In our latest Santa Monica Pulse poll, we asked residents to weigh in on the upcoming City Council election. Mayor Phil Brock and Councilmembers Oscar de la Torre and Christine Parra — part of the “Change slate” — have announced they will run for reelection. They will be up against the slate backed by Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMMR), which includes Santa Monica College Trustee Barry Snell, Planning Commissioner Ellis Raskin, Natalya Zernitskaya and Pier Board Chair Dan Hall. To gain the majority on the Council, this new slate would have to win two of the four open seats.

When asked which slate they would vote for if the election was held tomorrow, almost 60 percent said they’d vote for the Change slate. Only 17 percent said they would vote for the slate backed by SMRR. Five percent said they would vote for a mix of candidates and another 24 percent said they weren’t sure who they would vote for.

City Council wasn’t the only election we asked about. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is running for reelection in November against Nathan Hochman. Critics of Gascon say he’s soft on crime, while critics of Hochman say his former Republican affiliation could hurt him at the ballot box. When asked who they would vote for if the election were held tomorrow, 75 percent said Hochman. Only four percent said they would vote for Gascon. Another four percent said they wouldn’t vote for either of them, and about 16 percent were unsure.

We also asked residents about Governor Newsom’s recent executive order asking state agencies to begin the process of removing homeless encampments. This includes asking local governments to take action to remove homeless encampments from public spaces such as parks and sidewalks. When asked if they supported the order, the vast majority (97 percent) said yes. Only one percent said they did not support the order, and around two percent said they weren’t sure.