Former SM Mayor Mike Feinstein Makes a Run for California Secretary of State

Mike Feinstein has informally announced through Facebook that he is running for California Secretary of State.

Feinstein is considered a founding member of the Green Partylocally. Feinstein has been involved in political activism since 1988, after he attended a conference at the Findhorn community in Scotland entitled "The Individual and the Collective: Politics as If The Earth Mattered". He first became active with the Westside Greens in the Santa Monica/West Los Angeles area in November 1988 and then joined his neighborhood Ocean Park Community Organization in early 1989. Feinstein is one of many co-founders of the Green Party of California (GPCA).

Between 1996 and 2004 Feinstein was elected twice to the City Council of Santa Monica. He was preceded by Ken Genser, who died, and succeed by Richard Bloom, now an Assemblymember.

Feinstein served as Santa Monica mayor from 2000-2002. Feinstein was first elected to the City Council in 1996 receiving 13,681 votes and finishing second amongst the thirteen candidates running for four seats.[2] Feinstein was re-elected in 2000 with 21,084 votes, finishing first out of thirteen candidates for four seats.

His vote total at the time being the second highest ever for any Santa Monica City Council candidate. In December 2000, Feinstein was appointed to a two-year term as mayor by a 7-0 vote of his colleagues. In 2004 Feinstein sought a third term but was unsuccessful, finishing 9th of 16. In 2014 Feinstein ran again and finished 8th of 13.

Feinstein has also served on the Southern California Association of Government's Energy & Environment Committee (1997–2004), Growth Visioning Task Force (2001–2004), Regional Comprehensive Plan Task Force (2004–2008) and Integrated Policy Task Force (2009–2010), as well as the Westside Council of Governments, Local Government Commission (California), California League of Cities, National League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors and International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).

The Secretary of State of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. State of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The Secretary of State is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers, and is restricted by term limits to only two terms. The current Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, took office on January 5, 2015.

The Secretary of State is the California's Chief Elections Officer, overseeing all federal and state elections in the state and maintaining a database of registered voters. They are also responsible for disclosure of campaign and lobbyist financial information, under the California Political Reform Act of 1974.