Anyone who wants to run for Congress in two years against Lois Capps or Elton Gallegy better start campaigning now. Or maybe Tom, John, Tim and Darrel shouldn't stop campaigning, even though they all lost last night.
Let's face it, members of Congress spend all of their time running for reelection and both Capps from Santa Barbara and Gallegy from Ventura, handily won their races despite having determined challengers.
Tim Allison, who was actively campaigning as of at least a year ago, couldn't make any headway against the well-established Gallegy in the 24th District. Capps, who represents the 23rd District, had three challengers; Republican Tom Watson, independent candidate John Hager and Libertarian Darrel Stafford, and still got 55 percent of the vote.
Looks like Das Williams will get a concession speech out of Mike Stoker before he will get one out of Susan Jordan. Even though Williams defeated Jordan in the primary election back in June for the right to go up against Stoker, Jordan has reportedly still not formally conceded victory to him.
Assuming Williams holds onto his lead and becomes our next State Assemblymember, it will be a nice birthday present for his dad, Malcolm Gault-Williams, who, according to his Facebook page, turns 62 today, Wednesday.
Never miss another one of my blog posts, subscribe to Craig Smith's Blog by Email
I almost thought Stoker was going to pull out a win against Williams. I saw a lot more Stoker ads on TV and got a lot more Stoker campaign literature in the mail than I saw or received from the Williams campaign. And then, early returns Tuesday evening had Stoker in the lead.
Even the Daily Nexus, UCSB's student run newspaper, would give Williams no more than a half-hearted endorsement and in the process of doing so gave Stoker a pat on the rump saying that the Republican candidate, "has also shown strong leadership qualities and an inspiring commitment to bipartisanship and higher education." Sure, some people may agree with that statement but others will be wondering, "What are they smoking out in Isla Vista these days?"
Judging by the recent demonstrations urging a greater police presence in certain parts of town, I'd say Santa Barbarians want the cops to be tough on crime. But if the jail is overcrowded and inmates have to be released because there's "no room at the inn," voters in this county don't want to foot the bill to build a new inn.
Measure S, which would have raised the sales tax by one-half cent to construct a new jail, was soundly defeated. I'd say Sheriff Bill Brown just got his first Spanish lesson: "Una nueva posada no es posible."
Well, if they're so inclined, at least the defeated candidates can still legally get medical marijuana in the City of Santa Barbara to ease the pain of last night's loss.
© 2010 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
