The list of candidates for local offices whose names will appear on the November ballot
Is long, and includes familiar and unfamiliar names. But, according to a very savvy political activist, the City Council race is all over but the counting. Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) will maintain the majority that it’s had for 22 years, he said, as “uninformed voters will cast ballots for names they know.”

Pam O’Connor, seeking her fifth term, and Kevin McKeown, who’s running for a fourth term, are SMRR’s best-known candidates in this year’s contest. The other two SMRR incumbents, Gleam Davis and Terry O’Day are less well-known. They both ran for the Council as independents in 2006, and lost, did time on the Planning Commission, and were appointed to the Council to fill vacancies following the deaths of Herb Katz and Ken Genser, and both are running for two-year terms.

The fifth incumbent is Bob Holbrook, a non-SMRR who’s seeking his sixth term.
He’s one of two non-SMRRs on the current Council. The other is Mayor Bobby Shriver.

Maybe the savvy guy is right, and the usual suspects will prevail. But, as other savvy guys, including Aesop, Mark Twain and Henry Thoreau, have said, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”