By Daniel Larios
Staff Writer

June 5, 2014 -- School Board member Ben Allen easily carried his hometown of Santa Monica in Tuesday’s primary, while former Mayor Bobby Shriver failed to win his home constituency.

While the nearly 4,000 Santa Monica votes for Allen – 1,600 more than his closest rival, Sandra Fluke -- cemented his victory in his bid for State Senate, Shriver was unable to capitalize on his popularity in the town he served for eight years on the City Council.

In the race for 3rd District County Supervisor, Shriver finished nearly 9,000 votes behind former state senator Sheila Kuehl and failed to carry Santa Monica, losing Tuesday by 261 votes, according to the unofficial vote count.

The top two candidates in both races will face off in the November General Election.

Santa Monica votes weighed heavily in Tuesday’s primary, which saw 20 percent of Santa Monica registered voters show up to the polls, nearly twice the 12 percent turnout rate for all LA County voters.

Allen, who was the top vote getter for the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board in both 2008 and 2012,  received 3,984 votes, 32 percent, in his home city, while Fluke garnered 2,392 votes, 19 percent.

On the other hand, Shriver – who in 2008 received the second highest vote total in Santa Monica City Council history (24,298 votes, some 1,500 votes short of the record 25,780 votes received by former Mayor Ken Edwards in 1984) – picked up 4,136 votes, or 33 percent, in Tuesday’s primary.

Kuehl received 4,397 Santa Monica votes, or 35 percent, while West Hollywood Councilmember John Duran, who finished third, received 1,119 Santa Monica votes, or 9 percent.

Santa Monica accounts for approximately 6 percent of registered voters in the 3rd Supervisorial District.

Semi-official vote tallies show Kuehl winning 9 out of 10 cities in the District, failing to win only San Fernando.

“[It was] a good old fashioned across the board win, despite being outspent 2 to 1,” said Parke Skelton, Kuehl’s top consultant and advisor.

Kuehl, who raised $1.2 million dollars for the race so far, was outspent by Shriver, whose $1.9 million war chest included $1 million of his own money, the rest coming in donations of $300 or less. (“Shriver Campaign Nears $2 Million Mark, with $1 Million in Personal Contributions,” March 23, 2014)

In the race to replace Henry Waxman in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 33rd Congressional District, former City Controller and Democrat Wendy Greuel was the top vote getter in Santa Monica with 2,647 votes. 

Independent Marianne Williamson finished second in the bayside city with 2,502 votes, followed by  NPR radio host and Democrat Matt Miller with 1,985 votes. 

The two top vote getters, Democratic state senator Ted Lieu and Republican attorney Elan Carr, who will face off in November runoff, finished fourth and fifth in Santa Monica with 1,724 and 1,275 votes respectively.

Lieu is expected to win the Congressional seat in November, a longtime Democratic stronghold, with Congressman Waxman waiting until a winner was chosen to endorse Lieu on Thursday.

There are 62,632 registered voters in the City of Santa Monica, according to the LA County Registrar's office, 12,417 of whom showed up at the polls to vote.