Jerry RobertsBy Jerry Roberts of Newsmakers
Voters are staying away in droves from Santa Barbara’s historic city election, with a mere one-fourth of those registered having returned ballots 36 hours before polling ends at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 2) — half of the final turnout percentage in a similar contest four years ago.
“One day before Election Day, it looks like turnout is going to be low,” county elections chief Joe Holland, who is managing the contest for the city, told Newsmakers. “We’d like to see a lot of people get out and vote on Tuesday.”
With the mayor’s office and two contested City Council seats at stake, a running total of ballots returned to the registrar as of 11 a.m. Monday, sorted by council district and party. showed that:
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Just 14,491 of 56,725 registered voters had completed their ballots so far — 25.5 per cent – in what is the second election under the district City Council system; the first, and only comparable, contest four years ago produced a 51 percent turnout.
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The lowest turnouts so far were on the Eastside’s District 1 (17 percent) and the Westside’s District 3 (16 percent); this could spell trouble for incumbent Mayor Cathy Murillo, who previously represented District 3 and who expects to run strong in both areas.
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The highest turnout — 34 percent — is in District 4’s San Roque/Riviera/Mission Canyon neighborhoods, spurred by a spirited council battle between incumbent Kristen Sneddon and developer Barrett Reed, as well as by traditional heavy voting patterns among its largely older, mostly white homeowners; this could bode well for the mayoral campaign of former council member Randy Rowse, running as a non-partisan moderate in a field of six, mostly more liberal candidates.
Political junkie special: Here is the complete data set of turnout to date provided by registrar Holland.
County Elections Office
Still time to vote
If you’re reading this on Tuesday, there’s still time and opportunity to cast your ballot — and help put the lie to the gloomy turnout forecast.
The city’s website lists eight ballot drop locations, including City Hall, the County Administration Building and the County Elections Office, where you can place your ballot until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
It also lists five locations, including the Eastside Library, the Westside Neighborhood Center and MacKenzie Park, where you can vote on Election Day,
Why no sale on election?
Whoever is elected mayor, the city’s only citywide official, along with the winners in council races, will get five-year terms, a one-year bonus. Besides the District 4 race, appointed incumbent Meagan Harmon is challenged by longtime City Hall executive Nina Johnson in downtown’s District 6 and incumbent Eric Friedman is unopposed in outer State Street’s District 5..
The five-year terms are due to the historic anomaly of the 2021 race being the city’s last odd-year election; voters several years ago approved charter changes to move local balloting to even years, a change expected to boost turnout, as well as save money.
The election also is significant in coming at a critical juncture for Santa Barbara’s economic future, as it seeks to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, as well as address longer-term challenges caused by the decline of retail, the vagaries of the tourist industry and the chronic problems of State Street, from high commercial rents to apparently intractable homelessness.
The mayor’s race largely was seen as a referendum on Murillo’s performance in the pandemic, and other disasters, including the deadly Montecito debris flow, which struck in the early morning hours of the day she was sworn in, after she had captured the office by winning 27.96 percent of the vote in a splintered field in 2017.
Beyond Rowse, a No Party Preference independent, her major challengers included two fellow Democrats, Planning Commission President Deborah Schwartz and entrepreneur James Joyce.
In the wake of the national outcry over racial equity following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, Joyce’s emergence and success in winning key, major endorsements, also were historically notable; the first Black person to run for mayor in more than a decade, his proposals on vaccine mandates, City Hall ethics reform and expanding opportunities for hiring and promotion in city government shaped much of the campaign’s debate.
Despite considerable, sometimes noisy, coverage by Santa Barbara’s small but energetic political press corps, however, it appears that most voters tuned out of the mayor and council races.
One political consultant suggested part of the reason may lie in the Sept. 14 statewide recall election which unsuccessfully sought to oust Governor Gavin Newsom, and which dominated media political reporting in California and the nation for months.
“A lot of people probably got their city ballot in the mail and thought, ‘I already voted,'” this insider said.
Screen grab Montecito Journal
Cathy’s foolhardy flyer
Over at the Montecito Journal, the inveterately aggressive Nick Masuda scooped the world with a weekend report on a last-minute, disinformation mailer from Murillo’s campaign that broke all world records for faux outrage by portraying Rowse as the second coming of Donald Trump.
The MoJo headline summed it up pretty cogently:
“Desperate Move? Mayoral Incumbent Cathy Murillo Falsely Links Opponent Randy Rowse to Trump.”
Personally, we would have lost the question mark.
Let us count the ways this was a dumb move: Besides how famously averse Santa Barbara voters are to even mild forms of negative campaigning (does Pat Dennis, Murillo’s Sacramento-based strategist really not know this?), there’s the fact that Rowse has been a well-regarded figure in the city’s business and political zeitgeist for decades, making it difficult to make phony charges stick,
And purely as a political matter, even if tarring Randy as a Trumpista was a sound strategy, the time to start doing it would have been six weeks ago, not the weekend before the election, if the message was going to take.
Sheesh.
Boat Rat busted
It’s been truly annoying to drive around town in recent weeks and see the plethora of “Boat Rat Matt for Mayor” signs hung in illegal locations, not to mention nailed to trees, by the campaign of Matt Kilrain – not least because the utter contempt he’s shown for the city’s allegedly strict regulations on campaign signage match the disrespect and contumacy he’s displayed with his QAnon-adjacent, anti-vaxxer, wing nut rantings at campaign forums.
One loyal Newsmaker who shares our outrage has sent multiple images of illegal Kilrain sign postings to City Hall, to no avail, and even caught the candidate in the act, hanging one from a palm near Modoc and Hollister.
Raise the vibe in the 805, indeed.
Boat Matt Rat posting a campaign sign in illegal location (courtesy photo).
Don’t forget to vote.
well my biggest problem is how in the hell did Oscar get into my neighborhood? We don’t like him, he doesn’t represent us and he’s an @ss of the highest order. Total embarrassment to the council. Oscar Gutierrez is not good and should not be in our district.
Many have lost faith in the idea of a fair/true election with the smoke and mirrors in our city and nation.
Do you mean because the GOP is systematically stripping voting rights and access to free and fair elections in our country with racist legislation?
provide an example @2:14 rather than just parrot the TV.
VOICE – instead of just saying “no they’re not,” how about YOU provide examples of all the good things the GOP is doing for people of color, women, LGBQT, etc? You keep defending your party against claims that they’re racist or curtailing women’s rights, but you never explain or provide examples of the good they’re doing for these groups.
Put your money where you mouth is.
Again, great example of you ignoring half of what goes on I’ve said many times they aren’t “my party” and have plenty of their own issues. What you just wrote here is a simply anti-GOP taking points regurgitated from the TV and social media that bear little resemblance to actual policies and legislation proposed by the GOP. But of course, you apparatenly know what the GOP stands for better than actual conservatives….
If Murillo can be mayor, a trained actress from our local non profit tv station, why can’t Boat Ratt Matt. At least he has a background in staying afloat
VOICE – just answer the question, we’re tired of your deflections. What GOP policies are established to help people of color, women and the LGBQT community?
I never said I didn’t vote. I voted. All I said was people are not excited about this election because there is no good candidate. I don’t believe any of the candidates have garnered any excitement from the people I speak to.
1 of 2 council members to support the homeowner in Eric Friedman’s District who was trying to replace a large non-native tree in her yard with a smaller one. Oscar and Alejandra. That’s got to count for something. Oscar knows how to work hard and walk the precinct and in a heavily latino neighborhood that counts for a lot.
did he return the illegal money he received from the same developer that Reed had to return? Or is he one of those better to ask for forgiveness than permission guys?
Yep, in my neighborhood there are a lot of democrats voting for Randy. I’ll be one of them…
It’s not so much that I love him, but he seems sane… and it’s my opinion that our current cast is severely dysfunctional.
many? as in the republicans? because they lost? ok…gotcha
Sac is right on all points here, VOR. You do claim this crap often with nothing to back it up, when the rest of the world knows better. on the global stage, the GOP are known as rich folks, mostly white and all very out of touch with reality, and very anti just about everything.
VOR then prove it. GOP isn’t a bunch of racist pigs with 1950s thinking?
VOICE – this should be easy for you. You keep saying we’re wrong about the GOP, despite policies I’ve cited in the past (TX abortion law, restrictions on health coverage for trans people, attempts to repeal DACA, etc etc…). I’ve already done my part. If you’re so sure that we’re wrong, you should be able to explain why quickly and easily. Saying we’re “parroting the media” (which is EXACTLY what you do, different media) is not an “explanation.” Stop dodging and tell us why the GOP is not as we say.
Here, take a gander at some more… https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-met-dahleen-glanton-republican-party-racism-20190114-story.html
Pit, i don’t care about that. at all. nor do i care that oscar, a hispanic male can walk in a hispanic neighborhood. i’m white, grew up with a mexican step dad and mexican family and live in a mostly hispanic neighborhood, and I walk just the same as he or anyone else does in the hood. I can also talk to my neighbors too. None of that is a qualification for a city council seat anywhere. manyof us know how to work hard, i doubt he does at his age and lack of experience on the globe. that is all irrelevant. he’s a jerkwad. this dude screamed at the famers market organizers and yelled at and or ignored people that live in the district he now represents. sorry but you can’t just roll back time and erase that. he embarassed the city, himself, and all of us during that meeting. he’s also done loads of bad things for other districts to coddle his 1% up on APS. He’s also stepped into the water fronts region and authority and made attempts to direct them which is laughable. they have no jurisdiction on the water front, and his inexperience proves he’s not fit to represent. i could go on and trust me, i have facts and a lot of it against this person.
Abortion law, as far as the GOP is concerned, has to do with the baby, not about the women, not sure what restriction they’re pushing on trans people as it relates to health coverage, repealing DACA is not racist but has to do with following the immigration laws we have on the books that so many politicians on both sides have simply ignored for years (rather than engaging in meaningful immigration reform). Zerohawk its was the Dems that were the racists pigs in the 50s and beyond, you’d also have to ignore the still serving Dem politicians who were buddy buddy with actual members of the KKK (not to mention the prior and not so prior racists comments from our current prez). They’re entire platform these days is identity politics and are pushing this division which you’ve and many others have fallen for, this will not go over well for them in the coming years as evident by the continued slip of minorities from blue to red. I don’t how you could look at the leadership of the DNC (or GOP) and say they aren’t rich old white people who care more about their corporate donors and grips on power than their actual constituents.
“When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, a higher percentage of Republicans voted for this landmark bill than Democrats in both the U.S. House (80% vs. 61%) and U.S. Senate (82% vs 69%). Plus, Southern Democrats led the 74-day filibuster that opposed this legislation.
Now in the 21st century, poverty, crime and apathy continue to plague many Black communities, especially in major U.S. cities led by Democrat mayors.
In short, liberal Democrats have done far more than Republicans to sabotage the progress of Black people over the past century-and-a-half. Not surprisingly, the biased, dishonest media has concealed the lies of liberal Democrats and fanned the flames of racism.”
VOICE – read a history book, the parties shifted. You should know that, we all do.
Santa Barbara City’s council districts are an embarrassment. Just look at the population gerrymandering that went on.
As for the abortion law, who cares if it “has to do with the baby?” They’re allowing private, 3rd party citizens to sue docs for helping a woman terminate a pregnancy caused during incest or rape. How is that anything BUT a total degradation of women’s rights?
So it’s actually Republicans in charge (in disguise) of nearly all major US cities that are raging with poverty, bad schools, and crime which are, unfortunately, predominantly impacting minorities? Why did Covid disproportionately impact minorities in Dem led CA vs. Repub lead FL where the impact was proportionate? Why are you okay with the racists vaccine-only restrictions which disproportionally impact minorities? Racist! Is it the Dems or Reps who are for school choice (hint, it isn’t the party that the teachers unions give millions of dollars to each year)? Regarding TX in particular, that law won’t stand, and in the minds of the Texas GOP, it has everything to do about the baby.
VOICE – still waiting for those examples of pro-women, pro-minority, pro-LGBQT GOP policies…
Honestly, it is pretty embarrassing as a city if all we can generate are these candidates. We are a city full of successful entrepreneurs and visionaries that change the world. Why is it that we cannot get one of our best and brightest to be the CEO of this city? If we all continue to disengage and not bring our best talent forward, we are going to continue to see the decline and implode. Cities need to be run like a successful business. The Mayor is a CEO. It’s time to change all of this and deconstruct the “politics” and old systems to save this beautiful city. The decline of downtown, the homeless situation, the feces and urine smell in just about every sidewalk…not ok.
Pro – individual freedom covers all sexes, races, and orientations. It is those that seek to divide us upon those lines that are the real racists.
@VOR, I was the original responder and you asked for sources so here they are. (side note, I don’t watch much tv, but do read)
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/1040238982/senate-democrats-are-pushing-a-voting-rights-bill-republicans-have-vowed-to-bloc
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/us/politics/senate-voting-rights-filibuster.html
https://www.vox.com/22463490/voting-rights-democracy-texas-georgia-suppression-jim-crow-supreme-court-sb7
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/22/senate-to-vote-on-s1-for-the-people-act-bill.html
Sac, Abortion has EVERYTHING to do with the baby. WTF? Yes, that Texas law has some dumb ass shit, but doesn’t come close to that comment.
5:26 Seriously? why would anyone use those media sources as facts to prove anything?
5:31 – Yeah, everybody knows that non-journalists and social media nutcase sites like Breitbart are the only places for REAL information.
@526 when is it voter suppression and when is it election integrity? Is it okay to put procedures in place to ensure voter rolls are up to date and accurate, that the person voting is who they say they are?
I’m just hoping that someone will replace Murillo…. anyone …… Just get her out of office.
5:43, So you’re insinuating that I get all my information from “non-journalists and social media nutcase sites like Breitbart”? (btw, don’t get your news from ANY social) Well, you’re half right. Although I have only heard about Breitbart, I do give stock to nonbiased, non-reporters. I don’t need my news slanted with some journalists’ opinions. That’s just me, I’m weird like that.
7:18 – Clearly, you have no idea what journalism is. You’re buying into the “do your own research” nonsense.
Looks like Randy will win –great news!
Certainly the party will find a place for their loyal servant Cathy, and we will see her running again in a few years.
Can’t blame people for not voting when there is absolutely NO ONE worth voting for. We need better candidates and Rank Choice Voting.
DUKE – your constant defense of VOICE is admirable, I suppose, but you really missed the point here. We’re not discussing the appropriate time to teach CRT, we’re discussing examples that support my claim that, contrary to VOICE’s repeated assertion, the GOP pushes policies that are contrary to women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and minority rights. That is the SOLE claim here. VOICE continues to say everyone is wrong and the GOP actually doesn’t have these stances, yet he fails to prove otherwise.
Hurrah for us, residents of Santa Barbara, to have a non-partisan mayor for all of us, not a DCC/Daraka clone! …Oscar better watch his back: loyalty means nothing in politics and, odds are, she will be back.
You do realize that getting all homeless housed is impossible… right?
Sunshine, We tried that a few years ago when Angel Martinez, retired CEO and Chairman of Deckers International, was persuaded to run for Mayor. The Dem Committee and unions told the voters to vote for Murillo and so we got what we got.
Agreed. I reluctantly voted for Randy just to get rid of Cathy Murrillo. Now that he’s in, let’s see what he can do. Theoretically he should be stronger than Murrillo on the Homeless, who was openly content with the situation.
Great news!!!! Adios to one of the most inept, incapable, ineffective, puppets of a politician we’ve ever had to put up with… Rouse is right. Party politics has NO PLACE in our City or County. We must push these power hungry cretins back into the cushy world of academia from which they’ve crawled…
Please consider registering as an I or NP and help de-fund the parties. They are the problem. They are the cause.
Murillo slipped in the first time as mayor by a vote-split, receiving only a small minority of total voters. The election. that rejected Hal Conklin of all people and got Cathy Murillo instead. It was a way off election. Murillo did nothing to earn re-election. There should be no surprise her incumbency was not rewarded with a second term. Santa Barbara finally rejected partisan machine politicians and its sleaze reputation for last minute dirty tricks. Now let’s roll up our sleeves and stick to local issues – not partisan agenda driven issues. And that means you too, Harmon and Sneddon. Can’t point to a single voter who cared about “climate change”, or who did not see through the buzz word “working families” is nothing more a dog whistle for more handouts to government employees. The Pothole Mayor is exactly what our next mayor needs to be. And to give guidance to the next city administrator, that is free from partisan bias. Take back the streets and pave them! Fix broken sidewalks. No more two systems of justice in this town – one for vagrants and one for the rest of us. That is equity I can believe in. City employees: show the courage and professionalism required from your well-compensated jobs.
Accept this new message and do not sabotage this new voice from the voters. Become a team working with city residents, and not against them. The appreciation will flow from this new relationship. Please welcome our new mayor and check your party politics at the City Hall door. Your relationships is with city taxpayers; not partisan party bosses.
Watch, they will still be blaming Murillo 2 years from now. Double standard is how they roll.
Who’s they? And seriously… I know for a year you have been telling us all that Mayor Murillo would win because Edhat isn’t indicative of the voting public but come on… she was a train wreck that needed to be voted out…
Hmmm, sounds familiar….