Sierra Club's Endorsements for City Council, Local Ballot Measures

From a press release:

The nation’s largest and oldest grassroots community-based environmental organization, Sierra Club, has announced its endorsements for candidates for the Santa Monica City Council.

Citizens will vote for three City Council seats, going to the polls on Nov. 4. Sierra Club has voted to endorse one of the city’s long-time environmental favorites, incumbent Kevin McKeown, along with Sue Himmelrich and Richard McKinnon, two City Planning Commissioners whose principles and records most reflect the Sierra Club members’ concerns.

“It was a challenging effort to research and interview so many good candidates, including several we have endorsed in the past,” explained Marcia Hanscom, Executive Committee member for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, who led a seven-person endorsement team that did the research, reviewed extensive questionnaires and interviewed the top eight candidates.

After the endorsement team made its recommendation, several additional levels of review at the Sierra Club were required.

“Once our work was complete, the decisions at every level of review were relatively simple: Kevin McKeown, Sue Himmelrich and Richard McKinnon rose to the top of this impressive groups of candidates. We are confident that Kevin, Sue and Richard will truly turn the City of Santa Monica from its reputation as being green, to being ‘deep green,’” continued Hanscom, who has served on the Sierra Club’s national Board of Directors.

Some of the green initiatives that impressed the Club includ the depth of commitment by these candidates to close and convert the polluting and unsafe Santa Monica Airport into a large park and to plant significantly more trees in the city – making it an “arboretum.”

Also impressive were the strong commitments of the candidates to slow down the overdevelopment that has contributed to the choking westside traffic congestion, severely altered the quality of life in Santa Monica and threatens to bring high-rise structures to the city’s shoreline.

David Haake, a physician who is chair of the West LA Group for the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter chimed in with his concern about wanting to make sure people vote in this November 4th election. (Santa Monica falls within the geographic boundaries for the West LA Group).

“We urge every resident in Santa Monica to get out and vote on November 4th, and as we know citizens in Santa Monica care about the environment, we urge them all to vote for our endorsed candidates: Kevin McKeown, Sue Himmelrich and Richard McKinnon. If these candidates are elected, the city of Santa Monica will burnish its reputation as a truly ‘green city’ more than it ever has before,” said Haake.

Sierra Club has also taken a position in favor of ballot measure LC and opposed to ballot measure D – underscoring its position in favor of closing Santa Monica Airport when the city’s agreement with the FAA is completed and converting the land into a park.