With COVID-19 numbers skyrocketing all over Santa Barbara County, mostly due to the Omicron variant, the Santa Barbara Unified School District installed mandatory testing for students and staff on January 10. While the county deals with an overall shortage of tests, SBUSD indicated that it had plenty on hand to test every student (roughly 13,000) […]
A familiar face will likely be returning to City Hall, as former Santa Barbara City Council member Randy Rowse has unofficially won the six-candidate mayoral race, with final and confirmed results expected late Thursday. Rowse would be the city’s first male mayor in almost 30 years, while also taking office as a no-party candidate, moving […]
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The showdown for Santa Barbara City Council’s District 4 seat has been an unexpected, no-holds-barred battle between challenger Barrett Reed and incumbent Kristen Sneddon, who, in the face of Reed’s intense criticism, has chosen to focus on her own strong record as a councilmember, and turning up the heat on her current councilmates. Sneddon, a […]
With more than a decade served on Santa Barbara’s Planning Commission, Deborah Schwartz has navigated plenty of tough decisions, aiding in projects such as affordable housing and local economy relief. It’s all been good practice for her latest venture: running for mayor. It’s here that she will be faced with not only affordable housing and […]
The makeup of the race for Santa Barbara City Council’s District 6 seat took on a dramatically different feel late in the filing period, with three candidates jumping into the fray to take on incumbent Meagan Harmon. Jason Carlton, a well-known local business owner, is one of those that chose to challenge the seat; he […]
The race for the District 6 seat on Santa Barbara City Council has turned into a four-person race, with City Hall insider Nina Johnson creating plenty of buzz in choosing to “pull her papers” at the very end of the filing period to take on incumbent Meagan Harmon. Johnson isn’t just taking on Harmon, but […]
While the other city of Santa Barbara races feature a plethora of candidates, the battle for District 4 is a two-person showdown, with incumbent Kristen Sneddon taking on Barrett Reed. Sneddon, a professor at Santa Barbara City College, has been on council as the pandemic forced both State Street and Coast Village Road into plenty […]
The race for the District 6 seat on Santa Barbara City Council is a four-person race, with incumbent Meagan Harmon being challenged by Jason Carlton, Nina Johnson, and Zachary Pike. Harmon, also a representative on the California Coastal Commission, is facing her first election, as she was appointed to council in 2019. Each of the […]
With numerous issues facing the city, the race for Santa Barbara’s mayor seat features a plethora of different backgrounds, with five challengers taking on incumbent Cathy Murillo. Murillo will take on James Joyce, Matt Kilrain, Randy Rowse, Deborah Schwartz, and Mark Whitehurst in an election that begins in early October as mail-in ballots arrive. For […]
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As October approaches, you will start receiving mail-in ballots for Santa Barbara’s mayoral race, and if you live in Districts 4, 5, or 6, you will also receive a ballot for those City Council races. While the rest of this section previews the candidates, the logistics of voting is just as important so you can […]
If you’ve driven around town over the past six weeks, it’s been hard to miss the posters calling to elect “Boat Rat Matt” as Santa Barbara’s next mayor. It’s a moniker that Matt Kilrain embraces, and one that will take him to the November 2 ballot as he takes on incumbent Cathy Murillo, as well […]
James Joyce has been the ultimate guy behind the scenes, working with a California State Senator on a daily basis, guiding Hannah Beth Jackson’s attention toward what was needed. A key contributor to a beloved senator. And now it’s his time to step out front, although many in the community already know him from Coffee […]
Randy Rowse admits he had left it all behind – the politics, the late nights watching City Council meetings, the rigors of owning a business. The former Santa Barbara City Council representative was retired, and his wife loved it. But, over the past 18 months or so, monitoring City Council meetings became commonplace. He questioned […]
Meanwhile, just down the road in District 6, the race between incumbent Meagan Harmon and well-known challenger Nina Johnson took an unexpected twist due to a local podcast featuring Ed St. George, the owner of St. George & Associates, who has historically been outspoken when it comes to politics and small business topics in Santa […]
