Dear Editor,

Local leaders make modest donations to an advocacy group devoted to excellent public schools (“Behind the Efforts to Unseat de la Torre,” 11/1), and that’s supposed to reveal a conspiracy? Really?

Many Santa Monica voters will be more interested in why corporate landlord Douglass Emmet bankrolled Phil Brock and his bloc to the tune of $100,000. That’s not an amateur-level investment — it puts the “pro” in “quid pro quo."

For many years, progressives were supportive of Oscar de la Torre. It was we who got the Pico Youth and Family Center funded in the first place. Oscar’s failure to fulfill the trust put in him has disappointed and saddened many of us. Maybe the reason no one waved around the accusatory racism and anti-semitism letters about Oscar from PYFC board members was that we were embarrassed for him, and by him.

At this point there remains no doubt. Oscar de la Torre should not be allowed another four years on the Council dais, and especially not if he is to become Mayor, regionally and nationally representing our beloved City. We deserve better. We demand better.

Kevin McKeown
Retired former Mayor