Santa Barbara Mayoral Watch: The Russian Connection

The national media is agog, and rightfully so, over the criminal indictments issued this week alleging former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his right-hand man, Richard W. Gates III, were unregistered foreign agents representing the Ukraine’s pro-Russian, pro-Putin puppet government, for which they laundered up to $75 million. As always, there’s a pseudo–Santa Barbara connection. After Trump won the election, Gates III — ​vice chair of Trump’s campaign committee ​— ​was hired by semi–Santa Barbara resident and global über-capitalist Thomas Barrack II ​— ​of Happy Canyon Vineyard and Neverland fame ​— ​who put him to work for his hedge fund, Colony NorthStar. Barrack II, another one of those ridiculously fit, bald-headed, twinkly eyed septuagenarians, has been propping up Trump past the point of herniation, both financially and on talk shows, and had been taking good care of Gates III ​— ​that is, until Monday’s indictments. Then II let III go.

Closer to home, there’s the Ruski influence ​in Santa Barbara’s mayoral race. It may even have something to do with the mysterious ad now on TV blistering mayoral candidate Cathy Murillo. The race is a five-way scalp-scratcher. Councilmember Frank Hotchkiss ​— ​the grumpy (yet strangely cheerful), get-off-my-lawn, NIMBY conservative Republican ​— ​appears statistically even with Councilmember Cathy Murillo, the lead-with-her-chin lefty-progressive Democrat, and former mayor Hal Conklin runs close behind, while former Deckers CEO Angel Martinez and current councilmember Bendy White are trailing behind them. (The Indy, by the way, endorsed Hal Conklin as once and future mayor.)

Behind his tersely succinct basso profundo exterior, Hotchkiss ​— ​a former bit actor in shows like Mission: Impossible ​— ​is a genuine Renaissance man: Zen Buddhist real estate agent by day and steamy pot-boiler author by night. In his recently released Playing with Fire, Hotchkiss’s purple prose describes in detail the sexual gymnastics between the protagonist ​— ​a fifty-something, white, male ad executive ​— ​and a very hot, twenty-something Russian femme fatale. Some people ​— ​me included ​— ​have made much fun of the sex scenes. But upon closer reflection, I’d say they rival the steamy poetics of James Joyce in Ulysses. The only problem with Frank Hotchkiss as mayor is everything. Opining about the environment, immigration, homelessness, and housing, the Hotchkiss message is: “Get out of town.” Most infamously, Hotchkiss remains a devout skeptic on climate change. When reporter Jerry Roberts asked at a recent forum why, despite the fact that 97 percent of all scholarly studies agree that the human contribution is huge, Hotchkiss told Roberts, “Your numbers are way off,” and cited a wordy, three-part op-ed series in the News-Press suggesting global warming is natural, there’s nothing wrong with carbon dioxide, and there are plenty of other reasons why the earth is heating up.