And both sides are gearing up for the next round of a debate that analysts say has national implications. But we ve definitely won the first round. The hotels sensed defeat two weeks ago and stopped spending additional money on the ballot campaign. One of those candidates lost and the other, Herb Katz, won the seat vacated by pro-union Councilman Paul Rosenstein. Hotels and other businesses along Santa Monica s two-mile coastline worry that an imposed minimum wage would force hundreds of layoffs and drive property values down.
People didn t like feeling deceived.
All we really had was people power. Both for preventing special interest money from influencing political decisions and for the power of a volunteer-based effort to run a campaign.