District elections have arrived.
The Nov. 5 election features two high-stakes, competitive contests in Districts 1 and 3 for the Santa Barbara City Council.
Five Mexican-American candidates are vying for seats in contests that are shining a spotlight on issues that have historically received less attention.
In District 1, Santa Barbara’s Eastside, incumbent Alejandra Gutierrez faces a challenge from activist Wendy Santamaria. It’s a heated battle over who best represents and knows the concerns of the District 1 residents. Perennial candidate Cruzito Herrera Cruz is also running in District 1.
A similar situation exists on the Westside. Incumbent Oscar Gutierrez faces competition from Westside business owner Tony Becerra. In an at-large election, it is unlikely that the issues would get the same type of attention.
“It’s a great outcome,” said Ben Romo, a local consultant who used to run political campaigns. “It is the intended outcome. When you think back on the history of who has represented this town over many, many decades and you think about who actually serves on the City Council, these candidates can represent their districts in a way that is historic.”
A California Voting Rights Act lawsuit in 2015 filed by attorney Barry Cappello on behalf of several Latino registered voters forced the city to move to district elections. Before that, people were elected at large. Residents living in Santa Barbara’s Mesa, San Roque and Riviera areas dominated the slots on the City Council.
District elections brought Oscar Gutierrez and Alejandra Gutierrez to the council. Before that, Cathy Murillo was elected to the council in 2011. Although that was before district elections, she was the first Latina to serve on the City Council. The first Black man to win office in Santa Barbara was Babatunde Folayemi, in 2003.
“I feel that these folks who have been elected are uniquely qualified in a way that we have never experienced before in our city,” Romo said. “Generally, they understand their districts better. They understand the needs of their communities better. They are from those backgrounds and those communities.
“These candidates would really struggle to get elected in an at-large election.”
One of the biggest issues in both District 1 and District 3 is housing and rent stabilization, or rent control. Santamaria and Oscar Gutierrez are supportive of a 2% cap on rent increases per year. Alejandra Gutierrez and Becerra are opposed to that.
“It’s the ability to understand language, culture, the life situations of these districts,” Romo said. “These are districts that are disproportionately lower income, that are disproportionately renters, that are disproportionately working families, and you have people who understand those backgrounds.”
Romo, a longtime Democrat, said he has experienced a dynamic within the activist, progressive side of politics that sometimes makes false assumptions about the constituency.
“Sometimes assumptions are made about a particular voting bloc, Latino voters included, and there is an assumption that they are going to vote progressive, or that they are reliable progressives, but in fact they do hold diverse views,” Romo said. “They are not a locked bloc here.”
He noted that many Latinos are immigrants who love the country that has allowed them to build generational affluence and wealth.
“It’s the classic immigrant story,” Romo said.
Mark Alvarado, who grew up in Santa Barbara and who now is the executive director of the Eastside Boys and Girls Club, said district elections allow people of color to run and show their differences.
“That old adage that all politics is local is true,” Alvarado said. “If you look at the borough of New York as a macro example, like Harlem and the Bronx, you would see African-Americans running in those boroughs and running against each other.
“This is what transpires, and this is what we wanted to see.”
There is another impact from district elections.
“Is it forcing us to find allegiances and strain relationships? Absolutely,” he said.
In both districts, a generational issue is being exposed, Alvarado said.
“If you look at District 1, Alejandra Gutierrez is very local. She has support from the old school Latino Democrats. There’s a lot of loyalty to that. There’s loyalty to the local Latino Democrat,” he said.
“Then, you have someone like Wendy Santamaria who inspires other folks who don’t have the roots that Alejandra has, but they are looking for change and accountability.”
In District 3, Alvarado noted that Becerra was Oscar Gutierrez’s martial arts teacher and that the “Becerras go way back” in the community.
Gutierrez is also local, but his parents are from a generation of immigrants.
“It is really forcing us to look at politics that are impacting Latinos more critically, more intelligently,” he said.
Issues such as rent control and housing are issues that Latino families care about more because they are impacted by those changes in policies, he said.
“All those issues are really impacting families’ ability to raise their children. The stability of the Latino family is really in the balance every day,” Alvarado said.
Even with disagreements among Latino candidates, he said district elections have made representation better.
“This is what we wanted because going back to at-large, a lot of issues are unrecognized,” Alvarado said.
As a practical matter, who wins and loses on Nov. 5 will have a major impact on rent control. Right now, there’s a 4-3 majority on the council against rent control. Mayor Randy Rowse and council members Mike Jordan, Eric Friedman and Alejandra Gutierrez oppose it. Kristen Sneddon, Meagan Harmon and Oscar Gutierrez support it.
If Santamaria wins, it could set the stage for a rent control vote, and there would be four votes to pass it. Even if she wins, and Becerra upsets Oscar Gutierrez, the council would lack the majority four votes to pass a measure.
Gabe Escobedo, a member of the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education, said he is pleased to see a diversity of candidates running, focusing on important issues to the district.
“District elections create representation for underrepresented people,” Escobedo said. “Smaller districts can allow specific neighborhoods to have a greater voice than they ever would in a large, citywide election. With any luck, this encourages a more equitable distribution of services and infrastructure in areas that might have been previously ignored.”
