Tag archives: politics
The last time I sat face-to-face with Congressman Salud Carbajal was in September of 2020, when we were all optimistic that the pandemic’s end was in sight. That was three years into his stint in Congress. And as honored as he was to be representing this district in the People’s House, he nonetheless seemed burdened […]
Michael Lewis, bestselling author of blockbuster books such as Moneyball and The Blind Side, speaks with Westmont president Gayle D. Beebe at the 17th annual President’s Breakfast Friday, March 4, 2022, from 7:30 am to 9 am in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Tickets cost $125 each and go on […]
As schools across Santa Barbara County reopen following the winter break and prepare for a successful return, I wanted to take a moment to reconnect with our community. We are welcoming our students back at a time when surging COVID-19 case rates have created new layers of uncertainty and concern for our schools. From interpreting […]
Thanks to redistricting, Santa Barbara will be getting a new State Assembly seat and of course a new assemblyperson to go along with it. At the Courthouse Sunken Gardens in Santa Barbara on January 11, throwing his hat in the ring was 33 year old Gabe Escobedo, most recently chairman of the Santa Barbara Planning […]
Nearly 200 Santa Barbara and Montecito residents gathered downtown Tuesday to celebrate the swearing-in of new Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse. The outdoor ceremony, which would normally take place within City Hall, also touched on the work of outgoing Mayor Cathy Murillo, and served to also swear in council members Kristen Sneddon – who represents, […]
The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has galvanized the country, splitting already “warring factions” into something far more dramatic. The travesty of that trial began with the systematic exclusion of Black jurors and was further amplified by a clearly biased and incompetent judge: he openly fought with the prosecution in front of the jury, denied them […]
As a community, we sit days away from the certification of our recent mayoral and city council election and I wanted to take a few minutes to address my city: It was an honor and a privilege to serve as a catalyst for change and to truly hold to my campaign motto: “A New Day. […]
We may look at circumstances in our society and wonder how our leaders could be so inept as to let those happen. Immigration chaos, the 2008 financial crisis and widening entitlements to name a few. Perusing the Democrat Party tactics initiated in the 1960s by Columbia University professors Richard Cloward and Frances Piven can clear […]
Robert Muller, the deceased Santa Barbara resident and globally known United Nations official who many of us admired, famously observed: “Use every letter you write, Every conversation you have, Every meeting you attend,To express your fundamental beliefs and dreams…”. I was reminded of this wisdom as I pored over the numerous letters we received from our last […]
Bravery takes on many forms, some literal and some a bit more theoretical. But nuance aside, there is bravery in challenging the status quo, the “machine.” And believe you me, our local Democratic Central Committee (DCC) is a machine. Allow me to explain: Local party endorsements spring from the DCC, yet, because Santa Barbara is […]
“People are sick of party politics,” says Mayor-Elect Randy Rowse. And Santa Barbara’s District 4 is a prime example of it. A glance at the details of 2021 Election results for both mayor and city council make one thing quite clear — Santa Barbara’s District 4, portions of which lie in Montecito, is a definite […]
On Rinaldo Brutoco’s essay this week on the idea of red states and blue states: I like how he analyzed the question. The only problem with whole states going red or blue: every state has a ratio of each. Would such a divide then require that all “blue” persons living in a “red” state move […]
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia is one of the wackier folks ever elected to the House of Representatives. Don’t take my word for it: Republican arch-conservative Congresswoman Liz Cheney has said that Greene’s thoughts and words are “sheer lunacy.” Another Republican, Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, said her words were “beyond reprehensible.” Not to […]
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 […]
Many of you are probably familiar with one or more editorials crafted by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. While not as uniformly progressive as some would like, and never a doctrinaire conservative, he usually strikes a tone of being thoughtful, reasonable, and everything but alarmist. Hence, his column from October 17 stands out […]
MIT’s earth, atmospheric sciences department just cancelled a lecturer on climate because the speaker, at another venue and on a different subject, expressed an opinion arguing that universities are too obsessed with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI “which threatens to derail their primary mission: the production and dissemination of knowledge.” That cancellation actually proved […]
“Let the Chips Fall Where They May Say” More and more I hear people say: “I hate politics.” But is it really politics we hate, or is what we hate the subversion of democracy by small groups of people who work hard to amass and hold on to power so they can determine who we […]
I found myself truly saddened by the article in the Montecito Journal regarding the Montecito Motor Classic — which is an emotional response that I’m sure few, if any, also experienced. And I have a question for the owners of these cars, to which I honestly and sincerely crave an answer. What is the professed […]
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 […]
It’s become a useful axiom in national politics to ask voters: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Applied to the City of Santa Barbara, I don’t know anyone who would answer that question in the affirmative. I don’t even believe the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party (known to insiders as the […]
