By Chapter election staff
In an election full of surprises where a dreaded, nation-wide red wave failed to materialize, local results were good, but not perfect.
Every candidate endorsed by the Sierra Club did very well in Santa Barbara County. Salud Carbajal was sent back to congress (CD24) and Gregg Hart was elected to the State Assembly (AD37).
Municipal elections, previously held at large, are now conducted by district.
In Goleta, our own Luz Reyes-Martin (Chair of the SB Sierra Club Group), was elected to District 1 and Councilmember James Kyriaco was elected to represent District 2.
Monica Solorzano ran unopposed for Carpinteria District 1; Gloria Soto won reelection to Santa Maria District 3 with a very close vote. Spencer Brandt was reelected to the Isla Vista Community Services District and Kathleen Werner was reelected to the Goleta Water District, now representing District 2.
In Ventura County our endorsees swept our legislative races as well.
Julia Brownley won reelection to Congress (CD26) despite her district becoming significantly tougher. (Part of the reason it got tougher is the pro-environment city of Ventura has been shifted away from her district to Rep. Carbajal's District.) Assemblymembers Steve Bennett (AD38) and Jacqui Irwin (AD42) also won re-election by large margins, as did Rep. Brad Sherman (CD32) and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (AD46) whose districts include small portions of the county.
The very bad news in Ventura County is at the Board of Supervisors.
For more than 20 years, Ventura has enjoyed the benefits of a strongly pro-environment Board. In the aftermath of the Roberts Court unleashing unlimited corporate election spending, oil companies and developers have spent huge sums to flip what not long ago was a 4-1 pro-environment board.
With environmental stalwart Linda Parks termed out of what was now the swing seat on a 3-2 board, the defeat of endorsed environmentalist Claudia Bill de la Pena by former Assemblyman Jeff Gorell in District 2 means a marked turn. We will have our work cut out for us at the board to protect our open space, air, water, and clean energy.
In the city of Ventura our results were mixed. Our endorsed candidate Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios won in District 4, but Marie Lakin lost very narrowly in District 5 to Bill McReynolds.
Detailed Election results Nov 2022
Happily, all our legislative endorsees won, as did all our local endorsees but two, both of whom lost narrowly, 51-49.
Unfortunately, one of those was a huge one -- as long feared, for the first time in more than 20 years, Ventura County no longer has a pro-environment Board of Supervisors. The oil industry has made flipping the Ventura Board a major priority (all made possible by the Roberts Court's appalling Citizens United decision, which in this case allowed oil industry SuperPACs to swamp numerous races with money.)
We have beaten them in several of those races, but this narrow loss marks the end of a golden era for the environment in Ventura County. We stand poised to mobilize, and to litigate where appropriate.
~ Editor’s Note: A Boldface with an underline denotes candidates we endorsed.
US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Salud Carbajal -- CD24 61-39
Julia Brownley -- CD26 55-45
(No other House seats are primarily Santa Barbara-Ventura.)
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY
Gregg Hart -- AD37 58-42
Steve Bennett -- AD38 61-39
Jacqui Irwin -- AD42 55-45
(No other Assembly seats are primarily Santa Barbara-Ventura)
CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE -- No Senate seats that are primarily ours are up this year -- Monique Limón is mid-term and represents most of the Chapter
VENTURA COUNTY
Board of Supervisors
Claudia Bill de la Pena -- 2d District 51-49
VENTURA CITY COUNCIL
Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios -- 4th District 59-41
Marie Lakin -- 5th District 51-49
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
Carpinteria City Council
Monica Solorzano -- District 1 91-9
GOLETA CITY COUNCIL
Luz Reyes-Martin -- District 1 58-41
James Kyriaco -- District 2 57-43
GOLETA WATER DISTRICT
Kathleen Werner -- District 2 71-29
ISLA VISTA CSD
Spencer Brandt -- At Large 45-29-24 (2 elected)
SANTA MARIA CITY COUNCIL
Gloria Soto -- District 3 50-49