Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina

Santa Barbara Talks: Big Shake-Ups in Santa Barbara City Council contests

Jett Black-Maertz suspends campaign in District 1 on Santa Barbara's Eastside. Tony Becerra, martial arts sensei challenges Oscar Gutierrez in District 3 on the Westside. Josh Molina explains how these changes shakeup the Santa Barbara City Council contest. Joshua Molina is an award-winning journalist who creates dynamic conversations on the topics of housing, education, transportation, business, culture and much more. Please share this podcast with a friend and please hit subscribe. Visit www.santabarbaratalks.com for more content.

Duration:: 16m
Broadcast on:: 17 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

everybody welcome to Santa Barbara talks with Josh Molina. It's been a little bit since I've done one of these podcasts. I've been on vacation hanging out with in places with a lot of trees, as you can see, but I'm back and I want to talk to you about big news going on at Santa Barbara City Council contest on both the east side and the west side. Also members, Alejandro Gutierrez facing big challenge and now Oscar Gutierrez over on the west side, also facing a significant challenge. First, if you're new to this podcast, please hit subscribe on YouTube and also visit Santa Barbara talks.com and check out other content and consider a financial contribution to support my efforts. Okay, so here's the deal jet black merits has dropped out of the contest for Santa Barbara City Council district one. She was first out, she was going to take on all 100 Gutierrez and she was going to be the alternative to the terrorist who she had labeled as being not as active in the contest for being absent. And she was going to be the more authentic candidate representing the east side. She has dropped out. And it's huge, huge bluff to council member Alejandro Gutierrez is reelection campaign and you may be wondering, well, what if the opponent is out, why is that a huge blow. It's a huge blow because there were three candidates in this race race. I'm going to take a look at your terrors with jet black merits. And there still is Wendy Santa Maria, Wendy Santa Maria is a very formidable challenger to Alejandro Gutierrez. She is endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party. She's endorsed by SVIU cause, there's a lot of momentum behind her campaign. If you are somebody who wants stronger tenant protections for renters. If you are somebody who wants some sort of rent control past Wendy Santa Maria is the candidate that you are going to vote for. And she's she's not shy about saying that she's been very focused she has a strong message. The apartment owners, the real estate community, they do not want to see rent control. And so they do not want to see Wendy get re get elected to the seat. They would like to see out a hundred Gutierrez re elected because she has not supported rent control and it's a huge thing jet black merits being in that race would have met two challengers for Gutierrez. And in district elections, we don't have a huge turnout in these districts. What it means is these challengers would have split votes, which would inevitably had benefited the incumbent. So now if jet black merits is out it becomes essentially a one on one contest. There could still be somebody emerging but someone coming forward this late may not have been the strong challenge that someone like jet black merits was. So we have what is shaping up to be a one on one contest between Wendy Santa Maria and Alejandro Gutierrez, which is very dangerous for the incumbent. We just saw this in the first district in the Santa Barbara County Supervisors contest, Docs Williams, not reelected. It was a one on one contest and there's a million reasons why he lost. But have there been a third person in that contest, you would have been reelected, hands down, because when you have multiple people competing, the person with the current power, the current stature, the incumbent generally gets reelected and the challengers are trying to message about how the incumbent is not effective. Well, they're taking votes away from themselves. So jet black merits is out. And I wanted to talk just a little bit about that. I really liked that I met her on a podcast with her. I think she would have been a great city council member. I want to say moderate because that's almost an insult I know to Democrats and liberals, but she would have been sort of the middle brown voice between Gutierrez and Wendy Santa Maria. And for somebody who wants somebody like that she would have been great but I talked to her and I thought that I was very impressed by many of the things she said on the podcast and in the times that I have met with her. But this is a big blow because everyone else sort of feels that way everyone sort of feels like chat would make a good council member, but she sort of got caught up in this whole political vortex of who should be the anointed one. I'm going to read to you. Her, her email, the local political powers have determined that I am not the right person to represent the first district at this time. So that is very clearly saying that power brokers have basically said we don't want you to run because if you run you're going to split the vote. And that means all 100 terrorists is going to get reelected. I want to say, Jeb black merits. Well, I would like to say I am stepping back to support one of these candidates, I cannot in good conscious do so, as neither has demonstrated the skills, drive, or knowledge necessary to represent the district effectively. There are many unmet needs on the east side that must be discussed and many voices that need to be heard. Damn. Wow, that is a strong email. Now, granted this email went out to, I believe her supporters potential fundraisers. I am a member of the media, Jerry Roberts and I are putting together this candidates forum that we're going to do in partnership with TVSP. And so I reached out to her to confirm I didn't hear back so I reached out to her again. And then I got this email. So, so, so it might have been I was on the list for that purpose I don't think she was sending it out to the world but she was sent out to keep people who she thought she should know. So that's really a strong email is usually people step out. They're like, and I want to support this person. Okay. So she basically saying she still doesn't like either of them. It's interesting because she's going to try to get the endorsement of the Democratic Party because she also says in the email she's thinking of running for Santa Barbara City College board of trustees. It's going to be interesting to see how that works because the party likes to be on a slate and they don't like candidates who are not supportive of one another out there canvassing and walking and so if you're jet black merits. You kind of have to like support Wendy who's the Democratic Party candidate whether you want to or not. It's just one of those things you do you just smile and grin and bear it and, you know, support them and you know, you'll get your support back and it is what it is. And some people don't like to do that. They have too much pride. But if you're going to be in public office, the whole thing is about negotiation. It's about compromise. It's about shaking hands. You have to do business with people you don't like all the time constantly. If you only do business with people you do like, then you don't really get elected or stick around very long. It's just part of the nature of the deal. And so anyway, that's a situation that's going to have to resolve itself. But the big news is jet was first out. She was the one who was going to run and win, you know, challenge the incumbent possibly win. And now Wendy Sanoria and the huge energy behind her campaign has sort of taken over that place and that has to figure out where she's going to land. And so that is pretty significant. I know a hundred good parents feels very strongly about getting reelected. She is going to get a lot of money from the real estate people and people are behind her because they don't want to see rent control. But in my years of covering politics, I don't think it's going to be super easy. She's going to have to raise a lot of money and she is going to have to work hard. And by hard, I mean, knock knock knock knock knock on doors. You cannot take anything for granted. Doss Williams, he's the elect official is knocked on more doors than any other elected official in this town in probably history. Hard worker, super reelected, you know, reelected very strongly over the years. And then he decided not to campaign as well. And he lost so all hundred terrorists is not that. And she's going to try to get reelected. The party's not helping her she won by eight votes the first time. I don't care how you cut it. The party's support of her back then. One, her the contest, like it was absolutely essential without that. That's, that's eight votes. Right. So, so. Whatever she's going to have a master plan, she'll figure it out and maybe come November to be like you're our Josh. Okay, you know, and again, it's not like I don't think I'll wrong or should win. I'm not saying that at all. I'm talking about the analysis, the politics of it. It's, I've seen these things and I feel like when he's an area is trending really well in terms of what people are talking about out there, but I know it's also July so anything can happen. All right, so on the other side of town, on the West side, Oscar Gutierrez, finally has an opponent and this is a very big deal, martial arts, sensei dojo instructor, Tony Becerra is running for the city council seat on the West side. This is incredible, because no one thought Oscar was going to have an opponent. Oscar, this is Tony Becerra was Oscar sensei. He's been to that dojo. Right. He has spent time in there learning forms of martial arts. He knows him. Okay, so we've got, you know, sometimes you have the student challenging the teacher. challenging the student and it's, it's amazing. Okay, so that's big news. What this means is Oscar has not faced a challenge since the first time he was elected when he was challenged when he was running for the open seat, Michael the doll. And, well, here's the thing about Oscar, very nice, very likable. People really like him. He shows up for everything. He's all over social media. He's posting events around town. He's showing up at things. You know, he's very likable. Not a lot of people are going to be saying negative things about Oscar Gutierrez, at least, you know, in public. They're like, you know, he's a good guy. So, so he's got a real big advantage there because he's been present. But here's the thing. The real estate people are firmly against this rent control issue. And so they do not want to see. Oscar get reelected, or any candidates who are going to be who've already said we support a form of rent control. And so how much money are they going to pour into this? How much are they going to campaign? And are they going to make a serious run to oust Oscar? And the answer that is, yes, they are because Tony Becerra is well known on the West side. Generations of families have walked through his dojo and they know him. So if you're somebody who's like, yeah, this guy was good to my kids, good to me. You know, they're going to vote. But at the same time, Oscar grew up in that community and people know him. So that's still a very significant hill to overclock. And in these district elections, it's really about relationships. And then some money on the side can help put you over the top if it's a close contest. So this is a very big deal. What this also means, this goes back to district one and council member Alejandro, Alejandro Gutierrez. What this means, this is going to force the Democratic Party to spend more time and more resources in Oscars district on the West side, which will pull people from the east side. So the party is only going to have so many volunteers. There's a lot of stuff on the ballot. And so if you had all of those volunteers just focused on district one. And now you're going to say, Oh, we got to focus over here on the West side. That is straining services and straining resources. Sorry. So that's a significant deal. So this shakes up everything in terms of what's going to happen. You know, Alejandro kind of does not benefit from jet black merits dropping out. But she does benefit from the fact that there is an opponent on the West side and yeah on the West side and also Oscar has not supported Alejandro Gutierrez like he is not endorsed her. So they're not going to be kind of working together on this. So it is a big deal. And what this means, it's a very exciting Santa Barbara city council election this year. I don't even know if anyone's going to challenge Michael Jordan on the mess on the Mesa. It's possible. He's kind of got things figured out there. He's, he's a Democrat, but the conservatives like him to some degree. Democrats aren't like super happy with him, but they're kind of happy with him. Happy enough and as, you know, sometimes happy enough is passable. So that's, that's the situation there but they decide to throw at the real estate people decide to throw run somebody on the Mesa. And that's further going to, going to stress everything out and the party let's be real is in sort of a transition phase they're sort of having to refine their footing after the epic DOS Williams defeat. And what that means in terms of their power and their effectiveness they're still very powerful they're still very effective. Any candidate who's a Democrat wants to be endorsed by the Democratic Party because he just gets so much in kind resources. No, it's not a hundred percent guarantee at all. And if the real estate people are putting money on these other candidates. Oh, baby, it is going to be a huge bite all the way up until the end. So, a couple of little scoops there jetblock merits out of the contest. Tony Becerra in over on the west side taken on his former student, and all this is going to play out right, you know, here on Santa Barbara talks, I'll have stories in New sock, Jerry Roberts, my podcast partner, and I will be talking about it on the newsmakers with J R and we're doing a forum, and we'll probably do it, you know, more than one coming up on this election season. Okay. Don't hesitate to email Josh at Santa Barbara talks.com. Again, visit YouTube if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe, visit Santa Barbara talks.com and consider a financial contribution. I'm doing this at seven in the morning today because I've got a busy day of other journalism work ahead of me. So that's all. Thank you. Have a great day.