This month’s Santa Monica Pulse asked residents about their voting intentions in this year’s Santa Monica City Council election. Respondents overwhelmingly backed a slate of candidates associated with current anti-establishment Councilmember Lana Negrete, with 50 percent of those polled saying they would vote for that candidate slate. Just 4.17 percent said they would vote for the establishment candidate slate led by Mayor Caroline Torosis. 31.25 percent said they would back “other” candidates and 14.58 percent said they were undecided. 

Santa Monica Pulse polling in 2022 found support for Lana Negrete at 24 percent. Taken together, the results of these two polls imply that popular support for Negrete has grown over the past four years. 

This month’s poll also asked residents about increasing investment into the Transitional Employment Service, which hires homeless and low-income Santa Monicans to help clean streets and remove litter in the city. A majority (53.13 percent) said they opposed increasing investment, although a significant minority of 36.46 percent supported the increase. 

Finally, we asked residents about the Santa Monica Police Department’s new SMART Center. 62.5 percent of respondents said that the new Center would make Santa Monica safer, while 19.79 percent said that it would not help.