By Jorge Casuso

November 5, 2025 -- The powerful committee that shapes policy for Santa Monica's oldest and most influential political organization will remain unchanged after an uncontested election Saturday.

The Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR) Steering Committee -- which also can endorse candidates for elected bodies when its membership is deadlocked -- elected all ten of its current members.

It included two members -- Michael Kirschbaum and Craig Ali -- the Committee had recently appointed to fill vacant seats, group officials said.

Kirschbaum, a parent and school activist from Sunset Park, and Ali, a member of the Committee for Racial Justice (CRJ), were elected by acclamation along with the committee's eight other members, officials said.

The lack of turnover did not surprise SMRR leaders, who noted the 47-year old organization that launched Rent Control in Santa Monica has remained steadfast.

The Committee exemplifies the "stick-to-itiveness of a grassroots organization that has been there for generations," said Patricia Hoffman, a former School Board president who has served on the steering committee for four decades.

Former Mayor Denny Zane, a SMRR co-founder and one of its co-chairs, agrees. "I don't know of a community based organization that has had an electoral and policy agenda for almost fifty years," said Zane, who was re-elected Saturday.

Also re-elected was SMRR's other Co-chair Michael Soloff, who has served on the committee for a dozen years and with his wife, former Mayor Sue Himmelrich, spearheaded a ballot measure to increase the local property transfer tax to fund housing and education.

Tenant activist Michael Tarbet, who has been on the committee since its inception, was also re-elected, along with former Rent Control Board executive director Tracy Condon, and former Planning Commissioner Jennifer Kennedy, a long-time member of the committee.

Among the newest members re-elected were two hotel workers and union activists, Cristina Navarro and Maria Cortez. Both are members of UNITE HERE Local 11, which has strong longtime ties to the tenants group.

The Steering Committee can elect an additional three members, bringing its total membership to 13, Hoffman said.

The Committee has been meeting monthly for four decades and
has liaisons who attend meetings of the City Council, as well as the city's three other elected bodies -- the Rent Board, School Board and College Board.

The Committee discusses "what's on the agenda, what issues to look for and what issue to bring forth," said Hoffman, a former SMRR co-chair.

Among the recent topics the Steering Committee has weighed in on are supporting the construction of affordable housing at the Airport when it closes at the end of 2028.

The Committee voted to urge the Council "to include the creation of 3,000 below-market-rate housing units" on the 192-acre site. The Council rejected the proposal in July when it voted to excludes, and not immediately study, housing.

The Committee also weighed in on SB 79, urging the Council to propose amendments to the State bill, which allows large residential developments to be built near transit stops.

While the staunchly pro-housing Council backed by SMRR adopted some of the group's recommendations, the amendments it approved didn't go far enough to protect tenants from being displaced, according to Zane.

In addition to weighing in on policy issues, the Steering Committee can vote to endorse candidates to the city's elected bodies when its members fail to vote for a full slate during the group's election convention.

That happened in 2010, when the Steering committee voted to add incumbent Councilmember Pam O'connor to the group's slate after she failed to win the necessary votes of the members.

And it happened again in 2014, when no candidate received the required 55 percent support from attendees. One week later, the steering committee chose to back incumbent Kevin McKeown and Planning Commissioner Jennifer Kennedy, who was one of its members.

Since gaining control of the Council in 1981, SMRR-backed candidates have held a Council majority for 32 of the last 43 years.

In fact, for 40 years in a row at least four of the seven Councilmembers were initially supported by SMRR, with two breaking ranks after being elected.