Race for Congress 2018 Already Begins

Rep. Salud Carbajal, here supporting Planned Parenthood at a February rally, is equally comfortable asking for campaign contributions.

Fourteen months before the 2018 primary election, a Morro Bay man filed papers to challenge Representative Salud Carbajal in the race to represent the 24th District, which spans Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and includes a slice of Ventura. Michael Erin Woody, a Republican who appears to be an engineer and the owner of Struct One Engineering & Construction, filed a Statement of Candidacy on Thursday. He has not officially started fundraising.

But Carbajal, known for being a skilled fundraiser, has not slowed down. In the first three months of this year, Carbajal raised a whopping $563,000 and spent $73,000, according to campaign finance filings. He has $547,000 on hand.

Carbajal was elected in November, beating Republican candidate Justin Fareed by 7 percentage points. There is speculation Fareed will jump in the race again; this would be his third attempt. Earlier this week, Fareed attended a private event with his parents at the Ronald Reagan Center, where Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke spoke about energy policies while scores of environmentalists protests outside. Zinke, whose wife is from Santa Barbara, was an early support of Fareed’s. He hosted a fundraiser for him.