Last night, fourteen candidates appeared before our Membership across three debate fields.
Candidates for the SMMUSD School Board, SMC Board of Trustees, and Rent Control Board faced off to discuss their different approaches to some of the most important issues facing Santa Monica: from balancing difficult budget decisions to closing achievement gaps, protecting renters, and ensuring our community institutions continue to serve everyone.
The evening featured thoughtful, substantive discussion, spirited exchanges between candidates, and meaningful differences in governing philosophy that will help inform our endorsement decisions on July 15.
In Case You Missed It, 👀 you can watch the whole meeting here:
We also broke out each debate into its own video if you prefer to watch them that way:
School Board Debate (5 candidates competing for 4 seats)
Laurie Lieberman, Robbie Staenberg, Alicia Mignano, Harry Leshner, and Stacy Rouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43kmce1E1DI
College Board Debate (5 candidates competing for 4 seats)
Tom Peters, Kera Blades-Snell, Sion Roy, Luis Barerra Castañón, and Oscar de la Torre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoKrqFFR2Q4
Rent Control Board Debate (4 candidates competing for 3 seats)
Heather Thomason, Kurt Gonska, Sue Himmelrich, and Soledad Marcial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek_B3O4EmXk
The biggest debate of the cycle is still to come…
On July 8, the City Council field takes the stage:
City Council Debate (10 candidates competing for 3 seats)
Angela Scott, Doug Trussler, Caroline Torosis, Ashley Oelsen, Danny Ivanov, Wade Kelley, Eli Gill, Lana Negrete, Brett Morrow, and Ericka Lesley
The Council debate will take place at the Church In Ocean Park (235 Hill Street) and will also live-stream on Zoom. These meetings are free and open to the public. Our commitment to civility will be strictly enforced at these events.
Finally, the Club will meet to vote on endorsements in all four races on July 15 for our Annual Endorsements Meeting, which will be held on Zoom only.
One RSVP covers all three July events. If you’ve already RSVP’d for last night’s meeting, you’re all set.
https://forms.gle/Et8DvGz8sBBwUih5A
To vote on July 15:
Be a 2026 member in good standing
RSVP for the July meetings (here)