Although he has yet to make a formal announcement, Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams has made it clear he’ll be running for the Assembly next year.

The 35th District’s current representative, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, will be barred by term limits from seeking re-election in 2010, leaving an open seat. Nava’s wife, environmental activist Susan Jordan, is also running to succeed her husband, who reportedly is exploring a run for state attorney general.

A catalyst for Williams’ decision to run occurred in January when he and Jordan came down on different sides of the controversial plan to expand offshore drilling rights at Tranquillon Ridge in exchange for the oil operation shutting down in 2022. Williams supported the proposal, as did many leading local environmentalists, while Nava and Jordan did not. Ultimately, the State Lands Commission rejected the project on a 2-1 vote.

Williams has been a councilman since 2003 and he, too, will be termed out, in 2011. Faced with a choice between retirement — he’s currently 34 — or a run for a state office, Williams said he wants to continue serving the community.

“I have more to give,” he said.

A run for Assembly is something Williams said he’s thought about for a long time. He worked in the Capitol for then-Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, who was first elected in 1998 and went on to serve three terms.

Williams said two valuable lessons he picked up from Jackson are accessibility and spending time with constituents.

“I think one of the reasons people have been so supportive is that they know I will work hard to represent my constituents and not just whatever is the latest thing in Sacramento,” he said.

With two Democrats on the ticket for the June 2010 primary, Williams said he thinks his council experience will set him apart from Jordan.

“I think that she’s got a lot of good things to offer, but I think that I have a different skill set, one that’s really important at this time,” he said.

Williams acknowledged Jordan’s long career as an activist, but said he feels his council experience has been invaluable.

“The city does so many different things,” he said. “It’s really a microcosm of all the issues you deal with at a state level.”

Williams and Jordan have been friends for more than 10 years and he said he’s tried to keep up a dialogue with her, but has been largely unsuccessful so far. He called her lack of response “heartbreaking.”

One of the most important issues Williams says he’s tackled during his council tenure was addressing the water quality of oceans and creeks, as well as drinking water. Seeing increases in mass transit has also been a high point, he said.

Even such a big jump from council to Assembly, and California’s dire fiscal situation and its affect on education, aren’t enough to dissuade Williams from running for the seat.

“It makes me mad in a way that I want to do something about it,” he said, referring to the perpetual state budget crisis. “What we are facing with this last budget is the possible destruction of our public education system.”

Education is an issue close to Williams’ heart; after teaching junior high, he now teaches college classes when he’s not busy with council duties.

So far, he’s been endorsed by his former boss, Jackson; Supervisors Salud Carbajal and Doreen Farr, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett and Ventura City Councilman Brian Brennan. The 35th District spans Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, with voter registration that favors Democrats over Republicans, 48 percent to 27 percent, with most of the remainder designated as “decline to state.”

Williams said he’s also gotten positive feedback from the women’s and environmental communities, as well as from educators. He said he’ll formally announce his campaign in early May.

“There are some legislators who feel like their biggest thing is to get into the power structure in Sacramento,” he said. “That’s not what people want here. They want someone who is primarily a district representative, who is working on issues that have direct relevance to the people of the district.

“I can do that,” he said. “I’ve grown up in most of the communities in this area, my family’s here. It’s in my blood.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.