Snubs and Disappointment

While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fight, the real battle is right here in our very own 24th Congressional District. It’s unusual for a party to step in before primaries to endorse candidates; but the Democratic establishment early on snubbed the more qualified candidate Mayor Helene Schneider in favor of Supervisor Salud Carbajal who will not question the party’s rank and file members. The party has dumped over $1 million into Carbajal, and he has been a huge disappointment, consistently coming behind the more popular and polished Schneider in polls. This has prompted the DCCC and PACs to release a bunch of attacks on Schneider and Republican Katcho Achadjian.

Carbajal is the Hilary Clinton of Santa Barbara: entitled, backed by establishment money, and not very likeable. Just like Hilary, Carbajal is a career politician looking for a promotion, one he’s wanted for a while. His weakness as a candidate was magnified at the last congressional debate when Bill Ostrander grilled Carbajal for claiming he’s for campaign finance reform while accepting tons of PAC money. Carbajal could not hold his own against Ostrander who had him on the hook (like the Christie and Rubio debacle). I wish Democrats picked a better candidate, Schneider or even Ostrander.