DA Stanley Drops From Race, Endorses New Contender

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Christie Stanley’s decision not to run for reelection-officially announced Tuesday morning after the holiday weekend-sets up a showdown between two of the office’s top senior prosecutors, Joyce Dudley and Josh Lynn.

Dudley’s entrance into the race was expected for months and became official last week in an announcement outside the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. With two senior deputy DAs, two county supervisors, and several more big names standing behind her, Dudley pledged to an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 100 that as DA she would form an arson unit, reestablish a truancy program, fight gang violence, and make the department more transparent.

At that time Dudley thought she’d be squaring off against Stanley. But the incumbent, in a statement Tuesday morning, said that while she had originally planned to run for reelection, “many considerations” led her to drop out. She now plans to focus all of her energy on keeping “unfair budget reductions” away from her department. The announcement, which first came to light Friday morning, was unexpected.