. February 10th marks the last day cards can be challenged in court, followed by the deadline for filing candidates from February 14th to March 11th.
In California, the deadline to register for elections is 15 days prior to election day, which is the closing date for general election registrations on October 24, 2022. In order to cast a vote in the June 7th area code, voters must postmarked or electronically Submit registration until May 23, 2022.
In 2021, California codified its pandemic-era rule of universal voting by mail, which means that every registered California voter will receive a postal vote before the June and November elections. Ballot boxes and voting centers introduced during the 2020 elections to replace constituencies will continue to be set up with the aim of making voting easier.
The state also offers a same-day voter registration method, also known as conditional voter registration, for those who miss the normal registration deadline. These votes are counted after the district electoral office has verified their registration after the election.
For more information on registering to vote, see sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration.
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