Final Election Tallies Fail to Change Outcomes

By Jorge Casuso

Dec. 2 -- Pam O'Connor slightly stretched her margin of victory over Kevin McKeown in the race for City Council, while Bob Holbrook nearly doubled his margin over challenger Abby Arnold, but the final official results released by the County Registrars Office Monday failed to change the outcome of any local race.

With all the absentee and provisional ballots counted, opponents of Santa Monica's unprecedented living wage law picked up 970 votes to stretch their margin of victory to nearly 1,000 votes. Opponents finished with 14,830 votes to 13,860 votes for Prop JJ, which picked up 745 votes.

In the race for three City Council seats, Pam O'Connor added 1,259 votes to her election night count, winning her bid for a third term with 13,396 votes, followed by Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown, who added 1,211 votes to finish a close second with 13,200.

Rival candidate Bob Holbrook increased his election night lead over SMRR-backed challenger Abby Arnold from 158 to 296 votes. Holbrook added 1,111 votes to finish with 11,164, while Arnold, who did not expect to overcome Holbrook with the late votes, added 973 to finish with 10,868 votes.

Challenger Matteo Dinolfo fell more than 2,800 votes short of winning a seat, adding 875 votes to finish with 8,356, while Josefina Aranda, a Green Party candidate backed by Mayor Michael Feinstein, picked up 607 votes to finish with 6,579.

Chuck Allord finished a distant seventh, with 3,117, after adding 299 votes, followed by Jerry Rubin, who picked up 182 votes to finish with 2,420, and Pro Se, who picked up 153 votes to finish with 1,677.

The final tallies in the race for School Board also did not change the outcome with Board President Julia Brownley finishing first with 17,235 votes, followed by challengers Emily Bloomfield with 17,157 votes, Shane McCloud with 14,247 and Oscar de la Torre with 13,515 votes. Incumbent Brenda Gottfried finished fifth in the race for four seats with 11,734 votes, followed by Ann Cochran with 5,679.

A parcel tax that would have pumped $9.6 million a year into the cash-strapped school district failed to gain significant ground since its defeat on election night, falling far short of the necessary 66 percent of the votes. The measure won 19,613 to 12,429, or 61,21 percent of the votes cast.

In the race for College Board, incumbent Dorothy Ehrhart-Morrison finished first with 16,581 votes, followed by Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights leader Nancy Greenstein with 15,476. Incumbents Carole Currey and Herb Roney were reelected with 13,039 and 12,996 respectively.

Incumbent Nancy Cattell-Luckenbach with 9,199 votes and challenger Bill Winslow with 9,118 votes failed to win seats on the seven-member board.