[Note: Part two in a three-part series. Click here for the first part.]
More than 30 years ago, the Goleta Water District Board was the most important elected body on the South Coast. It’s hard to believe a utility company could be politically important, but the emerging environmentalists and UCSB alumni found a way to “control” growth in Goleta and that was to take over the water board and stop any kind of new water development and the issuance of new water meters. To put “their” people in office, they stopped at nothing.
I ran for that office. It was the first time this naïve virgin candidate was exposed to how ugly politics really is.
I also, for the first time, became aware of the massive influence UCSB and the students had on our community. I had the likes of Jane Fonda come speak at rallies and denounce me over things she/they just made up (sound familiar?). They played to the young minds and equated the water board to saving whales.
And as is the fashion, they employed demonization tactics. They painted me as a big developer, which if I were elected would turn our family ranch into houses instead of avocados. As an example, one of the propaganda fliers depicted a hillside of avocados with a state water pipeline and houses pouring out. In the end, the UCSB students overwhelmingly decided who was going to control our utility company and most probably didn’t even really have a clue why.
Because the election booths in Isla Vista and on campus were controlled by students and plants, they allowed the same person to vote multiple times, boxes of ballots just disappeared and I knew of people who moved into Isla Vista for just a few months to be able to register to vote out there. There was all kinds of corruption, of which the debated can continue today.
I took my findings all the way to Washington, D.C., with the help of then-Congressman Bob Lagomarsino and other politicians making the argument that transient students should be voting in their hometowns. After months of fighting and trying to make my case, I finally got back a one-page letter that basically said tough.
So flash forward some 30 years. But first I’d like to set the stage and remind everyone about the pornography professor attacking a young girl in a “free speech” zone and spinning her reasons why she did it, and not a single person in the UCSB hierarchy speaks out or apologizes for the behavior of one of their own. That action — or rather, inaction — reinforces the mindset of this institution.
Again, as stated in part one, universities are a necessary part of our society, and it isn’t my intention to slam UCSB or any other campus, but there needs to be balance — and there isn’t any.
While we’re all going about our business and trying to make a living, the antagmentalists continue to manipulate the young minds to think the way they do. Rallies, meetings, fliers and pep talks go on frequently, twisting the truth about things like the recent election regarding Measure P and that Rep. Lois Capps really cares about them. I’ll venture a guess that the majority of students don’t even know who Capps is any more than they did about the water board, nor do they really care. And in her own words, Capps admitted she and her team spent the “wee hours of the morning until early evening walking door to door” encouraging UCSB and SBCC students to vote for her. That unto itself is good campaigning and nothing wrong with it, but look who we’re stuck with again thanks to transient voters.
Unfortunately, we did have a loss but a victory as well with Measure P going down (which didn’t stop the enviros, who just went back to their usual tactic of suing everyone). In the end we’re still screwed as the liberal puppet masters continue to pull Capps’ strings while she proclaims how she’ll work across the aisle and how this time — and she really means it — she’s really going to create more jobs and accomplish something.
In the meantime, USCB will continue to swell in size, creating more transient voters who will continue to determine what happens to the rest of us, and we’ll suffer the consequences of their decisions indefinitely.
— Henry Schulte of Santa Barbara owns and operates Dos Pueblos Ranch. He has been politically active in the community for years. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.