Three candidates emerged from a board meeting last week with endorsements from the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party for this fall’s Santa Barbara City Council race. Three council seats will be up for grabs in the election.

Cathy Murillo, Deborah Schwartz and Iya Falcone all received endorsements last Thursday by the party’s Central Committee.

Murillo is the news and public affairs director at KCSB-FM radio station, Schwartz is a city planning commissioner and Falcone is a former city councilwoman.

According to a statement from the county Democratic Party issued Monday, it began its endorsement process early this season, with an active effort to recruit candidates, a forum and training, as well as significant community-wide outreach.

“Our strategy is simple: We know that we’re up against three incumbents, and we want to be sure that we have a strong, united team this year,” party chair Daraka Larimore-Hall said in the statement. “If a whole crowd of people run on our side, while the three incumbents are all being managed by the same political operatives, sharing costs and supporting one another, we’d be in big trouble.”

The statement also said that while all three candidates will be running their own campaigns, “they’ve also agreed to endorse one another and participate in a united effort to sweep the conservative majority from the council.”

Absent from the endorsement is homeless activist and Safe Parking coordinator Nancy Kapp. Click here to read Noozhawk’s profile of Kapp that ran last month.

Click here for more information about the party and its platform.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.