Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina

Santa Barbara Talks: Alejandra Gutierrez vs. Wendy Santamaria: Explaining What's at Stake

Josh Molina breaks down the behind-the-scenes dynamic behind the City Council District 1 contest between Alejandra Gutierrez and Wendy Santamaria, amid recent endorsements, and allegations of sign theft. Josh Molina is a college instructor and journalists who interviews people on a variety of issues, including housing, education, culture, business and politics. Santa Barbara Talks is a place for all perspectives to discuss solutions on topics that affect all of us. Visit SantaBarbaraTalks.com to make a contribution. Please hit subscribe on YouTube.

Duration:: 17m
Broadcast on:: 23 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hey everyone, welcome to Santa Barbara Talks, the Josh Molina show. There's an idiom that goes, the devil you know versus the devil you don't know. And it's a phrase people keep telling me in reference to the District 1 Santa Barbara City Council contest. Now let's be clear, neither Alejandro Guterres or Wendy Sanemarie are devils, but the phrase in everyday vernacular means is it better to stay with the current person in office even if unsatisfactory or go with a new candidate not knowing what they would bring to the council and whether they'd be better the same or worse. And this is the subtext that is playing out in the District 1 council race. Now to be clear again both Santa Maria Guterres are strong candidates and role models in different ways. They're making this election season mean something locally and it's taken on new importance. But here's what's going on, there are absolutely opposites on policy. Guterres is heavily backed by property owners and landlords and she has a lot of Republican support. Santa Maria is backed by tenant advocates, tenants, democratic party activists and she's made it clear that finding a way to slow down escalating rents in Santa Barbara is her number one priority. There's a generational battle playing out as well, a local in Guterres versus Santa Maria who's from the Inland Empire and of course there are style clashes. Guterres is quiet, she's deliberate, methodical, she's silently driven. Santa Maria she moves audiences when she speaks and although some have said she talks at you instead of to you, it's tough to not hear her speak and not feel like there's a potential political star there. The question is this though, can Alejandro Guterres make the case to voters that she deserves another term and can Santa Maria and her supporters make the case that not only does Guterres not deserve another term but that Santa Maria will be more effective and overall better on the issues other than just tenant protections if she's elected to the council. Some surprises happened recently. The influential Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee led by former journalist Paul Lopez, that group did not endorse in the contest. Neither candidate could get to the 60% needed. So do they both lose or do they both win? Guterres received the WPC endorsement when she ran the first time. Now she's lost it. But is it a small victory for her that she blocked Santa Maria from getting it? Santa Maria so far has received endorsements from the local Democratic Party, the cause action fund and other important institutions. So what happened with WPC for both of these candidates? Well I'm told that at the Galita Community Center for the interviews that Guterres brought a large band of supporters who talked about her effectiveness in the community over the years and the students she has impacted when she worked at Franklin. Guterres also made a case for her being influential in the hiring of Kelly McAdoo for City Administrator. Although people have told me both both well I'll just say everywhere that she missed a lot of those meetings when they were deciding on the new city administrator and was not as influential as she suggested to that board. I wasn't at that meeting it's for WPC members only but there were a lot of people in that room. Galita Councilmember James Carriacco and Santa Barbara City Council member Kristen said it. They both spoke about their experiences working with Santa Maria and how she's effectively helped with tenant issues directly with them over the years. Carriacco has formally supported Santa Maria. Snettin has not publicly but here you have two sitting electeds one of them on the on the city council who serves with Guterres who's going up there and making a case for why Santa Maria should get WPC endorsement. That's definitely notable. So what does this mean? Santa Maria not getting the WPC endorsement certainly stalls her momentum for a moment but it can't be good for Guterres who I guess it was five years ago because they moved to even years but in 2019 when she ran she got the WPC endorsement so it can't be good that she's not getting it now. There must be a reason but then just a couple of days ago we come to Santa Barbara County Dam Women or their formal name is Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County and they endorsed Guterres. This one is a little messy. At some point Guterres changed her party registration then changed it back to Democrat ahead of the interview process. Dam Women won't endorse someone if they're not a registered Democrat so they endorsed her and they endorsed her the first time so it's a repeat endorsement. Clearly Dam Women isn't as enthusiastic and excited about rental protections and rent stabilization as Santa Maria's campaign is Guterres she's been a member of Dam Women. So what's the issue here? The issue for them is we go back to the beginning what do you know versus what's to come? Is it best to make a change or stick with what you have? Dam Women in this case is sticking with what they know and it should be noted that Dam Women is often not in sync with the Democratic Party which has endorsed Santa Maria. Dam Women you know they say they have a larger tent. If you recall Dam Women did not endorse Doss Williams in his bid for re-election in the in the county or first district supervisor. The Democratic Central Committee of course did. There would never be a day when they did not. Dam Women has more of a focus on national issues particularly reproductive rights, health care for women and they're not as focused locally as the Dam Party is. Red control stabilization is an important issue for Dam Women but not the main issue to them. Dam Women's tent you know they say is larger and that includes the candidates that they endorse as well as the issues they embrace. And this is where Santa Maria is going to have to make her case better. Can she be the candidate who is about more than just tenant protections? Clearly if you talk to her she is but her overall message and the way Guterres and her team have portrayed her is as a single issue candidate. In at least two instances now WPC and now Dam Women, Santa Maria's momentum has been stalled which for Guterres is a win because she's lost a lot of the institutional support that she had the first time she ran. Anything that Santa Maria doesn't get at this point is a small win for Guterres whether Guterres gets it or not. But by no means in Santa Maria's momentum going to be stalled for very long. I bet the bank that she gets the Santa Barbara independent newspaper endorsement and Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsement and those are significant endorsements for liberal Democratic voters. But ultimately it's going to come down to who works the hardest. Think about this for a second just by way of background. In 2019 Alejandro Guterres won. She ousted the incumbent Jason Dominguez by eight votes. Guterres' total number was 963 votes that she won elected to the city council with. What does that mean? Every vote counts. Every door knocker counts. Every bit of effort helps. And ultimately who's going to work harder? Guterres made hay the last couple of days because she was somehow able to get a story published in broadcast media claiming that $4,000 worth of lawn signs of hers had been stolen or vandalized. First off lawn signs getting stolen are rarely a news story because it happens. And it happens every election year. It's part of the deal. It's not a good thing, but it happens. Second $4,000 is a lot of signs. Think about that. That's hundreds of signs. If a sign costs 10 bucks, that's 400 signs, that's a lot. So let's just think about that number. Guterres put out a press release. Massive sign theft is not democratic and it is the suppression of Eastside Santa Barbara residents. First Amendment rights. It is vandalism and voter intimidation. Those of us who have walked precincts for campaigns in previous years have noticed the trend that only the candidates who are endorsed by particular organizations have their signs left intact. It is unfortunate for all of us that a candidate may use or endorse tactics like bullying, vandalism, and yard sign theft. These divisive tactics do not be long in Santa Barbara. We deserve better and we demand better. Wow. Okay. I would be stunned if $4,000 worth of campaign signs have been stolen or vandalized. We're only in September. How many signs has she put out? I would venture there probably more. Voluntary is prime time stickers throughout the city than there are signs of any single candidate at this point. I mean, I do believe some of our signs have been taken, obviously, because that does happen. But 400 or hundreds, that would be a huge sign stealing operation right under our noses. And if that is correct, that's unprecedented in Santa Barbara. The other thing is this press release attempts to accuse Santa Maria of, and her team of taking the signs because, you know, she says things like, "This is not welcome in Santa Barbara. This is not what we do in Santa Barbara," which is a dig on Santa Maria not being local. And then she takes it a bit further and says that some candidates endorsed by certain parties don't have their signs stolen. Again, referring to Santa Maria being endorsed by Democratic Party or these other groups. I mean, that's not true. People still stides all over the place in all directions. And it's obviously not good. It's illegal. It's unethical. But $4,000 worth in September in a district election on the east side where 963 people voted for Guterres last time. Those numbers deserve thinking about. Okay. Meanwhile, supporters of Santa Maria are making a big deal about Guterres' absence from City Hall. They say she missed more than 60 meetings, staff meetings, individual meetings, council meetings, committee meetings. Dem women, by the say, they say, by the way, they did their own review and determined that it was, in their words, far fewer than 60. So they don't believe that number. And they did think about that when making their endorsement. So what's better? The candidate who grew up in Santa Barbara, who's local, who affected and influenced other people here, but who has missed dozens of meetings, which it should be noted, she says, is because of a very personal medical health problem that she was going through during that period. Is it better to stay with her who's against rent stabilization, or go with the new candidate who's very much pro rent stabilization, but has been labeled as a single issue candidate? There's another layer here that just needs to be said. These are two strong Mexican American candidates, but make no mistake about it. They are different. And this shines a lie on something good worth a conversation about teaching people and reminding people who are not Mexican American to avoid stereotypes and assumptions about us. Don't assume that all Hispanics should be one thing. And don't assume that they should not be one thing. That's not fair. Okay. And we would never assume that with other individuals. But for some reason, right? There's a lot of divisiveness about this contest and these individuals. Okay. We're seeing very clear differences. Guterres is a Democrat, but she's conservative and especially financially. She talks about the importance of Hispanics earning generational wealth. She decries assumptions that all Hispanics are renters. She is definitely a conservative when it comes to tenant protections. Santa Maria is definitely a progressive when it comes to tenant protections. And she's not shy to tell people that she's younger. She has stronger labor ties. If we take a step back, it's something to celebrate that we can see these two candidates debating the issues this way. Because there's absolutely zero chance. The issue of rent protection, stabilization, rent control would get so much attention outside of district elections. So we may not like everyone who runs or agrees with them, but there is a benefit to these types of discussions. The golden triangle of the Mesa, San Rokey and Riviera, which used to decide those voters used to decide who served on the city council, right? They've lost power. And we're seeing that play out in a good way in district one. We've seen a whole group, a new group of people talking about issues that have not been talked about in any significant substantial way in the past, in this case, district elections. And Wendy Santa Maria definitely deserves a nod because she made this a campaign issue. Whether you agree with her or don't agree with her, no one, no party, no group, no activists have made this an issue like Santa Maria has. And so we should remember that this diversity is good, okay? We should celebrate that, okay? They're not the same. They are different. And that's exactly why people wanted district elections, okay? But this is really a big deal because if Santa Maria wins, she would likely be the fourth vote to pass a rent stabilization ordinance. The property owners do not want this. And this is reflected in their support for Alejandro Gutierrez. Mayor Randy Rouse, an opponent of rent control, does not want Santa Maria elected for this reason. Presumably, Mike Jordan, Eric Friedman, don't either as they are both against rent control. And it's even a little bit bigger than that. Santa Maria on the council would dramatically swing the power to the left. Right now, Megan Harmon, Oscar Gutierrez, who by the way is not guaranteed to win reelection himself, although, you know, most people would suggest he's the front runner. And Kristen Snettin, they're the most progressive. Santa Maria gets on the city council. She would pull the whole ship to the left and very quickly. So how would that impact those council members, those liberal council members currently serving in those positions? Are they willing to be even more progressive? If Santa Maria is their new colleague, will they be forced to do so? Will they have any choice? If Alejandro Gutierrez wins, at least from their perspective, they know what they get. That means rent control or stabilization would not happen. And they'd be back to where they were before Santa Maria got into the race. From their perspective, is that the worst thing for them politically? If you have someone on the board who's pushing them to be more progressive, is that is that good or bad for them? Again, that's that's what's at stake here. As people have been asking, is it better to stay with what you know and what you can expect or chew something new and wonder where it's headed? And will it be better the same or worse? That's the question of the moment. And that's for voters to decide. We will all find out on November 5th. Thank you. Please hit subscribe on YouTube and consider a contribution at SantaBarberTalks.com. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.