Tag archives: politics

“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 […]

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 […]

A native of Iowa, Mark Whitehurst has made his impact on the Santa Barbara community through the use of his VOICE – the newspaper publication, that is. Whitehurst is a man of the world, having taught in Australia, while also working in Oregon at his brother’s newspaper before relocating to Santa Barbara some 27 years […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Credit for today’s headline goes to MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes who used the phrase a couple of weeks ago on his nightly broadcast to describe the threat Kevin McCarthy leveled at the business community that week. In case you missed it, McCarthy as the Minority Leader in the House proclaimed that the Republican party, as […]

The problem with Gov. Gavin Newsom is that he is not a leader. Like most politicians he follows the money to keep his office in a blue state. In California, that means the liberal-Progressive political leadership who control politics in the state. The result has been a California that is on a downward slide. To […]

“The best part of competition is that through it we discover what we are capable of — and how much more we can actually do than we ever believed possible.” — Anonymous When it comes to Downtown Santa Barbara, these words ring truer now than ever before. The pandemic has brought massive change to the […]