LETTERS
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If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net
Endorsement Clarification
Mitch Morehart 805.689.7233 mitch.morehart@compass.com DRE 00828316 Beverly Palmer 805.452.7985 beverly@compass.com DRE 1319565 Susan Pate 805.895.9385 susan.pate@compass.com DRE 01130349 themorehartgroup.com
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MONTECITO JOURNAL
TO THE EDITOR
A
s the Chair of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, I would like to respond to the recent editorial which portrays the timing of the Party’s endorsement as unfair. All our endorsement deadlines are listed on our webpage in advance, so individuals interested in being endorsed have ample time to apply. I am available to explain our schedule and process with any interested party, as is Joe Pierre, our Endorsement and Resolutions Committee Chair; his information is listed on our webpage at https://www.sbdems.org/. I had two conversations with Laura Capps before our deadline. She knew about our process, our timing, and was given the opportunity to participate. She did not apply, so we were not able to consider her for an endorsement. As for why we do endorsements when we do, this is something the local party committee has considered carefully and will continue to study. In some years we have endorsements to make in many races throughout the county, from water boards to school boards to city councils to mayoral races, and more. Our careful process involves application reviews and individual candidate interviews; we could not do all of these in time to be of any use to our endorsed candidates if we waited until the filing deadline. For this cycle, we wanted the supervisor endorsements completed by the time candidates could begin gathering signatures. Also, because of the change of primary from June to March 3, we wanted candidates to be in communication with voters as soon as possible. We encourage our members to participate in our process. I urge anyone with questions to contact me. Gail Teton-Landis, Chair Santa Barbara County Democratic Party
Steve Bennett for Assembly
Historically the representative of our 37th Assembly District, diverse in population and occupation, has been from Santa Barbara County. That’s in large part because Santa Barbara County makes up over 50% of the District and we like to vote for candidates with whom we are familiar. However, to effectively represent this District, the successful candidate
“If you text ‘I love you’ to a person and the person writes back an emoji — they don’t love you back.” — Chelsea Peretti
should be the one that is experienced with and understands the interactions of those often-competing interests created by our diversity. This time the best candidate is not a Santa Barbara County candidate, but instead candidate Steve Bennett from Ventura County. And that’s why I’ve focused on Steve. He’s served for 20 years on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. He is an independent leader who wrote one of the strongest campaign reform laws taking big money out of local politics. He’s an environmental leader who co-authored local SOAR Initiatives to protect open spaces from encroaching Los Angeles style urban sprawl and passed laws to prevent oil companies and other corporate polluters from contaminating our air, land, coastal waterways, and drinking water. When Steve, with an MA in economics from Brown University, was elected County Supervisor 20 years ago the Ventura County treasury reserves were at zero. Steve won approval of new fiscal policies, which have built the County’s rainy-day reserve fund to 13% of the budget. Steve’s leadership helped balance 10 budgets in a row resulting in the rating raise of the county’s General Obligation bond to AA+, the highest rating possible. Steve has supported expanding the County’s social network of vital community services such as women’s health, public safety, and senior service, enabled by funds made available through his financial leadership. With a professional background as a former educator and administrator, he is committed to increasing funding for our public schools. This includes more money for the classroom, expanding access to early childhood education, and increasing the number of afterschool programs and career education opportunities. Steve Bennett ticks all the right boxes as the most qualified candidate to be our assembly member. He is a fiscally responsible environmental advocate, is committed to serving the underserved and protecting women’s issues, is an advocate for the education of our students and most of all, has years of experience in county government dealing with issues similar to those we face statewide. We need a representative who is able to balance
LETTERS Page 264 13 – 20 February 2020
