For more than 15 years, Das Williams has played the role of political machine and dynamo. He’s won six different elections, as a Santa Barbara city councilman, as a state assemblyman and, most recently, as a Santa Barbara County supervisor.
But the 45-year-old Williams, first elected to office at age 29 with a gust of political promise at his back, is facing an unprecedented, two-pronged threat to his career in the form of cannabis and Laura Capps.
Capps, a 46-year-old Santa Barbara Unified School District trustee whose parents both served in Congress, is thinking about jumping into the race for First District county supevisor in a 2020 challenge to Williams, who has represented Montecito, Carpinteria and much of Santa Barbara on the Board of Supervisors since 2017.
“The Capps family is as close to the Kennedy name as Santa Barbara ever got,” said journalist and author Ann Louise Bardach, referring to Capps’ parents, former Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who succeeded her late husband, Rep. Walter Capps, after he died of a heart attack in 1997. Together, the elder Cappses held Santa Barbara County’s congressional seat for two decades.
Bardach, however, is a constituent of Williams who is unhappy with his stalwart support of marijuana grow houses in unincorporated areas of the county — specifically, around Carpinteria.
“His one and only constituency is the cannabis industry,” she said.
That sentiment has not been lost on Capps.
“There are a lot of people in the First District who I have a lot of respect for who are encouraging me to run,” Capps told Noozhawk on Saturday. “So I am considering it.”
Behind the scenes, Noozhawk has learned that Capps has been talking and meeting with people to gauge her support, and position herself to make a run for the Board of Supervisors.
She has not formed a committee to raise money, but she has targeted the cannabis controversy in the county. Many Carpinteria residents have spoken out publicly against the overwhelming skunk-like smell of cannabis in the area, even suggesting it is causing respiratory and other breathing problems.
At last Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, some people were handing out “Anyone But Das” bumper stickers.
Capps wrote an opinion commentary in the Los Angeles Times that criticized county officials’ support of marijuana cultivation centers near schools. Although she never mentioned Williams in the piece, it was a de facto shot at him.
Williams has been accused of being under the thumb of the marijuana industry. In June, the Times published email exchanges between Williams and cannabis cultivators, and noted that he has accepted $16,500 in donations from members of the CARP Growers, officially the Cannabis Association for Responsible Producers.
Capps, a former president of the Community Environmental Council and current board member, has the kind of status that would make the supervisorial race politically intriguing. Her last name is political royalty among local Democrats. She’s a former White House intern, aide and speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and has deep Democratic Party connections nationally. Her former husband is Bill Burton, a political consultant and deputy press secretary under President Barack Obama.
There are indications that Williams — and the formal Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County — are concerned about Capps’ viability. The county organization endorsed Williams’ re-election bid last week, although it wasn’t a surprise. He has been a Democratic Party and labor union foot soldier for years, and the party machine typically rewards loyalty when making endorsements.
Capps did not seek the party’s endorsment, Noozhawk has learned, mostly because she had not declared herself a formal candidate, but also because it would have been extraordinary for the party to not endorse Williams.
The endorsement vote was not unanimous, however. Some sources in attendance say there was concern that the party was endorsing too early, on July 11, when the filing period for the seat has not even opened yet. The primary is March 3, and Capps is expected to announce her intentions in early fall.
An endorsement from the county Democratic Party is typically a highly sought-after accolade because it comes with a wealth of advantages, such as volunteer phone banks and neighborhood campaign walkers along with political pamphlets and fliers. Such resources are tough to duplicate as an individual candidate.
Still, local Democrats have won without the party’s official support — as Williams well knows. The only campaign he lost was in 2006 when, in spite of his party endorsement, Janet Wolf defeated him in the race for Second District supervisor.
More recently, Santa Barbara City Council members Jason Dominguez and Kristen Sneddon were elected without Democratic Party support. Ironically, Capps supported Sneddon in 2017 over the party-backed candidate, Jim Scafide, which irked some party leaders.
Sneddon, whose council district overlaps with the county’s First District, told Noozhawk that she has not made an endorsement in the supervisorial race, but she has a long history with Capps.
“I have known Laura for decades,” she said. “I believe in her commitment to education and the environment. She has a great voting record. She would make a great supervisor.”
Williams has proved himself to be a scrappy political streetfighter. A high school dropout, he turned his life around and graduated from UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley, and then surprised Santa Barbara’s political establishment by winning a City Council seat in 2003.
After winning re-election to the council, he ran for — and won — the region’s seat in the Assembly, and served the maximum three two-year terms. He then sought election to the Board of Supervisors, and is midway through his four-year term.
In Williams’ 2010 Assembly race, he overcame a significant challenge from Susan Jordan in a highly publicized campaign that included photo-altered political mailers.
In an interview Saturday, Williams told Noozhawk that he is “definitely preparing” for Capps to challenge him, but hopes that she doesn’t run.
“It would be a heartbreaking divide for local Democrats,” he said. “We don’t disagree on all that much.”
If Capps does jump in, he said, “I am ready for a significant challenge.”
Williams said tax revenue from cannabis cultivation will benefit everyone in Santa Barbara County, helping to fund public libraries, renewable energy, public safety and a variety of other services.
“You can’t just support good policies,” he said. “You have to have the resources to back it up.”
Marijuana revenue, he added, will help reverse a $6 million county deficit and turn it into a $3 million surplus.
Capps and Williams recently got together at Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara to talk about the race. The meeting was cordial and friendly. Both acknowledge they have not worked together in the trenches over the years and consider themselves to be political acquaintances.
Williams said he is no fan of Bardach’s and that she is behind much of the effort to unseat him.
“I take it pretty seriously to be in her sights because she can help manipulate the press well,” he said.
Williams says he believes he and Capps should work together to support progressive values.
“We’ll get more done for the environment as allies than as enemies,” he said. “The moral imperative of our age is to address climate change locally and globally, and I view any conflict between us as a tragic distraction.”
Bardach said Williams’ political troubles over marijuana are “self-inflicted” because he has put the needs of about 35 cannabis growers over the concerns of local residents.
“I was hoping he would listen to people,” she said. “I hear from Democrats and Republicans, I hear from my Montecito friends. Everybody is livid about it. He just digs in and you have to wonder why.”
Williams, himself a Carpinteria resident, said he cares deeply about the community and will fight hard to keep his seat should Capps enter the race.
“I live here,” Williams said. “I have two little girls here. I want it to be a safe, wonderful community, and I am committed to that.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
