The Empty Seat : What's at Stake?

California's First Lady Stumps for Local Candidate

By Jorge Casuso and staff

California’s First Lady, Sharon Davis, didn’t have to cross a picket line Thursday to attend a fundraiser for Santa Monica City Council candidate Susan Cloke.

But some of Cloke’s opponents think the governor’s wife crossed another kind of line – the fine line between backing a candidate and actually endorsing one.

Supporters of candidate Richard Bloom, who fell just 88 votes short of winning a seat on the council in November, were outraged to hear that Davis was stumping for Cloke. After all, Bloom is the one with a long list of Democratic endorsements.

"It was disappointing to me," said Bloom, "to see Sharon Davis was playing a role in a Santa Monica election not having had a prior role here."

Well, it turns out that Cloke and Davis are old friends, dating back to when they worked together on a project called Bringing Up Daughters Differently, raising money for the National Organization for Women’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"There are people who talk and there are people who do, and Susan is a person who does," Davis said. "I’m here because I’m a good friend, but I also support her because of her community involvement of more than 30 years."

From left: Cloke, Gov. Davis and the
First Lady pictured in a fundraiser invitation.

So does the First Lady endorse Cloke?

No. But she certainly supports her.

"We don’t get involved in local races," Davis said, adding that her
husband, Gov. Gray Davis, doesn’t endorse local candidates. "I didn’t realize I had been stepping into a controversy."

The controversy began when Bloom’s backers read in a local paper that the governor planned to endorse Cloke. Worse still, they saw a flier featuring the Davises, with the governor’s arm draped around Cloke’s shoulder.

Davis’ office confirmed having received a number of phone calls this week protesting the First Lady’s support for Cloke.

One of the callers -- Michael Everett, a member of Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART), a pro-union community group – suggested forming a picket line outside Santa Monica Studios, where the event was held. Everett contends that Santa Monica Studios is an anti-union shop – a charge one of its owners denies.

"My feeling on a Davis endorsement is that the price Davis will be made to pay is to cross a union picket line to enter the fundraiser," Everett wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Empty Seat.

"Santa Monica Studios is a scab production facility and the presence of Davis on the lot should be considered a direct attack on IATSE film workers, not to mention an attack on HERE 814 (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union) as well as the LA County Federation of Labor, and a slap in the face to our community."

Gov. Davis, you'll remember, was elected in November with the power of the state's unions behind him.

"Davis can be for labor or he can be against labor, but he can’t be both," reads Everett’s e-mail. "If he wants our support in the future, he damn well better reconsider his support for union busting."

(Cloke, by the way, left a message on Everett’s voicemail Sunday night to talk it out. To no avail. Everett was outside the Oscars at the time, protesting the award that was presented to director Elia Kazan.)

Todd Hess, one of the studio's owners and a member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board, takes umbrage at the anti-union label that has been pinned on him.

He said Santa Monica Studios doesn't hire any behind-the-scenes-help -- grips, gaffers and lighting people, for example. Production companies rent studio space and bring in their own workers.

That's exactly what Cloke did for her fundraiser.

"I don't have any control over whether they're union or not," Hess said, adding that the studio does hire animators but that there is no animators’ union.

Here's the kicker.

Hess, owner of the so-called scab studio, donated $250 to Bloom's campaign for the November election. For that matter, Hess says he donated money in November to fellow SMRR candidate Kevin McKeown, too.

Neither one of the candidates, who were backed by a small army of union supporters, turned the money down.

How's that for politics.

On April 24-25, Santa Monica will make history by holding its first two-day weekend election.

So with Santa Monicans for Renters Rights currently holding four of the seven council seats, what difference would winning a fifth seat make for the powerful political organization?

Plenty.

A fifth seat would give SMRR the clout to take property for the public good by eminent domain, rezone land, reallocate funds from the budget throughout the year and fire the city manager, city attorney and city clerk.

With the SMRR majority on the hunt for new park space and land for affordable housing, the special election could be one of the most important in years.

Until election day "The Empty Seat" will be filled with the latest news from the campaign trail.