Portraying himself as a pragmatic moderate, City Council member Eric Friedman says that he is well-suited to be Santa Barbara’s next mayor because, both on policy and personal temperament, he is “very in the center.”
In an extended interview about his candidacy, the 49-year-old, two-term representative of District 5 said that his top priorities would be public safety and restoring the city’s depleted emergency budget reserves, as he pointed to his opposition to rent control, along with a more cautious approach to fiscal matters, as crucial differences with council colleague and chief rival Kristen Sneddon.
Friedman also chided left-wing council member Wendy Santamaria for recent “performative” personal attacks on him and two other white male colleagues, while contending that his low-key style would enable him to forge compromise and restore civility on a council that is now divided sharply over conflicting ideologies and personalities.
“I am very in the center, trying to bring compromise together, and have a history of doing that,” Friedman told Newsmakers a few days ago, part of our ongoing series of conversations with leading candidates for city council and mayor.
“This is Santa Barbara and we all respect each other’s differences of opinion. And it seems that with that type of personal attacks, we are bringing the national discord into Santa Barbara,” he added. “And it’s unfortunate that happened, and I think the rest of us need to step up and say, ‘That’s not Santa Barbara. That’s not who we are.’ It never has been. We agree to disagree here. We don’t make it personal like that.”
A little over four months before the Nov. 3 election, Friedman faces an uphill challenge in overcoming Sneddon’s early campaign organizational advantage, due to the volunteers, slate cards and other resources due to flow her way thanks to the endorsement of the local Democratic Party. Friedman is a lifelong Democrat, and ran with the party’s endorsement in his first race, but has since broken with them over his votes against rent stabilization legislation favored by tenant advocacy groups.
“I think where the chief difference is (with Sneddon), and I think people understand this, is when it comes to rent stabilization, rent control — that is a key difference between the two of us,” he said.
Beyond the polarized policy dispute over rent control’s impacts on the local housing market, Friedman said that downstream costs — including $400,000 already set aside for outside counsel to defend the city in a lawsuit, and the cost of setting up a new regulatory structure to police the ordinance — represent unnecessary and burdensome expenses at a time when the city’s reserve funds are overdrawn.
Looming in the background of the city council’s vote on a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, scheduled for Tuesday, is a recent contretemps between Friedman and Sneddon, after she said she was shocked at the low level of the emergency reserve fund and complained about inconsistent and conflicting data provided by staff in the Finance Department.
“Well, it was a little shocking to hear that she didn’t know that we were in a deficit,” Friedman told us. “The reason is that … these reports come in and we’re constantly asking questions. We constantly talk about, ‘Where’s the reserve level? What’s our expenditures versus our revenues?’
“And those are presented to the full council over the course of the year. I think (Sneddon’s comments) caught me off guard, especially given that last year, myself, Mayor (Randy) Rowse and (council member) Mike Jordan voted against the budget for the very reason that we were worried we were going to be dipping further into reserves, including emergency reserves.”
(Sneddon discussed her campaign for mayor with Newsmakers late last year, when she announced her candidacy on the program. She’s expected to return for another conversation about the race in the coming weeks.)
Along with the budget and rent control, Friedman also discussed efforts to revitalize State Street, praising a number of new projects underway, while expressing sympathy for a coalition of small business owners who are pressing the council to lift the ban on cars on nine blocks of the city’s main downtown corridor.
He also talked about his dramatic brush with death following a heart attack he suffered while out on the water in 2025, and the effect it had on his decision to run for mayor.
“After going through a life-changing event, a medical emergency last year, it’s given me a new perspective on life and what community service is, and what this city really means, and why I want to continue to serve,” he said. “And it’s been a wonderful journey so far … I just really want to serve and hope that my experience in the past will continue to resonate with people.”
Check out our full conversation with Eric Friedman via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
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“Moderare” I am not buying it. Get a progressive in there. Randy didn’t do anything except cash his paychecks.
“there’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos”
Friedman just voted to open State St. to cars, in the face of popular opinion. Enough said.
Eric has my vote.
Eric Friedman stands out as the pragmatic leader Santa Barbara desperately needs. As Chair of the Finance Committee, he understands that a city cannot thrive if its expenses consistently outpace its revenues. Friedman correctly sounded the alarm on our dwindling emergency reserves, and he has consistently advocated for structural discipline over quick-fix deficits. His commitment to balancing the budget, reforming the permitting process, and protecting essential city services shows he has the vision and the backbone to put Santa Barbara back on solid financial footing.
Kristen Sneddon’s platform exposes a troubling disregard for long-term governance. Her advocacy for ill-thought-out rent control policies harms local mom-and-pop property owners while doing nothing to solve the root causes of our housing crisis. Compounding this is a glaring lack of fiscal responsibility. Sneddon has repeatedly supported a budget strategy that relies on deficit spending and draining our emergency reserves. Treating emergency funds as a routine piggy bank is reckless, and it proves she lacks the fiscal discipline required to lead Santa Barbara as mayor.
People who cite “fiscal responsibility” are almost exclusively those with no understanding of economics, and are merely parroting political slogans.
An anti-endorsement of Friedman, coming from this source with its talking point word salad.
So you are voting for Kristen Sneddon? Care to explain why?
Maybe he just doesn’t want to vote for a con, since they’ve amply demonstrated that they are clueless when it comes to governance.
You being against her would be enough reason.
If legendary Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon were alive today, he wouldn’t just be cross-examining his daughter-in-law Kristen’s mayoral campaign—he’d be leading the opposition.
What is the relevance of Tom Sneddon’s imagined view from the grave? Not sure he even lived in the city when alive but he’s been dead for over a decade.
An even better reverse endorsement … I always despised that Nazi.
The arguing on both sides in comments is wild. What Santa Barbara needs is leadership that goes beyond partisan politics. Let’s have a real look at the candidates. No candidate will be perfect, but who’s better for our community? Both show up to events and serve constituents well and I’ve agreed with each on different issues in the past. Evaluating him on this interview, first off, it looked like he was reading his answers. He said Council needs to respect each other then personally attacked Santamaria and Sneddon, which he’s done on the dais, too. But he failed to call out the Mayor for the derogatory and condescending statements he’s made on the dais about Santamaria and Sneddon at various times. So it’s overlooked or acceptable when the men do it but when the females do it, that crosses a line? Got it. Also, how is he claiming he can bring Council together when he’s mostly on the losing side of Council votes? Santamaria, Gutierrez, and Jordan still have two years left this term and they usually vote in consensus with Sneddon and opposite Friedman. As for the budget, Friedman’s been chair of the finance committee for years, so he gets more information than anyone else on council. “Reserves” vs “emergency reserves” might’ve been clear to him but it wasn’t clear to the general public or apparently to most of his colleagues who are not on that committee. As chair he should’ve been shouting from the rafters not to touch “emergency reserves” (not just “reserves”, which apparently are different). I couldn’t find that on record. It brings into question his ability to effectively communicate very important information with his colleagues. BTW Sneddon is also a STEM professor, so even though for the sake of the election Friedman wants to make her sound clueless, as a professor in a science field it’s clear she grasps complex facts and figures and can communicate them to others when she understands them. My early take: I don’t like the misogynistic undertones of his campaign. Hopefully Sneddon will campaign on what she brings to the table and keep personal attacks of opponents out of things. I do agree with him that Santa Barbara can do without that.
Interesting take and I agree with the personal attacks, issue, but I believe you are wrong on Jordan voting with Sneddon.
Jordan and Friedman—alongside Mayor Randy Rowse—form a reliable three-member moderate, fiscally conservative voting bloc. They frequently find themselves on the losing end of 4–3 split decisions against the council’s progressive majority (Kristen Sneddon, Wendy Santamaria, Oscar Gutierrez, and Meagan Harmon).
Their alignment is especially strong on the city’s most contentious debates:
1. Fiscal Discipline and the Budget
Jordan and Friedman closely share the belief that the city is overspending and failing to protect its emergency financial reserves.
The Budget “No” Votes: Both Jordan and Friedman took the unprecedented step of voting against the city budget because they felt it relied too heavily on emergency funds to cover ongoing expenses.
The Measure C Infrastructure Battle (June 2026): When the council split 4–3 to slash $1 million from the city’s capital infrastructure budget to fund affordable housing, both Jordan and Friedman voted in opposition. They argued that given the city’s depleted reserves, the money should be held back to stabilize the city’s safety net rather than being reallocated.
2. Rent Control and Housing Policy
Both councilmembers approach the housing crisis from a market-based perspective, preferring to incentivize development rather than place restrictions on landlords.
Rent Caps: Both Jordan and Friedman voted against the rent stabilization cap.
Developer Fees: They both voted to reject aggressive hikes on development fees, arguing that over-regulating or over-taxing builders will cause housing production to stall.
A Rare Exception: State Street (July 2026)
During a July 2026 vote on whether to extend the pedestrian-only closure of the State Street Promenade, Friedman voted no alongside Mayor Rowse. Jordan, however, voted yes with the progressive majority. Jordan argued that while he normally wants cars back downtown, letting the closure expire would immediately destroy outdoor sidewalk dining —something he stated would be “unconscionable” to lose before a permanent master plan is finished.
Market-based stupidity. Thanks for providing good reasons not to vote for those two.