Edhat Staff
Update by edhat staff
November 5, 2021
The election results are in and Randy Rowse will become Santa Barbara’s new mayor.
Updated totals show Rowse received 10,037 votes (38.61%) followed by James Joyce with 7,125 votes (27.41%), next is current Mayor Cathy Murillo with 6,551 votes (25.20%), then Deborah Schwartz with 1,652 votes (6.36%), then Mark Whitehurst with 401 votes (1.54%), and lastly Matt Kilrain with 177 votes (0.68%).
Additionally, Councilmembers Kristen Sneddon, Meagan Harmon, and Eric Friedman will retain their seats.
There are an estimated 217 more ballots to be processed and counted Citywide. These include provisional ballots, and no signature and signature mismatches that can be cured by voters during the canvass. Additionally, an unknown number of ballots may arrive in the mail and be counted if they are timely. Results will be certified approximately 30 days after the election.
The updated election results are available at sbcvote.com.
By edhat staff
November 3, 2021
Initial election results show Randy Rowse in the lead to become Santa Barbara’s new mayor.
For Santa Barbara’s city council seats, incumbents Kristen Sneddon and Meagan Harmon are also ahead while unopposed Eric Friedman will retain his seat.
As of Tuesday evening, after the polls closed, only 19,587 ballots out of 55,308 (35.41%) were cast for the local election.
Rowse received 7,895 votes (40.5%) followed by James Joyce with 5,072 votes (26%), incumbent Mayor Cathy Murillo with 4,769 votes (24.5%), Deborah Schwartz at 1,319 votes (6.75%), Mark Whitehurst with 311 votes (1.6%), and lastly Boat Rat Matt Kilrain with 131 votes (0.67%).
As the former owner of Paradise Cafe, Rowse was also a Santa Barbara City Councilmember from 2010 to 2019.
For city council seats, all incumbents currently lead in retaining their seats. Councilmember Kristen Sneddon holds 1,150 votes over developer Barrett Reed for District 4 where 45% of voters in that area cast their ballots.
Councilmember Meagan Harmon leads her three challengers in District 6 where 41% of voters turned out. Harmon retains 53% of the vote followed by Nina Johnson at 34%, Jason Carlton at 10% and Zachary Pike at 3%.
Councilmember Eric Friedman of District 5 received 96% of the vote with only 113 write-in votes.
On Tuesday evening, Santa Barbara city clerk Sarah Gorman stated there’s an estimated 4,612 more ballots to be processed and counted. These include ballots cast at drop boxes after 10 am on Election Day and cast all day Election Day at Voter Service Centers. Of this total:
· 460 are vote by mail ballots returned at Voter Service Centers;
· 3,912 are drop box ballots;
· 42 are provisional ballots; and
· 198 are no signature and signature mismatches that can be cured by voters during the canvass.
The next election results update is expected by Thursday, November 4, at 4:00 p.m. Results will be available at sbcvote.com.
We can breathe again. Five years – no more daily partisan battering. Congrats, Randy. We now enter a new world for Santa Barbara – looking forward to a city council working for local residents; and not pandering to the political machine intended to take those council members to their next step up their own political ladder. We have done that too often in the past. Take a breather and let’s concentrate on this city’s welfare only. It is hurting.
City council districts have about 20,000 residents each. One city council seat was gained by only a little over 1000 votes, but now gets a full vote on city council. The mayor’ seat took 7000 votes but still gets one full vote on city council. Another seat took a little over 3000 votes to get that same one full vote. While another ran unopposed and retains his one full vote. How is this even close to representative government? The switch to district elections created easily won rotten boroughs that now have an oversized influence that affects the rest of us, yet can be gained by ridiculously low numbers of votes city wide. District elections are a failed option. Bring back at-large voting with city council members required to reside in various districts, but never again get a free ride to full city council vote with just 1000 votes. They all need to earn their votes from across the entire city, just like the mayor.
@ Chip, really dude? Apples and oranges right there. Comparing a measly santa barbara mayor election to the election of the president? Also, Bill won, by a huge amount and was also the best president we have had since 1970. I’m prepared to back that up with facts. Math doesn’t lie dude….and Billy balanced 3 budgets with a republicant controlled house and senate. that was never…ever done before. he in fact left us with the largest surplus of cash in US history…all to be squandered by GWB and Cheney. 2 trillion lost by those knuckleheads. Then comes Obama. The interest in debt generates several billion dollars in additional debt to the 2 trillion left by your dear republicants. The repub admin of Bush spent more than 4 trillion in total. Yes, that’s your conservatives for you. They burned through the surplus and burned an additional 2 trillion more. But yeah let’s down talk Clinton as a president. lol…and if anyone mentions the Lewinski thing, who cares. that’s personal stuff for him and his wife to deal with, not me, not you, nor does it reflect on his job as a president.
It was a non-partisan race. What is the point identifying votes as Democrat or GOP? Get used to the idea that non-partisan is what won the mayor’s seat. In the future, the same principle will best serve the other city council member elections. Give partisan bias and their non-local agendas, a rest and let’s clean up this city for the benefit of all its residents. Smoke out those who continue to abuse this local office, knowing they are using this as a stepping stone, putting their own needs well ahead of the local residents who were misled to support them. We have had too much of that in the very recent past. It is disgusting and I am sorry so many voters did not reject the candidates who abused our trust so flagrantly.
Only a purveyor of mediocrity would say that.
As usual: what are you talking about?? Partisan battering? On a daily basis? You’re giving Murillo too much credit. Her flaw was being ineffective and out of touch, not an outspoken demagogue. At most there was unprofessional bickering at some council meetings, and the worst it got was between her and Jason Dominguez. But that was over ego more than politics. “We can breathe again” LMAO calm down. I’m sure Randy will be good at waving in parades, cutting ribbons and staying awake at council meetings.
1:50 – Yes, I always do the “In-person” thing, bike had a flat so I walked the whole way (no snow or rain & not to bad of a hill)… I couldn’t find a “NO cathy” oval, so I did the next best voting for someone that I felt was a better fit for OUR City JJ III. The Boat dude seems to be getting some impressive(surprising) numbers!
Rowse is a non-partisan because you can’t win as a republicon in this town. That’s why Jason Dominguez changed his affiliation from Rep to Dem when he moved to SB.
Non -partisanship does not exist anymore. If it existed before 2016, it disappeared after that. You can try to pretend Rowse isn’t a Rep but like a lead airplane, it ain’t gonna fly.
Actually it’s the complete opposite! In the age of hyper partisanship and identity politics, more and more people are choosing not to affiliate with either of the two wildly dysfunctional parties (or at least trying to shift away from the extreme fringes).
To the contrary, district elections have opened up the neighborhoods outside of the non-State Street drunk zone to public works and attention. The question of how many participated is never a clear tell. The turnout was not embarrassing in total and people have the right not to vote if they have no quarrel with how things are going or with the rep they have. I was impressed that in the lowest turnout district the wannabe and her money bags supporters were dissed. I suspect Rowse will want to return to the murkier days of the Downtown Organization and merchants getting an undue share of “improvements” but hopefully the council will keep that in check.
Rowse was a registered Democrat, then because of partisan politics he switched to No Preference. If that is what qualifies someone as a Republican in this town you think we might be a little too far to one side?
Interesting election-Joyce and Schwartz helped SBA to get rid of Murillo. Randy will be the grown up in the council. I am not convinced that Joyce is all that smart. Watch a few of his podcasts. He has trouble making sense and putting thought together within decent sentences. His local political office career has serious roadblocks for years to come….time! Schwartz needs to find a real job. Her local political career never got started and is over. She is not a likable person. Cathy’s Mexican base mostly stayed home. The remaining city council members will continue to spend away our tax money on things like $10,000 per month to house one homeless person times 50.Socialism is alive and well here, but the Democratic liberal party is in deep trouble with white workers and those in the suburbs. Go Randy!
Schwartz does have a real job: she’s a planning consultant, Mesa Consulting, — and, if ethics and the appearance of conflict counts at all, she, along with Higgins, Bonderson and Reed, should not be on the peoples’ planning commission! Reed and Schwartz will be off it, but fingers crossed (and what else can we do), that their successors are not as bad or worse.
Looking forward to Randy taking over.
If it was me I would start with 20% layoffs across the board. 20% is the minimum reduction that should be considered, but it would be a good start.
Just think of the resources that would free up for roads, parks and homeless solutions.
Citizen, what nonsense. Who is going to do the work that the ‘savings’ from laying off 20% of the real workers would realize? Is the future of right wing charity just finding volunteers? If the city has the savings whom do they pay? What a silly idea.
See ya Murillo. Thank goodness!
Laying off 20%? SO we have no one running anything and the city falls into further decay?
I am glad that James Joyce did so well.
Joyce and Murillo split the Dem votes. I bet if there was a runoff between the two, Joyce would win. Hope he tries again for another role, would love to see how he can help the city.
Wow, reminds me of that time back in 1992 when bill clinton won just 43% of the vote and got to be president.
Pretty obvious that Rowse is a minority selection. Those that complained about Murillo’s lack of mandate before can now complain about his. Or is that too much to expect?
Randy was the best candidate in the race. Santa Barbara will be better off with him as mayor.
Dems need to run the best candidates possible., ones that people will rally behind. This time around, it didn’t happen, both in the city mayor’s race and in Virginia governor’s race. And I think the ‘party’ knew early on these were not the strongest choices. Candidates need to create positive energy.
Minority selection??? Humorous choice of words…
True, Randy’s win is not a majority, but 40%, 7,895 votes, is closer to a majority than Cathy ‘s prior 27%. And with 6 candidates in the race this time, one of which had the endorsements of two respected papers and another was the incumbent, it is a huge win, a win for non-partisanship.
Hopefully, the on-going squabbles on the council will cease with Randy part of the team. And with Sneddon with a such a large win, 3,205 votes, 60.6%, hopefully, the snide attacks on her will cease. (Meagan Harmon also won, with 53% of the vote in her district or 1,305 votes.) Totals are still preliminary but finals won’t change; eye-opening how poorly Deborah Schwartz did, only 1,319 votes, 6.75%! The big story for Cathy should be how low the vote totals were in “her” districts, 1 and 3, the Gutierrezes districts.
Rowse will likely be a better mayor than Murillo, which isn’t saying much. He was the choice of only 14% of registered voters (40% of 35% turnout). SB desperately needs ranked choice voting.
A quick look at our choices proves the best people don’t want these jobs anymore. From the president on down.
Compared to Murrillo…Mediocrity is a HUGE STEP FORWARD!!!
City budget needs to be balanced with new revenue realities growing future liabilities . Degradation throughout this city from vagrancy must be stopped. Restore the sense of public saftey with more aggressive and equitable law enforcement and followthrough. City infrastructure is screaming for renewed maintenance all over town. City administrative structure needs streamlining and brought more in line with other cities of similar size and mission. New city manager need to be hired and a new relationship between city council and city managers needs to be forged.. Cost allocations unique to each city district needs annual auditing. Survey of numbers along with future fiscal impacts numbers of current subsidized housing units is critically needed , before committing to even more housing units taken out of the free market. Where are we now. Who benefits. What benefits accrue back to the city with our current numbers of subsidized housing units- both public and private in real dollars; not theoretical dollars. Can current subsidized or price-fixed housing be brought back into market rate housing? Work with property owners to clean up State Street. It is a dank and growing menace.
GT i agree with the 1st two sentences…but how is a mayor going to relieve homelessness, wild fires, and gangs? Homelessness is a rampant problem across the globe, especially in the USA. If you think the homeless problem here is bad, go to our 3 larger cities and take a look. Gangs? Dude I’ve been here since 1982 coming from Ventura/Pierpont. There have been gangs in our area since the 1960s. Hells Angels, Bravados, East/West Side and smaller affiliations,. Santa Bruta, VTA Avenue, Pierpont Rats, Hilltop gang. None of this is new and has been a problem long before you came here in 94. MS13 has no affiliation in Santa Barbara. So you are against homeless people sleeping in tents, and you’re against them sleeping out of a tent, and youre against them for sleeping in a hotel too? WTF is your problem? Do you have money and a safe place to put these people that have far less than you or I, or do you just like to b*tch and complain about everything and offering no solution? Kinda have a feeling i’m correct there…
Thekid, Socialism has been a part of American life since prior to the 1950s. I’ll give you a brief list of socialism in our society: public library, social services, social security, police department, fire department, public schools, welfare and job loss assistance, Government support for higher education (socialism), Conservatives support government subsidies for agriculture and the oil energy (that’s socialism) , dude the list goes on and on and on and you yourself and your right wing buddies all benefit from it, so stop beating the anti socialist drum acting like it’s some cancer. none of us would make it without these programs. get over it and stop listening to others factless opinions and do some actual reading yourself.
Socialism is government ownership the means of production and creating wealth. Government services paid for from taxes is not socialism. Just saying.
You start immediately by changing the mislabeled “homeless” narrative. If they are con artist grifters, they fall into the criminal justice system. If they are service-resistant addicts or mentally impaired to be a threat to public health and safety, they fall into the public care institution system. If. they are temporarily “down on their luck”, they qualify for our already generous social welfare system.
We have a government patronage system – public wealth transfer in unsustainable amounts to government employees, for life. Time more people finally understood how much our long-standing one party town sold out our future. Send all future bills to those local publications, whose constant political endorsements landed us in this one-party dominated fiscal black hole. Recipe for third world government status is playing out right here: raid the treasury and hire. the relatives. City has entered a death spiral due to 20 years of the following wrong turns: growth of city personnel costs; material loss of tax revenue producing properties and local commercial activities, and escalating lifetime financial commitments to city employees and misguided social programs made with no way to fund them. City needs to take a time out from trying to save the world; and save itself first.
12 months x $10,000 per month comes to . . . .. . $120,000 per, um, person. That’s more than most of us get in income. Surely that’s not true?
the city admin is 20% overstaffed and workers are under utilized.
If you’re talking about the cost to house the homeless in the pilot inn programs, yes. It pays for services as well, so it’s not just housing. But yeah. I did the math and it’s like $100 MILLION a year for us to “solve” homelessness this way. Which assumes we have 1,000 hotel rooms, and thousands and thousands of people to staff them and provide the services the homeless need according to this doctrine. Homelessness Industrial Complex, indeed. Peak neoliberalism. This just doesn’t pencil out.
No one else has come up with a better or cheaper solution, right? So we either pay for this , or just live with the problem. That $100M estimate is based on faulty assumptions? So is just fake news.
What “faulty assumptions” is it based on, Pit? As far as I know, housing and medical and psychiatric and security service costs in SB are not going to go down with economies of scale in SB. You can do the math yourself. We have about 1,000 homeless people. If we want them all off the street using this model, 100 Million a year IS the cost. If you want to talk about OTHER models, then sure, we could come up with different or perhaps lower costs.
The real problem is not housing, anyway. It’s drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs. These people are hyped up on drugs that didn’t even exist 10 years ago, new formulations, awash in supply like never before. Labs in Mexico and China and beyond are manufacturing ultra-crazy versions of drugs and turning people into raving lunatics within a matter of months. They’re destroying their brains, sometimes permanently. And lord knows there isn’t much we can do to help them once we get to that point.
He Can’t do worse!!!!
Let’s start really simple.
1. Power wash State Street and adjacent corners, stairwells and get rid of the urine and feces that is smelling up the streets. Super simple. Do it at night, get a water truck with hot water, ocean friendly enzyme cleaner and clean things up. I am sure volunteers would line up. Or contact Bucket Brigade and maybe they will do it for a donation.
2. Create an ordinance for all State Street businesses and a couple streets adjacent that businesses must have clean windows and walls and not have old drapes, paint that is peeling and other crap. Indocrine looked disgusting from the outside. This is unacceptable in any business, especially prime State Street. Also create an ordinance on vacancy limits.
3. Hanging baskets of flowers up and down State Street – think of how beautiful Vancouver is. Coast Village Road same thing. This is a tourist town, make it beautiful.
4. No bleeding heart, codependent clean needle programs. If people want to self-destruct allow them their freewill choice. If their choices create death that is their choice, honor their process and allow them to exit that way. Quit trying to save everyone or delaying their Karma. Clean needle programs do not work. Look at San Fran and SB’s current state.
5. Homeless are homeless because they are choosing it. Most are manipulative and know exactly what they are doing. They know how to scan people for money. Most do not want to be helped. Allow them their choice and the consequences with it. Maybe if their consequences actually were allowed to flow easily without the city or bleeding hearts interfering they would get their soul lessons sooner and make different choices. Many you think are crazy are not.
6. The city needs cell tower ordinances like Westlake has. This would protect the area from ugly towers and 5G ugliness. Ordinances are actually a super smart thing to do as they protect property values.
7. Get an investigation into Bellosguardo and how Helene was able to appoint her boyfriend. Consult with the city attorney, California Attorney General and the NY Attorney General, Clark Family and the attorney back east and put brains together to undo the damage and this appointment. It was corrupt. If a mayor can appoint, a mayor can unappoint.
So according to you it is more important to be of a certain race, creed, sex or have been given a surname from a particular country than it is to hold integrity, honor, skills, intelligence and ability? Got it…