Final Candidates Get County Nod; Ballot Set

By Jorge Casuso

Santa Monica voters will have 13 candidates to choose from in the November race for four open City Council seats after the County Registrar's office on Monday qualified three final candidates.

The registrar's office also added five candidates to the race for three open seats on the College Board of Trustees, bringing the final tally to seven. Joining the race for three open school board seats were two final candidates, bringing the total to five.

Qualifying for the council race after garnering the necessary 100 valid signatures from Santa Monica registered voters were community activist Chuck Allord; Pico Neighborhood Association board member Don Gray, who made an unsuccessful council bid in 1998, and Internet activist Jon Stevens, who will be making his fifth bid for a council seat.

The three final candidates will join a crowded field trying to oust three incumbents -- Mayor Ken Genser and Councilmen Michael Feinstein and Richard Bloom. The three are members of Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights, the powerful tenants group which controls five of the seven council seats. Incumbent councilman and former mayor Paul Rosenstein will not seek reelection.

Also in the running are Herb Katz, a SMRR opponent who has served two terms on the council; Robert Ross, a former deputy district attorney in Ventura and a commercial realtor who is a newcomer to local politics, and David Cole and Donna Block, neighborhood activists who are the former president and vice president respectively of Mid City Neighbors.

Joining them will be peace activist Jerry Rubin, a frequent speaker at council meetings, and residents Richard Horner and Joseph Curnel.

Qualifying in the race for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board were Mike Jordan, a Pepperdine University communications professor, and Maria Leon-Vazquez, an education activist and Santa Monica High School PTA officer. The two will join RAND Corporation researcher Jose Escarce on the SMRR slate.

Escarce qualified for the ballot last week, along with Eleanore Meyer, a pediatrician, and Gleam Davis, an attorney and childcare advocate who just fell short of winning the SMRR endorsement.

Joining incumbents Patrick Nicholson and Annette Shamey in the race for Santa Monica College Board of Trustees were five candidates who qualified for the ballot on Monday. They are school board member and former president Margaret Quinones; Joe Weichman, a political science student at the college; Pat McGuire, an environmentalist and special education teacher in Los Angeles public schools; Margaret Carroll, a prosecuting attorney for the City of Los Angeles, and Robert Klepa.

Only two candidates submitted nominating petitions for two open seats on the Rent Control Board. They are incumbent M. Douglas Willis and attorney Jeffrey Sklar, both of whom qualified last week.

Following is the order that candidates will appear on the ballot based on a random draw: