Challenger Roy Lee Poised for Upset Victory over Incumbent Das Williams

For a list of election-night results, click here.

On an election day that set new countywide records for low voter turnout — a measly 23 percent — 1st District Supervisor Das Williams, a two-term incumbent and defining force within Santa Barbara’s long-dominant Democratic establishment, appears to have been upset by Carpinteria city councilmember and a political novice largely unknown outside his hometown of Carpinteria, Roy Lee. 

Williams’s campaign outspent Lee’s by a large margin, fielded far more door-knockers, made way more telephone callers, and bombarded more voters’ mailboxes with way more campaign flyers. But at the end of the day, less, it would seem, proved more. Lee — a moderate, pro-business candidate and a registered Democrat — played David to Williams’s Goliath, knocking the entrenched incumbent, a 20-year fixture of local politics, off his perch with a pebble instead of a stone. By election night’s end, Lee was 637 votes ahead of Williams, having snagged 52.05 percent of the vote.

With an unknown number of mail-in ballots still uncounted — any ballots turned in bearing the postmark of March 5 will still be tabulated — it remains theoretically possible, but statistically unlikely, for Williams to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. 

Traditionally, late arriving ballots favor candidates backed by the Democratic Party. But on Tuesday night, Lee’s margin of victory widened modestly as additional ballots got counted. Still, as of Wednesday morning, it’s still too soon for either candidate to definitely claim victory or concede defeat.

What this outcome might portend for the delicate balance of power on the county board of supervisors — where a south-tilting, environmental-minded, anti-oil majority has long held sway — has yet to be seen. Who and what Roy Lee, best-known as  a really nice guy whose family owns Carpinteria’s popular Uncle Chen restaurant, will be as a supervisor remains a work in progress that hasn’t really started.

For the cannabis industry — widely reviled by many Carpinteria residents for its unpleasant and continuing odors — Lee’s election should be a serious wake-up call. Williams was so identified with cannabis that he was dubbed a “Doobie Brother” along with Supervisor Steve Lavagnino because of their strong support for the industry. Williams won few friends in Carpinteria — which, incidentally, is where he also lives — not only for this support, but also for accepting political contributions from the industry. Those connections nearly did him in when he ran against Laura Capps four years ago for the 1st District board seat. He only squeaked his way to a narrow victory then.

How a political figure endowed with such consummate skills could have been knocked from his perch will be the subject of much armchair psychoanalysis in the months to come. Williams, who cut his teeth as a grassroots organizer and environmentally minded progressive, has always been a charismatic, galvanizing, and inspiring yet polarizing public figure. In action, he radiated a sense of moral certitude for the cause — climate change, affordable housing — that for some came across as “mansplaining,” and to others something a lot worse. 

Perhaps it was simply a matter of time. After 20 years, he had made too many enemies and alienated too many friends. The Women’s Political Committee, Democratic Women, and the Santa Barbara Independent did not endorse him this time. In years past, such endorsements would have seemed a given. 

Clearly, the county’s record-low turnout — driven by top-of-the-ticket presidential primaries devoid of suspense, or any real emotion other than dread — played a factor. The Democratic Party “machine,” and by extension Williams himself, had specialized in orchestrating aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns that relied on that rah-rah activist enthusiasm to get low-propensity voters to the polls. Typically, these votes arrived in last-minute pulses. This Tuesday, they didn’t arrive at all. 

Ironically, it was the race for the 3rd District that early on had elicited the most apprehension. Would two-term incumbent Joan Hartmann — a deceptively soft-spoken moderate with an impeccable environmental voting record — be able to survive a dramatic redrawing of the district boundary lines two years ago? 

For decades, the 3rd has been the key swing vote on the five-member Board of Supervisors. As the 3rd went, so went the county. Not only did Hartmann lose the comfortable but unruly Isla Vista voting block, but she also was unknown to roughly half the voters in her newly reconfigured district. By any reckoning, Hartmann should have been in for the race of her life. Reality, however proved otherwise. 

To Hartmann’s relief and surprise, no serious candidate surfaced capable of waging a credible campaign. Frank Troise, a Santa Ynez Valley resident and self-described investment banker, took her on as the resident Republican. But Troise, a first-time candidate with no name recognition, famously squabbled with the cultural conservatives in his own party, raised no money, and spent even less of his own, mystifying anyone listening with convoluted revenue-generating schemes for the county. So nonexistent was Troise’s campaign that some speculated he must have been a spoiler on behalf of Hartmann.

Further splintering the field was the last-minute emergence of Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne, representing the declined-to-state mid-county constituency. Ironically, Osborne was elected mayor only with strong support from Hartmann, who successfully lobbied Democratic Party support on behalf of Osborne despite her declined-to-state registration. Without that, Osborne might not have been reelected Lompoc’s mayor.

But at the end of election night, Hartmann decisively won 60 percent of the vote. She had outworked, out-hustled, out-muscled, and out-fundraised her opponents. To Hartmann’s great relief, that’s more than enough to win outright. She will not need to wage a runoff campaign. 

Stultifying voter turnout were the main-party presidential primaries in which the outcomes seemed preordained. Joe Biden overwhelmingly won the Democratic nomination in Santa Barbara County, and by a few percentage points more than he did statewide. Likewise, Trump won overwhelmingly as well — though not nearly as overwhelmingly as Biden — and by a few percentage points lower than he fared statewide. Likewise, Nikki Haley, Trump’s sole Republican challenger as of Tuesday, fared better in Santa Barbara than she did statewide. On Wednesday, Haley announced she was dropping out of the presidential race.

Adherents of both parties — for differing reasons — grumbled, held their noses, and did their duty, but this contest was greeted with a singular lack of effervescence, joie de vivre, or passion. Robert Kennedy Jr., political whack job or uncomfortable truth-teller, never qualified for the California ballot, so his level of support in Santa Barbara — and there’s certainly some — is not measurable. 

In the race for U.S. Senate, to replace the deceased Dianne Feinstein, Democratic Congress member Adam Schiff from Burbank has a significant lead over a voluminous pack, but not enough to garner a legitimate majority of votes cast. Steve Garvey, the Republican first-time candidate and former Dodger great, snagged 26 percent, meaning he and Schiff will face each other in November. Katie Porter, the take-no-guff populist Democrat from Orange County famous for the chalkboard she takes into battle, took 11 percent. 

Schiff, who walked precincts in Santa Barbara County early on in his political career for Santa Barbara’s Jack O’Connell, made a point to highlight Garvey — a Trump supporter — in his campaign ads, building Garvey up by appearing to knock him down. The strategy has its critics, but it appears to have paid off. On election night, Garvey warned he will give Schiff cause to watch out for what he wished for. 

Proposition 1, the $6.4 billion mental health and homeless housing bond measure, lost in Santa Barbara County by almost as narrow a margin as it appears to have won in the rest of the state. 

In other races, Congressmember and incumbent Democrat Salud Carbajal snagged 55 percent of the vote and is headed for a runoff against conservative Republican Thomas Cole — best known for his failed litigation with the Hope School District over a graphic novel telling the life story of a trans teen. (The book was never in the district library.) Cole picked up 33 percent, which appears to be roughly how many votes any candidate with the letter “R” next to their name can expect to get in a campaign in which no candidates do any campaigning and no reporters write anything about it. In federal races, the top two vote-getters face one another in November. Left out was peace activist Helena Pasquarella, a substitute teacher from Ojai who used the campaign to highlight the suffering endured by Palestinian civilians in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. She snagged 7.4 percent.

The races for State Senate and State Assembly were similarly lopsided with Democratic incumbents Monique Limón and Gregg Hart beating their Republican opponents — Elijah Mack and Sari Domingues, respectively — by margins of two-to-one. 

To the surprise of no one, 4th District Supervisor and incumbent Bob Nelson appeared to have established an insurmountable lead over challenger Krishna Flores of Los Alamos, pulling out ahead with 74 percent of the vote. Likewise, the City of Santa Barbara’s Measure A — which would amend the city charter to loosen the rules guiding which bids need to be accepted for city projects  — was ahead by 75 percent. Currently, the low-bid proposal gets the award; under the new rules Public Works directors will be allowed to select bids based on a broader totality of factors, not just the low bid.