Potential Malibu City Council candidates Rick Mullen, Skylar Peak and Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner have endorsed one another and intend to run as a three-candidate slate for the November election.
The cooperation between the candidates was announced by Mullen in a document sent to The Malibu Times.
Mullen said the three candidates are connected by their long commitment to slow-growth preservation and other important affairs in Malibu.
“The reason I like working with these guys is long time precedence of being involved in multiple things — not just one issue, but multiple things,” Mullen said. “I’m the newbie compared to these gentlemen. I’ve only been here for 26 years.”
Mullen said the Measure R battle is a specific issue he thinks could change if the three-person slate was to be elected in November.
“Measure R was not anti-development. It was to have big commercial developments put before citizens for a vote,” Mullen said. “There were four council members against it and one for it. That one was Skylar Peak.
“We want it to go from four-to-one to three-to-two,” Mullen continued. “Maybe a few years from now, even better than that.”
The three-person slate in an election that only has three council seats open means the remaining candidates — Jennifer deNicola, Carl Randall and Laureen Sills — will have to run independent campaigns against it, unless they form their own slate. None of the current candidates has expressed a desire to do so.
“I think everyone should have a chance to run their own campaign,” Sills said. “I hope people will read through the ads and see who has more experience. I’ve been in the community for 30 years building bridges, not walls.”
Sills confirmed she had no intention to form a slate but endorsed Carl Randall. Randall expressed similar views, saying he and Sills “think along the same lines.”
“I don’t plan to form a slate,” Randall said. “I think my campaign will run just fine. We’ll get our foothold and reach out to the people we’re going to reach out to.”
DeNicola expressed that a projected higher voter turnout means she won’t have to change tactics for her campaign.
“This is a new election because it’s in November,” deNicola said. “There are approximately 9,000 registered voters in Malibu and it’s predicted that 85 percent of them will vote and we hope they vote down ticket for the Malibu race.”
Mullen said he was not concerned about the fact that the slate was all-men, excluding the two potential female candidates, deNicola and Sills.
“I don’t see this as a slate of three men. I see this as a slate of people that have proven themselves over many years in many battles as trustworthy to achieve the mission of why Malibu became a city,” Mullen said.
Many of the candidates expressed a desire to focus on their differing views on policy, even complimenting their opposition.
“I think [Wagner]’s great” Sills said. “I look forward to hearing what they have to say.”
Mullen, Peak and Wagner have not worked out the details of their cooperation with one another yet, but intend to promote their working together “at every opportunity.” This could potentially include yard signs and mailers.
The slate has already been endorsed by former mayor Walt Keller and his wife Lucile.
DeNicola’s campaign has been endorsed by Congressman Ted Lieu.
Peak did not respond to a request for comment and Wagner was unavailable for comment by the time The Malibu Times went to print.