Torie Osborn Gets Endorsement at Assembly Candidates Forum

won the endorsement of the Malibu Democratic Club, which hosted a Sunday for the three Democrats competing to represent the newly created 50th Assembly District.

A political veteran, Torie Osborn beat out Assemblywoman and Santa Monica Mayor  to get the club's endorsement. Republican hopeful Brad Torgan was not invited to the event.

Osborn received 42 votes. Thirteen favored making no endorsement, five selected Butler and nobody backed Bloom.

"I'm over the moon," Osborn said in an interview with Patch after receiving the endorsement. "It's my first one [from a local Democratic club]. I was decisive and it feels like a dry run for the whole campaign."

She said she was not involved in recruiting club members, but admitted her campaign "organized some people to either re-up [their memberships] or join."

"It's a pretty common practice to use the candidates forums to do recruitment drives," Osborn said.

Bloom said he was also not concerned that Osborn and Butler have received most of the prominent endorsements.

"I think they've spent more time in the endorsement process," Bloom said. "I'm really happy with the endorsements I have, but I'm very focused with running for office and doing my job as the mayor of Santa Monica, so I'm focusing in on the core responsibility of campaigning, and that's reaching out to voters and the people who are ultimately going to be casting those ballots."

The three candidates are liberal Democrats, so there was little disagreement on major issues that were discussed during the forum. They all said education spending should be a priority.

Osborn and Butler said they oppose the death penalty. Bloom said he only supports it in "exceptional cases," including "mass murder where there is an admission and the evidence is crystal clear."

The next forum, hosted by the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club, will take place Jan. 15 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the . The Santa Monica Democratic Club will host a forum Jan. 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the .