Mayor Helene Schneider Announces Run for Congress
News Comes on Heels of Lois Capps's Statement that She Won't Seek Reelection
Wasting little time after Rep. Lois Capps’s announcement this morning that she would not seek reelection next year, Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider said this afternoon that she will run for California’s 24th Congressional district seat.
After praising Capps as “one of California’s most widely respected leaders” and stressing her admiration for Capps’s “tenacity, drive and philosophy of always focusing on and putting the needs of the people of the 24th district first,” Schneider said she is running for Congress “to get things done in Washington.”
“We need more common sense and fewer political stalemates,” Schneider said in a prepared statement. “During my tenure as Mayor of the City of Santa Barbara, I have focused on working with a politically diverse City Council to find common ground on policies affecting our entire community, while steadfastly defending my core values of economic opportunity, environmental protection and prudent financial stewardship.
“My priorities are simple,” Schneider went on. “I plan to pursue an agenda that focuses on helping Californians reach their full potential by creating more good paying jobs, growing the middle class, advancing more progressive environmental protection policies, investing in our infrastructure and education, defending Medicare and Social Security, and ensuring equal pay for equal work for all Americans.”
Schneider was elected to her second term as Santa Barbara’s Mayor in November 2013. She has served at City Hall since January 2004, winning her first election as councilmember in 2003 and first election as mayor in 2009.
Prior to elected office, Schneider spent 11 years in human resources management at Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties.
