Edhat Staff
Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County endorsed candidates and supporters (Photo: DPSBC)
By edhat staff
The four candidates endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party have a strong showing in their respected races.
Official election results posted Wednesday morning following a dramatic Super Tuesday as local candidates campaigned until the polls closed. Salud Carbajal, Monique Limón, Das Williams, and Joan Hartmann produced a strong showing with Williams and Hartmann securing their seats.
House of Representatives
Incumbent Salud Carbajal had a strong showing to reclaim his seat for the 24th District in the House of Representatives over Andy Caldwell. Carbajal won 54.73% of the vote over Caldwell’s 40.98%.
“This election is pivotal for our Central Coast, state and nation, and I’m grateful to all in our community who made their voices heard at the ballot box, through vote-by-mail and through California’s early voting,” said Carbajal. “It is an honor to serve our 24th Congressional District and stand up for our values in Congress each day. Based on the results we’re seeing, I’m proud that it seems Central Coast residents want me to continue fighting for those values in Congress. I thank everyone for voting and urge our community to keep this momentum up come November.”
Caldwell has another chance to gain on Carbajal this coming November.
State Senate
S. Monique Limón handily gained votes for termed-out Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s seat in the 19th District of California’s State Senate with over 56% of the vote. Limón is currently an Assemblymember for the 37th District that includes over half of the County of Santa Barbara, as well as nearly a quarter of the County of Ventura.
State Assembly
The race for Limón’s seat as she aims for the Senate was thinned out as of this morning. Seven candidates entered with the hopes of winning the top two slots to face off in November. The lineup consisted of current Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murrillo, former Santa Barbara City Councilmember Jason Dominguez, current Santa Barbara City Council Boardmember Jonathan Abboud, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, community activist Elsa Granados, lawyer Stephen Blum, and lone Republican Charles Cole.
Many guessed the biggest battle would be between Murillo, Dominguez, and Bennett but Abboud made several headlines that gained attention. Abboud’s mother came to his defense during a town hall after a resident asked a question using, what many perceive, as racist rhetoric. Before Super Tuesday, Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders endorsed Abboud’s campaign.
In Santa Barbara alone, results came through showing Cole received 32% of the votes with Bennett capturing 23%. Jerry Roberts of Newsmakers was the first to bring attention to Cole stating he has a real shot to earn one of the top votes. The 22-year-old Montecito native was the only Republican in the lineup who based his platform on questioning climate change, railing against local public schools for teaching “race hatred,” and attacking the “Democrat Agenda.” When the condensed Democrat vote backs Bennett, will Cole have a chance?
Incumbent Jordan Cunningham appears to have secured his seat in the State Assembly’s 35th District with more than 60% of the vote but continues to November against Dawn Addis.
Board of Supervisors
The most heated race came between Santa Barbara Unified School District Boardmember Laura Capps and incumbent County Supervisor Das Williams for the 1st District County Supervisor seat. Williams just narrowly edged out Capps with 51.63% of the vote over 46.84%, a difference of 735 votes. However, the final count has yet to be revealed.
In North County, incumbent Joan Hartmann took on Bruce Porter and secured over 2,500 more votes earning 52.26% of the vote to Porter’s 35.71%.
Bob Nelson ran unopposed for the 4th District seat and will take over for Peter Adam.
Propositions & Measures
Proposition 13, which aims to repair and modernize local schools, doesn’t have enough support in Santa Barbara County with 55.97% of voters choosing “no.” However, the total results statewide are still too close to tell.
Measure J2020 Hope Elementary School District Bond Measure passed with 57.34% of the vote.
Measure I2020 City Of Lompoc Sales Tax also passed with 68.13%.
View the full results at sbcvote.com
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March 3, 2020: Take Edhat’s Election Poll!
[Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Murrillo had earned a top spot in the Assembly race]
Hartman put the county in desperate fiscal straights. You will need Porter to bail the county out. The math simply does not work when all you do is raise county expenses, and destroy county revenues .Try this same faulty Hartman formula on your own family budget: spend more and take in less.
PITMIX, I think the fundamental perception difference between liberals and conservatives is fiscal. Liberals believe they own other people’s money and will let them use it only with their permission. Otherwise, liberals think it belongs to them. Conservatives think they own their own money and will offer it to others only under strict limits and accountability demands. That gulf in thinking between the two forces is primarily why we “all can’t get along”. But understanding it – balancing revenues and expenses, instead of making giveaway promises and destroying the production base will go a long way to breaching this fundamental perception gap. Liberals claiming conservatives are only interested in profit and greed underscores what I just said – Democrats assume any money earned is theirs, and greedy conservatives are not letting them have it. Ponder this fundamental difference in fiscal orientation and maybe we can find some common ground. If one side sees themselves and makers and the other side as takers; and vice versa one overlooks the tremendous value-added by the makers which does undergird our present society. That is why there is such general push back even by “liberals” when the socialist “progressives” start talking about taking over the economy, handing out favors to unions and controlling outcomes according to their arbitrary standards, instead of both working to ensure equal opportunities. What “progressive lberals” offends Americans deep sense of fair play and the still viable “American Dream” – anyone can still make it rich in this country, as much as anyone can lose a million dollars just as easily too. And re-invent themselves to do it all over again. That is what we mean when se say ..Is America great or what? To which “progressives say” America is a hateful country built on slavery and global domination, and should suffer eternally for its sins. There is little hope in the “progressive” agenda – only gloom, doom, victims and mandatory confiscation of what belongs to others. Have a good day.
The largest voice of conservative push back in this election was the resounding defeat of Prop 13 -yet another unjustified school tax. Voters are finally understanding what this one-party, liberal tax and spend agenda has done to this state. They are finally asking why, with all this education tax money already on the table, do our schools continue to fail and be substandard. Those were the growing conservative Ides of this March. The proof was in the vote and the exposure of the duplicitous means used to put this disguised “education” issue on the ballot. People have caught on that every new dollar they tax themselves now goes to back-fill some government employee’s lavish pension.
Very well said!
Help me out PITMIX, why does the Green New Deal demand every worker must pay outside third-party unions part of paychecks and become mandatory union members? How will that union membership mandate materially impact “climate change”.
“Liberals believe they own other people’s money and will let them use it only with their permission. ” — Of course this is not remotely true and everyone knows it. It’s this sort of mischaracterization of almost everything (like claiming that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme) that is the hallmark of the right wing.
Hmm, can’t find that: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text
The title should be “Democratic Central Committee” endorsed candidates win big. This is the DCC, and they’re a problem. Mollie Culver (chief of staff for Gregg Hart and cannabis lobbyist), Darcel Elliot (chief of staff for Das Williams), Gail Teton Landis (head of the DCC), Hillary Blackerby (works for MTD) and Mary Rose (campaign consultant) pick your elected officials in advance. You’re told to support them as a good Democrat. Or else.
Voters lately have been picking non-DCC endorsed candidates, and some of those are far better. Jason Dominguez, Kristen Sneddon, and now Laura Capps come to mind.
A lot of Democrats didn’t vote for their endorsed picks.
Mollie Culver is NOT Gregg Hart’s chief of staff. It’s pretty easy to go to the County website and verify this.
Seems like the Republicans didn’t come out to vote in the 3rd district. In my area, Porter got fewer votes this time around than in 2016. I guess they stayed home to watch re-runs of MAGA rallies. Fine with me. Porter seems like a decent enough person. But he should not let himself be used by the oil companies and their henchman Sean Duffy. Or maybe I give him too much credit. An ethical West Point graduate. Oh, like all those West Pointers kissing up to trump in the White House? Lee Rosenberg? Brooks Firestone? Time for them to crawl under their rocks for another 4 years. At least SB County is safe for now.
Nor do they pick the candidates in advance (that absurd claim is just more of what I’ve characterized before). The people named are all actually quite wonderful people.
Almost 40,000 ballots remain to be counted – not even close to any final results for any local race until next Monday, according to Elections Office. Time to take a break from political punditry until we get the final count next week, and that still won’t be the final certified results. Best not to measure the drapes for any new office at this time. Agree, with sentiments about going to the poll and casting an actual ballot. I will go even further – bring back one election day and shorten this ruinously long campaign period that came along with the major vote by mail switch.
“DEMOCRAT ENDORSED CANDIDATES WIN BIG IN LOCAL ELECTIONS”….. And we all lose.
I believe this story is not correct. Only the supervisor races are decided by this election if it holds that Das and Joan got more than 50%. The assembly race should include the votes from Ventura. When you do that, Bennett and Cole are the top 2 that will vie in November. Salud and Monique will also run for their seats in November against their primary opponents.
Scary to see how close Murrillo is to winning…..
Government employment is our biggest local industry and they play hard to win. I saw their operatives out knocking on doors yesterday, dragging in anyone on their check lists who had not yet voted. Or maybe Santa Barbara residents wanted to get rid of Murillo and kick her upstairs where she can do any more damage than the “state” is already doing to us. Good for the GOP for hanging in together and not wasting their concentrated votes.
They win only in the primaries at this point. The final elections in November are yet to come. The gauntlet has been thrown down and the GOP is on notice – they can win if they hang together.
There is absolutely ZERO political DIVERSITY in Southern SB County. With the Democratic Machine pumping money into a schrill like Das to University and College students from out of the area indoctrinated by their “professors”, which 99.9% are liberal- (prove me wrong…) to vote Dem… Nothing changes.
Um, wat? The republicans made a really strong showing. But, keep spinning the narrative. I personally was surprised at how close these were, with Republicans coming out of the gate stronger than I expected. Remember, they predicted Clinton would win, too. Time for a guard change with our supermajorities that are hurting everyday workers and businesses.
People should be asking, ‘who is deciding which candidates get on my ballot, and who gets endorsed?’ The DCC here controls that, and this is why you keep getting Murillo, Williams, etc. on your ballot as the “Democratic Party endorsed” candidate. The DCC picks endorsed candidates a year in advance some times and tries to ‘clear the field’ of anyone that might want to run. They pick candidates loyal and subservient to the DCC, and drag Women’s Political Committee, CAUSE and the unions with them. The Independent also does their bidding in endorsements. So see? This game is rigged before it even starts.
Kind of like Bernie and the national Dem Party at present.
How is this democracy?
And, these were just “primaries’ and the GOP came out strong – usually it’s mostly Dems that vote in primaries.
You err Coastwatch, The size of our public pensions obligations changes, Sacramento’s interference with our local control changes, and more and more of our infrastructure maintenance funding disappears into the great public employee union open maw. There are more vagrants, more attacks by vagrants in downtown, more vagrant camp fires and more creek pollution, more street crimes and more neighborhoods becoming unsafe. Our local tax base is stagnating. Our schools are rapidly declining and bilingual education is now the celebrated norm, since any adequate english language skills improvement has failed. Buildings are getting taller and denser. Parking and traffic has gotten worse. You err, there has been lots of changes in our little one-party town. Plus now we can all enjoy being downwind from legal pot smokers, almost anywhere in town. Plus I think we have finally eaten our rich. There have been momentous changes in our fair city. Plus we now get a change in our Chief Financial Officer, who got us into this mess over the past 24 years. Nothing but change around here.
Maybe they are liberal because they can think for themselves? What does the con agenda appeal to except your sense of selfishness and greed? It is no mistake that the climate-deniers are mostly cons.
I always get a good laugh when conservatives attack universities when the attackers usually have never set foot in a college environment.
I sure hope Hartmann’s win over Bruce “Shady” Porter holds because he would be BAD NEWS for this county due to owing all the big oil, developers & out of state people pay back favors if elected.
I prefer gas station sushi to the cultish freak show that the GOP has become, even in California. I used to be a registered Republican, now they are just hacks selling out to oil companies, big banks, the coal industry, big ag, and pretty much anyone with the money to make bribes…er whoops I mean campaign contributions. Less taxes and bureaucracy is great but not at the price of dignity and basic morals.
College grad here. Parent of two college grads. Universities are left-wing, liberal cesspools.
As a registered Non Partisan Party, for U.S. Representative I voted for Kenneth Young. For State Senator I voted for Anastasia Stone. For State Assembly I voted for Jason Dominguez. For SB County Supervisor, District 1 I voted for Laura Capps. This coming November for the election the only Republican that I will vote for is Gary J. Michaels for State Assembly. I consider myself a true Independent. (I do miss Frank Hotchkiss and Dale Francisco on City Council. We need that kind of balance on our City Council of SB.)
Want more taxation, more illegal immigration, more restrictions on First and Second Amendment rights, more stupid laws, more control of your life, more Big Government in every way? Then keep voting for the Democrats and you’ll certainly get what you want. It confounds and amazes me that people will vote for these type of candidates. If anything is destroying Democracy, it is the Democrats and Liberals unwittingly doing so, not the Right and the Republicans, especially in our own one-party state, which no longer has any type of checks and balances on elected and appointed officials. I really haven’t changed a bit in my moderate and independent position on things over the years – but the Democratic party certainly has. If f you have any sense of logic, are patriotic, and support our Constitution and our country, you are now a de-facto Republican regardless of your party affiliation.
Your words do not sound moderate or independent at all. So I will keep voting blue, thank you.
You want more government employees who vote only as a solid Democrat block, keep voting Democrat. That is why you keep getting more of the same. Big Goverment become a very big voting block – voting for their own self-protection.
Frank Hotchkiss moved to South Carolina, so tell us how is now running for mayor here in two years, Pitmix. Dale would need three other like minded city council members or else why should he even bother with the current batch of Cathy M. Clones – who sit like Pavlov dogs waiting to get voting directions from the boss, Cathy M’s union bosses that is. Sorry Santa Barbara, you dug yourselves in too deeply now to easily bail this out. Go with the flow and keep passing new taxes to put bandaids on the past 20 years of city fiscal mismanagement; or ask someone new to drop the hammer and watch the city employee unions totally melt down. Millennials, it will soon be your city. What are you going to do? High rises and pie for everyone? Belt-tightening and reforms? It is now all in your hands while your pocket books have to feed the greedy special interest hands that have gone before you. Makes me understand why you want “revolution”. Just don’t listen fo false prophets like bernie Sanders who have all the basic issues 100% wrong.
Wow, California as a coal industry. I never knew that, chillin. Big banks, how does that work? Big ag, well, that does feed us. Big oil – bad, bad, bad, bad until you can get people out of their cars first – hold a sign on any 101 overpass scolding drivers to do better. Dignity and basic morals …….quite an agenda. I guess you know it when you see it. What do you call public sector employee union bribes…. oops I mean donations,…. to only the Democrat party, chillin? Your points are sounding more like a calculated cartoon platform than a real agenda. Keep talking, so we can figure this out.
Now it is getting easy to smell out the Mollie Culver touch pushing any candidate. No need to check anything, when her hired campaign stuff can’t even passes the basic smell tests.
What a strange spin on the election results story. Why is it relevant to note who endorsed the candidates? The voters had choices and selected from those choices. It sounds like editorial sour grapes to made the snide comment about the Democrat Endorsed candidates as though this was something that the dictator forced on people.
@PITMIX, Do not want to be part of or a member of a “political gang. Dem or R. I used to be a Dem, then I switched to an R. I got tired of being just one sided. Many Dems are just corrupt as the R’s. As a Non Partisan I vote who I believe is the best who is for the people, not “self interest” whether be a Dem or an R. Our City Council is full of Dems who do not care about the community of SB. The only one who I think is the best one on City Council is Kristen Sneddon. But unfortunately she is up against Murillo and her gang. So there are times she has to go along with Murillo and her gang.
@RHS, seems like its a factual statement. All the candidates who have the big Dem machine behind them are looking like the winners. Capps, who I personally feel is the better candidate, did not have the machine behind her and still earned a lot of votes but I bet if the Dem party endorsed her she would have won.
I found this an interesting but biased and sensationalist headline, especially since a few of the Democrats, with the exception of Cole, mentioned here and also statewide, will be facing a November election against Republican opponents such as Caldwell and Michaels who received only cursory mention of how well they actually did in our “blue” county and state. And I’m not sure how the article can infer that the Democratic-backed Proposition 13’s defeat is “too early to tell” with an overwhelming 55% voting “No” to 46% voting “yes”according to other news sources; that’s 2,904,717 “against”, 2,337,549 “for”, it is very unlikely that a very high amount of support votes will reverse this result. Unlike the deceptive and misleading title and wording that Becerra and Padilla gave to the Proposition 6 gas tax initiative in 2018, their wording of this measure and trying to link it as support of the Jarvis amendment backfired on them. Perhaps the political winds are beginning to shift.
PTMix are you satisfied with the Prop 98 guarantee that 50% of all general funds now go automatically to public education? That is a funded mandate, except the amount varies and the numbers of students depends on who is coming along to fill the empty spots as kids move along the K-12 pipeline. Currently K-12 enrollments are declining, so this means more money for each student since they still share the Prop 98 50% guaranteed slice of the revenue pie. Fewer students means fewer students sharing the same pot of money sounds like a very good trend. Does that sound like we are already getting “more money for education” or do we still need to keep adding more school bond issues, parcel taxes and new school taxes on top of the present Prop 98 guarantee? BTW: the teachers unions decide how this Prop 98 50% guarantee gets spent: on the student improvement programs, on themselves by way of perks, pensions benefits and salaries; and/or on maintaining and improving school buildings and infrastructure. How are our teachers unions currently spending all that Prop 98 cash? They have the system rigged so they now negotiate with themselves – one side of the table sits the teacher unions and the other side of the table sits the school board elected by the teachers unions. Sweet deal, isn’t it. But this is what the voters approve so this is what we get. Along with being a #45 ranked school system in the nation. There could be a better way, but voters have not yet figured this out.
Sound rejection of Prop 13 clearly shows the winds have already shifted, including GOP/conservative voters seeing they can win if they concentrate their votes and not scatter them as they have done in the past. Dems are pushing their split-roll destruction of the real, long-standing Prop 13 protections on the next ballot, after some very dubious signature gathering deceptions. That will be another test of shifting winds in this state. It will be fun to see what duplicitous ballot language they will use to sell this next self-serving Prop 13 cash grab. We will be ready. GOP/conservatives woke up Wednesday morning, realizing they were no longer alone in this county.
Capps came in too late to meet the deadline for endorsement. I guess her ma asked for a postponement but they refused to change their policy for one person. Even a Capps. Laura does good work on the school board. She will eventually run for a higher office and will win but she will need the support of 100s of ‘on the ground’ volunteers who work in support of the Dem. endorsed candidates. I for one appreciate all their hard work.