Of the three people running for the 4th District Santa Barbara County seat, Joni Gray, the incumbent, is the only qualified candidate in terms of leadership and the ability to bridge the often tumultuous relationship between North and South County.
If you want a 4th South County Supervisor, elect Joyce Howerton. If you look at her past elections, the majority of her funding and endorsements came from South County, not from the very folks that she wanted to lead. If Joyce wins, the only North County Supervisor we will have is Supervisor Steve Lavagnino.
The litmus test of your leadership and ability to represent your constituency is your track record; Joyce has not won since the 1990s. She lost to Tim Staffel in 1996; twice to Mayor DeWees and twice to Joni; and when she ran a surrogate against Joni in 2008, she lost again for a total of six times.
With the fiscal challenges the county faces, we need leaders that are willing to break with the past and form new alliances across ideological and political boundaries: Joyce’s time has passed. She was part of the past leadership generation that with flush budgets gave away the farm to the unions and government; basically these leaders set the framework for the very problems such as unfunded pension liabilities, bloated government, and lack of economic development that we confront today.
What are Peter Adam’s leadership qualifications other than wanting to take on the South County? The South County Supervisors may not always agree with Joni, but they respect and can work with her. We don’t need Howerton as the 4th South County Supervisor nor Adam as the guy who is going to try to set the South County majority straight; only Joni has the qualifications to lead and will truly represent the North.
Comments
I like how she "mishandled" the housing for poor people and still managed to male bank. I bet Howerton can't claim anything like that.
Ken_Volok (anonymous profile)
April 25, 2012 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"With the fiscal challenges the county faces, we need leaders that are willing to break with the past and form new alliances across ideological and political boundaries"... Completely agree. However Joni Gray has been in office for 14 years, so my question to Mr. Hernandez is how many years qualifies as "the past"? And who better to "form new alliances" than someone NEW. Someone that hasn't made their career out of politics and someone who offers "to try to set the South County majority straight". A majority that has become stagnant and set on a path that no longer represents the values of the community but rather a select few that go along with each other to maintain friendships rather than stand alone and represent the people that put them in office. Peter Adam is a man that is invested in his community and that has spent his life in this valley representing the legacy that has supported this county since its beginnings. He is passionate about the people here and has stepped up because he has something new to offer: objectivity. He is interested in making a difference, not friends.
Jamie_Nelson (anonymous profile)
April 25, 2012 at 6:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations to Jamie_Nelson for pointing out the glaring rhetorical flaws in that fourth paragraph.
EastBeach (anonymous profile)
April 26, 2012 at 9:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)