Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne has jumped into the race for Santa Barbara County’s Third District supervisorial seat.
Osborne’s candidacy instantly complicates the re-election chances of Supervisor Joan Hartmann, who already was facing a challenge from Santa Ynez businessman Frank Troise.
“This was the time,” said Osborne, who, in addition to her mayoral duties, served as 2023 chairwoman of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.
“I needed to put my name in the ring and see if we can’t change the voice, and have the voice listen to the needs of the midcounty.”
Osborne said she is a proponent of more housing and building units regionally. She noted that Lompoc has 30% of the county’s Section 8 housing vouchers, and that long-distance commuting from the midcounty to Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria has an impact on everyone.
She said she would like to see more middle-income, moderate-income and workforce housing, which will then free up housing for lower-income residents.
Lompoc, Buellton, Solvang, Goleta and nearby unincorporated areas are experiencing a rise in homelessness, lack of workforce housing, lack of job growth, long commutes and expensive child care, Osborne said.
“It feels often that midcounty is overlooked and not really part of the conversation,” she said. “I want to bring a stronger voice that is issue-based and nonpartisan.”
Osborne, who is registered as a no party preference voter, was elected to the Lompoc City Council in November 2016, elected mayor in 2018 and re-elected mayor in 2020 and 2022.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, and owns a small business providing event planning and professional organizing services.
Osborne said she supports diverse energy sources and will listen to agriculture constituents.
“I am in an ag town, the entire midcounty is ag,” she said. “We need to listen to the vintners, we need to listen to the strawberry farmers, we need to listen to those who still graze cattle.”
Osborne said she is not trying to hurt Hartmann in the contest. After the 2020 redistricting that brought Lompoc into the Third District, she says, she introduced Hartmann to the Lompoc community.
She says she just wants to give voters another voice after being approached by people asking her to run for the office.
“I really believe local politics is about the issues,” Osborne said. “There are many issues that you could say I am a Democrat, but if you pay attention to my work on the council, I am also very conservative.
“I am very concerned about making decision that are financially sustainable.”
Also in the contest is Troise, a Santa Ynez resident, founder of SoHo Capital LLC and a Republican.
Darcél Elliott, chair of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, said Osborne has nothing to lose by running.
“The existing Republican candidate is weak and clearly hasn’t been making a splash so it makes sense conservatives would try to recruit someone else,” she said.
Elliott said Osborne did not alert the party that she would be running against Hartmann, a Buellton Democrat.
“The party has been taking this race seriously since redistricting and has been focused on voter outreach in Lompoc for over a year to introduce the new Third District constituents to Joan, and how she is already delivering them the services they need and deserve,” Elliott said.
“We’re going to keep doing that throughout the district until the election is over.”
The primary is March 5 and, unless a candidate wins 50.1%, the top two candidates will face off in a runoff in the Nov. 5 general election.
Two other seats on the Board of Supervisors are being contested in March.
In the First District, incumbent Das Williams is running for re-election against Carpinteria City Councilman Roy Lee.
In the Fourth District, incumbent Bob Nelson is running for re-election against Los Alamos community education volunteer Krishna Flores.
