May 23, 2006 - Sign Poll

June 6th is Election Day. The issue of a county split is coming to a head, but as you drive around town and look at the signs in front of people’s houses, you would never know it. Instead, we see a lot of signs for district attorney and judge. And, as you drive around eastern Goleta or western Santa Barbara, you see a lot of signs for 2nd District Supervisor.

The purpose of the supervisorial election is to pick a replacement for Susan Rose, who is retiring. The run for the roses race is very competitive. There are four highly qualified candidates. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, then the top two candidates go head to head in a runoff election in November.

The November election will also be a race between governor and governator. And, it will also be when voters will decide on extending Measure D – seeing the current half-cent sales tax and raising it a quarter. According a recent Edhat survey, people think that traffic is getting worse. However, it’s worth pointing out that this perceived decline occurred with the old Measure D tax in effect. To Ed, the measure D extension is like getting a bad haircut and then going back to the same barber after he raises his rates.

Yesterday, the dedicated staff of edhat.com drove through busy Santa Barbara streets to do some drive-by polling in the 2nd district. We were counting the signs to see which candidate had the most support from people who had enough conviction to declare their voting preferences in front of their house for all passing cars, bikers, and pedestrians to see.

We drove from Alamar - north of State – all the way to Fairview. And then, we hopped on the freeway and check out the signage on the Mesa. While signs for Wolfe seemed evenly distributed throughout the district, support for Williams seemed higher on the Mesa, and support for Guzzardi seemed higher in Goleta. Secord did not seem to have much support anywhere.

As we said, we didn’t see any sign for or against the county split. Apparently most voters see the proposition as a desperate measure in an un-desperate time. We did see a lot of signs for sheriff, most of them for Arnoldi, including some big ones. Anderson didn’t have as many signs, but the ones he had were just as big. We don’t ever remember a tough race for District Attorney, but if the signs could talk, they would say there is one this year. Stanley is running a real campaign with a real campaign strategy (not just trial and error). She has many signs, most of which are in Goleta.

However, the person getting the most front-yard support was not running for Judge, Supervisor, or DA. His name was Sale. And many people were for him.

Our tally in the supervisor lawn-sign voting election is as follows:

The winner of yesterday’s Edhat contest, an election where only the Dog has a vote, was the person who guessed Guzzardi, and was closest to 39% in the tiebreaker. And, the winner is Ginger Snaps, who gets an Edhat t-shirt and one free ballot at a poll near you.

Also, word out to any of the candidates in this election. If you or one of your friends is an Edhat subscriber we will give you room for 200 words and a picture on our website. Just send Ed an email.

We want to hear from you ... tell us what you think of this tidbit

[ Contestant Comments ]

Want to get instant fame and cool prizes? ... enter today’s contest