Lois Capps celebrates with family and supporters at El Paeso (Nov. 6, 2012)
Paul Wellman

It’s the 2012 Presidential Election, and in the biannual independent.com tradition, we’ll be using this page to deliver results, reactions, and reports from the various Election Night parties happening throughout Santa Barbara County.

Our team of experienced staffers — reporters Chris Meagher, Brandon Fastman, Matt Kettmann, and Jack Crosbie, along with photographer Paul Wellman — will be out and about to get the scoop while news editor Tyler Hayden and intern Matt Renner hold down the fort at Indy headquarters and write these updates, which typically run into the wee hours

If you’re wondering who’s winning, who’s losing, what they’re saying, and what they’re drinking, this is the page to stay on all night long. Feel free to send feedback and your own reactions to news@independent.com.

Chris Meagher – @chrismeagher

Matt Kettmann – @Indyemkae

Jack Crosbie – @jscrosbie

Brandon Fastman – @b_FASTMAN

Tyler Hayden – @TylerHayden1

[Results last updated Wednesday, 6:42 a.m.]

U.S. Senator

[98.5% of precincts reporting]

Dianne Feinstein: 5,595,032 (61.5%)

Elizabeth Emken: 3,507,549 (38.5%)

U.S. Representative, 24th District

[100% of precincts reporting]

Lois Capps: 119,345 (54.8%)

Abel Maldonado: 98,391 (45.2%)

State Senator, 19th District

[100% of precincts reporting]

Hannah-Beth Jackson: 134,980 (54.7%)

Mike Stoker: 111,690 (45.3%)

State Assembly, 37th District

[100% of precincts reporting]

Das Williams: 86,413 (59.4%)

Rob Walter: 59,122 (40.6%)

Santa Barbara County Supervisor, 4th District

[100% of precincts reporting]

Joni Gray: 10,324 (48.66%)

Peter Adam: 10,828 (51.04%)

Santa Barbara Unified School Board

[100% of precincts reporting]

H. Edward “Ed” Heron: 28,253 (26.22%)

Gayle Eidelson: 32,523 (30.18%)

Pedro Paz: 29,791 (27.65%)

Lou Segal: 16,863 (15.65%)

Carpinteria City Council

[100% of precincts reporting]

Wade Nomura: 2,073 (29.00%)

Fred Shaw: 1,813 (25.36%)

Gregory Gandrud: 1,570 (21.96%)

Kathleen Reddington: 1,124 (15.72%)

Tom Perry: 561 (7.85%)

Carpinteria Valley Water District

[100% of precincts reporting]

Polly Holcombe: 2,109 (25.90%)

June Van Wingerden: 2,368 (29.08%)

Shirley Johnson: 2,110 (25.91%)

Robert R. Lieberknecht: 1,540 (18.91%)

Carpinteria Valley Water District Short Term

[100% of precincts reporting]

Richard Forde: 2,569 (58.96%)

Alexandra Van Antwerp: 1,776 (40.76%)

Goleta Sanitary District

John Fox: 6,291 (27.65%)

George Emerson: 5,620 (24.70%)

Steven Majoesky: 5,472 (24.05%)

Sharon Rose: 5,294 (23.27%)

Montecito Fire Protection District

John Abraham: 1,569 (15.65%)

Susan Keller: 1,567 (15.63%)

Gene Sisner: 1,512 (15.08%)

Roland Jensen: 1,458 (14.54%)

Parcel Tax Increases to Fund Santa Barbara Schools

[100% of precincts reporting]

Measure A: Yes: 41,136 (68.57%); No: 18,859 (31.43%)

Measure B: Yes: 18,159 (69.57%); No: 7,942 (30.43%)

Measure E, Increase in Bed Tax for Carpinteria

[100% of precincts reporting]

Yes: 3,226 (77.60%)

No: 931 (22.40%)

Measure G, Goleta’s Agricultural Preservation Ordinance

[100% of precincts reporting]

Yes: 6,797 (71.05%)

No: 2,769 (28.95%)

Measure H, Increase in Bed Tax for Goleta

[100% of precincts reporting]

Yes: 6,926 (71.54%)

No: 2,755 (28.46%)

Prop 30, Governor Jerry Brown’s Temporary Tax to Fund Education

[98.5% of precincts reporting for all state ballot initiatives]

Yes: 4,941,423 (53.9%)

No: 4,218,204 (46.1%)

Prop 31, Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute

Yes: 3,353,869 (39.2%)

No: 5,196,585 (60.8%)

Prop 32, Political Contributions by Payroll Deduction

Yes: 3,952,952 (43.8%)

No: 5,066,737 (56.2%)

Prop 33, Auto Insurance Based on Driver’s History of Insurance Coverage

Yes: 4,025,551 (45.3%)

No: 4,853,125 (54.7%)

Prop 34, Replaces Death Penalty with Life without Possibility of Parole

Yes: 4,255,492 (47.3%)

No: 4,750,345 (52.7%)

Prop 35, Human Trafficking Penalties

Yes: 7,276,448 (81.1%)

No: 1,691,770 (18.9%)

Prop 36, Three Strikes Reform

Yes: 6,156,154 (68.7%)

No: 2,809,408 (31.3%)

Prop 37, Genetically Engineered Foods Labeling

Yes: 4,260,123 (47.0%)

No: 4,809,628 (53.0%)

Prop 38, Tax to Fund Early Childhood Education

Yes: 2,478,456 (27.7%)

No: 6,463,540 (72.3%)

Prop 39, Tax Treatment for Multistate Business and Clean Energy

Yes: 5,273,990 (60.1%)

No: 3,502,539 (39.9%)

Prop 40, Redistricting State Senate Seats

Yes: 6,040,773 (71.4%)

No: 2,414,370 (28.6%)

[11:09 p.m.]: Trailing Lois Capps 45.5 percent to 54.5 percent with 41.4 percent of precincts reporting, Abel Maldonado addressed his supporters a short while ago. “There’s still an opportunity to win this race, but it’s going to be very difficult for us to catch up or get to where we want to be at this point,” he said. “We’ve given it all we’ve got. Last night I said to myself, ‘Did we do everything to put ourselves into a position to win this race?’ And I said to myself, ‘Yes we did.”’

Maldonado then thanked his wife, children, endorsers, and supporters before a mariachi band started playing and the room began to clear out. Of Obama’s reelection, he commented, “The people of America have chosen the president, and we need to stand behind him, and we need to hope that America gets back on the right track.”

He then reflected on his and his opponent’s campaigns. “I’m proud of the race we ran. I stayed on message and I ran a positive campaign. … It looks like negative campaigns work.”

[10:55 p.m.]: School boardmember Monique Limon, upon seeing that Prop 30 is still trailing in the polls, remarked: “It’s hard to imagine. My first two years was all cuts already. We shortened the school year, we increased classes sizes. It’s frightening. And it’s the first thing the new board members will have to deal with.”

[10:34 p.m.]: The National Republican Congressional Committee has said that the 24th is the slowest reporting district in country right now.

[10:31 p.m.]: A rarely contested race for the Goleta Sanitary District looks likely to see the three incumbents maintaining their seats, despite the efforts of newcomer Sharon Rose to bring a female face to the board. With 56.7% of precincts reporting, Rose — who wanted to bring more public relations insight and environmental considerations to the job — is trailing in last place at 22.28%. In an odd twist, Rose had allied in a dual campaign with incumbent John Fox, who is leading the race with 27.75%. The other incumbents, George Emerson and Steven Majoewsky, who ran as their own slate, are each hovering around 25%, with Majoewsky about 400 votes higher than Rose.

[10:20 p.m.]: If Prop 30 goes down in defeat, school district boardmember Anette Cordero said, “it would represent a sad commentary from the general public on their support of public education. … Measures A and B may be our only bright spots.” Gayle Eidelson on leading in the school board race thus far: “I feel excited. Surprised, actually.”

[10:05 p.m.]: Longtime incumbent Joni Gray, who was appointed to the seat in 1998, won her first election later that year, and has won with relative ease ever since against more liberal opponents, is facing the fight of her political life against a more conservative candidate in Peter Adam, a Santa Maria Valley farmer. As of the last update at 9:50 p.m., with 20 percent of the 4th District reporting, Gray maintained less than a quarter-point lead, with 49.98% of the vote compared to Adam’s 49.76% — the difference of a mere 26 votes.

[9:52 p.m.]: Brandon Fastman, also at El Paseo, talked to Meg Jette with the Santa Barbara Unified School District. “I don’t care about the president,” she said. “The only thing I care about is Prop 30 and Measures A and B.” Superintendent Dave Cash is at a conference in Texas, but district spokesperson Barbara Keyani has been texting him updates, Fastman said.

[9:44 p.m.]: Salud Carbajal said, “Today is a good day for our country and our community,” Meagher reports. Of Measures A and B, he went on, “It’s very close but I’m positive and extremely optimistic.” And he said he’s more than happy with our president’s reelection. “I’m elated. There’s four more years with Barack Obama in the White House.” Goleta City Councilmember Michael Bennet chimed in, “Ditto, ditto, ditto.”

Campaign consultant Cory Bantilan (left) and Mike Stoker at the Butler Center (Nov. 6, 2012)
Paul Wellman

[9:45 p.m.]: Kettmann arrived not long ago at the Butler Event Center on upper State Street where Mike Stoker is holding court with supporters. The mood is a little tense, said Kettmann, with the group expressing pointed displeasure with Obama’s apparent reelection. Stoker currently trails Jackson by a small margin.

[9:38 p.m.]: “Well, we’re still up on absentees, but I wish I had done a little better in Santa Barbara County,” Maldonado just told his supporters after seeing the latest numbers. Capps leads so far by a few percentage points.

L to R Das Williams, Hannah-Beth Jackson, and Daraka Larimore-Hall at El Paseo (Nov. 6, 2012)
Paul Wellman

[9:15 p.m.]: Meagher heard that around 12,000 people voted in Isla Vista. Among the Dems in El Paseo are Linda Krop, attorney Joe Cole, Daraka Larimore-Hall with the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee, J’Amy Brown, and Santa Barbara City councilmembers Bendy White and Grant House. The crowd went wild, Meagher said, when TV news reports showed marijuana initiatives passing in Colorado and Washington state.

[9:02 p.m.]: Reporting from the El Paseo restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara where a cadre of Democrats are holding their election-night parties with a few hundred guests, Chris Meagher said 1st District County Supervisor Salud Carbajal just took the microphone and led a chant of, “Four more years! Four more years!” Rubbing elbows with the crowd are 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf and Carpinteria Councilmember Kathleen Reddington, who’s running for reelection.

[9:00 p.m.]: Crosbie with Maldonado’s camp in Buellton passed along this comment from Jim Haggerty, a Paso Robles city councilmember and longtime Maldonado supporter: “[Lois Capps] is like Obama, nothing to run on. And that’s why it’s been a very nasty campaign. This campaign has been the dirtiest I’ve ever seen. … I think [Maldonado] had a good record in Sacramento. … He broke the stalemate, and a lot of people weren’t happy about that, but at least we got a budget passed. He does what’s best all the time, I think.

By 9 p.m. at Pepe's in Goleta, the Measure G crowd — including co-organizer George Relles — were already cutting the victory cake
Matt Kettmann

[8:45 p.m.]: Measure G co-creator Bob Wignot just made a short victory speech with 70 percent of vote-by-mail ballots showing Yes votes: “Measure G is doing surprisingly well — maybe not so surprising — thanks to the team effort and the amount of support from individuals … We’re seeing 70 percent Yes, with 30 percent No, which means 70 percent of the community got it right.”

[8:18 p.m.]: With CNN’s projection that President Barack will win re-election, a big cheer just erupted at Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant in Old Town Goleta where Indy senior editor Matt Kettmann is hanging out with proponents of Measure G, Goleta’s agricultural preservation bid.

The bar is packed, said Kettmann, and in attendance are Measure G’s Barb Massey, Bob Wignot, and George Relles, as well as environmental lawyer Marc Chytilo and Linda Krop, chief attorney for the Environmental Defense Center.

The first round of results show that 70 percent of vote by mail ballots are in favor of Measure G. The mood is optimistic but cautious. “We’re on our way, it looks like,” said initiative co-creator Bob Wignot.

In Pepe’s, among the small buffet tables of chile rellenos and mini tacos, are a number of the visionaries who made Goleta into a city in the first place, Kettmann noted, including former councilmembers Jack Hawxhurst, Cynthia Brock, and Johnny Wallis.

[7:55 p.m.]: Indy reporter Jack Crosbie is up in Buellton with Abel Maldonado’s election-night party. They’re hunkered down in the Turf Club Ballroom of the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott with lots of free food and wine on-hand.

Maldonado’s sister, Patty Ponce, said this about her brother: “I’ve never seen Abel work harder on a campaign than this one…and I think he’s the man for the job. Abel’s the kind of person you need in Washington.”

Maldonado campaign manager Kurt Bardella said that he was campaigning in multiple precincts up until polls closed at 8 p.m. tonight.

[7:45 p.m.]: Joe Holland with Santa Barbara County’s Elections Department told media representatives earlier in the evening that South County results will be posted before North County ballots are tallied. “Expect it to be a late night,” he wrote in an email. “Lots of ballots to count.”

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