Frank Hotchkiss to Run for Council?

The Santa Barbara County Republican Party website shows a calendar of events for the next month and includes a Santa Barbara Republican Club fundraiser on May 15th for Frank Hothckiss' campaign for city council. The interesting thing is that I wasn't aware that he had announced his candidacy yet. Maybe I am behind the times...

This isn't too big of a surprise as you might remember that in 2007, Citizen Stringer wrote about his chutzpah in refusing to engage voters via blogs.

When will the election be over? When all the votes are counted...

Isn't democracy great?  Americans made a resounding statement last Tuesday but there are still several campaigns for public office that will hang in the balance until every vote is counted.

Chuck Shultz at the Santa Maria Times reports that 20,000 votes were counted between Wednesday and Friday of last week. Some 85,000 are still left to be counted in the three county region that includes the 19th Senate District. Even though Los Angeles County only represents a small part of the district -- that is a lot of votes to count before we know who the winner is.

If that wasn't enough a "manual tally" of 10% of the vote is required by state law when there is a State Senate race that is this close.  here's what Schultz wrote in the Santa Maria Times:

The see-saw battle between Jackson and Strickland could stretch into late November or early December before election officials declare an official winner. That is due to a state regulation requiring a “manual tally” of each ballot cast in a randomly selected 10 percent of all precincts, for any race where the semi-official results on election night showed the top two candidates within a half-percent of each other.

I've heard from a reliable source that there are 4,000 vote-by-mail ballots and 6,000 provisional ballots left to be counted in Santa Barbara County.  Although there is no way of knowing where exactly these votes are from -- they could have a direct impact on the school board race where Ed Heron has extended his lead to 320 votes for the third seat and in Carpinteria where Kathleen Reddington is only 17 votes ahead of Steve McWhirter.

We'll stay on top of it here at BlogaBarbara but we may be still waiting for some of these results as we approach the later part of the holidays....

Election Night Round Up

With many votes still to be counted, there are a few close races and a few for which we need information from other counties.

Our 19th State Senate District, for instance, spans Santa Barbara, Ventura and part of Los Angeles County. It looks as though Hannah Beth Jackson should win with a stronger than expected vote in Ventura County. Currently, she holds a 12,000 vote lead over Strickland in my studies of results from each county.

Santa Barbara School Board shows Cordero, Deacon and Heron squeezing by. Goleta looks like it will have an environmental duo in Connell and Easton. Council Member Aceves will now be the all important third vote on many issues. In Carpinteria, Council Member Joe Armendariz held on to his seat despite a tough challenge in a Democratic year. Doreen Farr looks to have had an easy time with a good 10 point lead over Pappas. Most of the other candidates we expected to win like Capps, Nava and Gallegly look like they will win handily.

The story of the night may be that many of the money-related propositions look like they will pass. Measure A, Measure H, Measure I and even Measure G all look like they will pass.

Tonight will clearly be a night we will all remember for the Obama win and the sobering acceptance speech. He made it clear there is work to do and I am glad he reached out and said he would be "your President too" to those who did not support him.

More on the elections tomorrow.

Bait and Switch by Arno & Associates at UCSB Makes National News

While former US Senator and President of the New School in NYC Bob Kerry tries to tell us that Barack Obama is a Muslim in a desperate effort to get H. Clinton a second place showing in Iowa -- we have our own problems with electoral politics right here in Santa Barbara.

In mid-November, I reported that there was possible ballot signature fraud at UCSB saying that "It turns out that paid signature gatherers are duping students at UCSB with a series of nefarious initiatives separated by a rubber band and assurances that one needs to sign the original initiative four times and that the other pieces of paper they sign have nothing to do with the first.".

Arno and Associates, a well-known signature gathering firm, in the past has tricked Florida college kids into registering Republican and saying an electoral ballot initiative was an anti-war initiative. Perhaps worst was telling Massachusetts voters that an anti-gay initiative was actually an initiative that would allow wine to be sold in grocery stores.

It seems karma has begun to catch up with them according the The Daily Kos which shows a video of students at UCSB who went through the signature petition process and told their stories. The post was generated originally by UCSB graduate student/activist Steven Attewell.

Using a grifter type of bait-and-switch move, the "California Counts" initiative (seeking Electoral College "reform") is now under investigation by Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office. Here's a snippet from the activist's diary on Daily Kos based on a letter from Bowen:

Dear Mr. Love:

We have reviewed the video file you shot showing circulators on the UC Santa Barbara campus.

We will be opening a case for investigation for possible violation of Elections Code 18600 (misrepresentation) and Elections Code 18602 (obscuring the summary of a measure).

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Sincerely,

Election Fraud Investigation Unit
Secretary of State

The Votes Are In: Barnwell Loses Council Seat

It's Williams, Schneider and Francisco with 100% of the vote counted.

Williams kept his lead at 7,300 votes, Schneider had 6,500 and challenger Dale Francisco had 6,300 votes. Barnwell barely trailed Giddens with 5,800 votes to his 5,700.

What does it mean? Far from a watershed moment, Barnwell didn't run a true campaign and his loss has little to do with policy and where he stands on the issues.

This election proved that laying low when you have vocal challengers isn't a good strategy. It also shows that putting your eggs in a basket with two other incumbents (each are individual candidates) may not have been the best strategy either. The weakest link will always break the chain.

Early Voting Shows Barnwell in Trouble

With 26% of the vote counted it looks like Das Williams and Helene Schneider are well on their way to another term on council. At least with the mail ballots counted, Das has a commanding first place lead with almost 4,800 votes to Schneider's 4,200. She may see a candidate breathing down her neck by the end of the night but I think this ranking will hold.

As we all presumed, the third spot on council is a bit murky with Dale Francisco leading with 4,000 some votes, Giddens with 3,800 and Barnwell with 3,700.

Assuming current trends, one would have to assume that the third spot will be decided after all the votes are in.

The no vote on Measure A is soundly defeating yes thus far by about a thousand votes. This trend will likely hold.

There will be another post later tonight assuming I can find another anonymous hot spot or when I get home.

Measure A: Council Election Change

With all of the clearly election-oriented comments recently, I hesitate to point out that the Measure A ballot argument has come out and they do have a blog. Please read the arguments before commenting because this is longer term than November!

Also, review the voter turnout chart and notice how low it is on off-years when there is no other election. Participation enhanced and money saved -- such a deal!

The Next SB Council Race

Its seems really early to be talking about this when I have only just about recovered from the lashing I took in moderating you folks around the 2nd District Supervisor race....still, at least one person has been consistently pushing a 'next council race' context (or is that agenda?). With a Mayor's seat soon to be open and three council seats -- this will be a big race. Nominations from the floor anyone?