A densely populated beach community of eight square miles, Santa Monica lies at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains along the Pacific Ocean. It is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles. Real estate in Santa Monica is expensive and prices are only going higher. The defining community issues include housing, traffic and development.

Kevin McKeown, a 22-year Santa Monica resident, swept into office advocating tenants and workers rights, affordable housing and sustainable development. He campaigned for more parks and crosswalks, better education, and preservation of neighborhoods.

Although he was a first-time candidate, McKeown had a long history of prior public involvement. For years he'd arrive at City Hall wearing one activist hat or another: neighborhood organizer, affordable housing supporter, education advocate, and technology consultant. McKeown also contributed columns regularly to several weekly community newspapers, giving residents ample opportunity to learn about his ideas.

Backing McKeown was a broad coalition of progressive forces, led by Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights (SMRR). SMRR helped establish rent control in Santa Monica in the late 70's, and since then has built an impressive grassroots campaign organization, championing progressive issues along the way. Renters comprise more than 65% of Santa Monica residents, and SMRR spends upwards of $100,000 each election to support its endorsed slate of City Councilmembers (as well as its School Board, Rent Control Board and College Board candidates).

Union support also played a significant role in McKeown's success. He earned the endorsement of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 814 and Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART). Both work to improve the condition of low wage workers in Santa Monica's vibrant luxury tourist/visitor economy, confronting issues like union-busting and liveable wages.

In 1996, this same tenant/labor/Green coalition, also featuring key neighborhood and feminist activists, came together to elect Green Mike Feinstein. Now in 1998, the coalition blossomed into a smooth-running operation of phone banking, precinct walking and getting-out-the-vote efforts.

McKeown understood he would need to supplement this coalition with a 'stand-alone' campaign of his own. Hiring a local Green campaign consulting firm (who had successfully worked to elect Feinstein two years earlier) he worked out a neighborhood-specific direct mail program to strategically communicate his neighborhood-friendly message.

McKeown also built connections to new groups. He shocked Santa Monica's old-guard political establishment when the police and firefighters' unions endorsed his candidacy over one of the conservatives, and contributed significantly financially to his campaign. McKeown also received support in affluent parts of town, which traditionally had not responded to progressive "renter" candidates, as a result of the city's historical division over rent control. However, McKeown had transcended that wedge issue by helping create the first-ever neighborhood group in the northern part of the city.

He also gained support among homeowners there just a few months before the election, when he fought a proposal before the city council that, if passed, would have made it easier for property owners to demolish tasteful old Craftsman homes and build so-called "monster mansions" in their place.

McKeown also was endorsed by the Sierra Club, the (5,000-member strong) Santa Monica Dog Owners' Group and the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action.

As the campaign wore on, McKeown needed every bit of this support, as he was pummeled by merciless, last-minute direct-mail attack pieces. Three different mailers misrepresented Green policies, painting McKeown as unfriendly to both renters and homeowners, and a candidate willing to drive out a local hospital at the expense of health-care for seniors. This fear-mongering was described by L.A. Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and Santa Monica resident Robert Scheer as "green-baiting". The Nation magazine called it "red-baiting".

Still other flyers accused McKeown of concocting a "secret plan" to fire the police chief, which McKeown denied as "absurd". This charge surfaced during an atmosphere of public concern over several uncharacteristic gang-related shootings. "City Council candidate Kevin McKeown is a Green Party member who will do anything to get elected... even compromise our public safety," the flyer read. McKeown viewed this as payback from local conservatives incensed that he had received the police and fire unions' endorsements.

McKeown shone during the several televised debates on local cable (including two sponsored by the League of Women Voters), and he seized the moment during the free five-minute segment offered to each candidate, to state their views on the city's own cable station CityTV. (This free time was a new reform promoted in the prior city council campaign by Feinstein).

McKeown and supporters knocked on doors of thousands of residents. His bright green and black signs dotted lawns and decorated windows throughout the city. However, many signs were torn down and stolen. One was burned in a resident's front yard. These tactics backfired on McKeown's opponents, however, when local newspapers wrote stories and McKeown's public profile soared.

Campaign excitement also increased eight days before the election, when Ralph Nader came to Santa Monica and endorsed McKeown at a press conference in front of city hall. A photo of the two ran in one of the local papers.

Santa Monica is already the largest US city in which a Green has been elected. McKeown's election not only seated a second Green on the city council, but gave Santa Monica its first progressive council in years. For updates, check out McKeown's impressive interactive candidate/officeholder website at www.mckeown.net.