So, what happens now?

Upstart candidate Wendy Santamaria is on track to pull off a political upset and replace Alejandra Gutierrez on the City Council in Santa Barbara’s District 1.

Although there are still votes to be counted, Santamaria’s lead has only grown since election day Tuesday, and she now leads by nearly 5 percentage points.

A progressive Democrat, Santamaria ran on a campaign of tenant rights, implementing a rental increase cap and affordable housing. If her lead holds, Santamaria would replace Gutierrez, who was opposed to implementing a cap. With the seat flipped, there are now four votes, a majority of the council, to implement a rent cap, as Santamaria promised on the campaign.

Political analyst Ben Romo, who was not affiliated with either campaign, said he expects some form of a rent cap.

“Santamaria’s election greatly increases the chances for some form of rent control,” Romo said. “There is now a majority of councilmembers who generally support some form of rent stabilization. However, I don’t think they have consensus on the specifics. The details need to be worked out, but some version of rent control is very likely in the coming year.”

Santamaria drew on support from tenant rights advocates, including members of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, to canvas the Eastside.

“I just assumed Councilmember Gutierrez would be re-elected because she has legitimate community roots and incumbency is usually helpful,” Romo said. “About 10 days ago I saw some of Ms. Santamaria’s voter contact numbers that surprised me. They had huge numbers of voters identified as supporters.”

Romo said determination paid off.

“She did the hard work of campaigning, and she’s an impressive, intelligent, articulate person who’s passionate about helping others,” Romo said. “Those qualities, combined with real hard work, can get you a long way in a district this small where you can literally knock on every door more than once.”

Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Meagan Harmon is the most progressive member of the City Council and has been a consistent voice for affordable housing, tenant protections and rent stabilization.

Harmon said both Santamaria and Councilmember Gutierrez deserve credit for their hard work engaging in and “giving life to our democratic process.”

Harmon said she is excited to work with Santamaria.

“Her energy, ideas and fresh perspective will be a welcome addition to our council,” Harmon said. “I’m looking forward both to partnering with her on those issues where we align, particularly around tenant rights, and to finding common ground on those matters where we might disagree.”

Harmon said Santa Barbara is a wonderful place, and that Santamaria and the council will give their best to “ensuring it stays that way.”

Property owners heavily backed Gutierrez in their attempt to block a fourth supportive vote on the City Council. Gutierrez raised more than $50,000, much of it from property owners. They also backed Tony Becerra in District 3, but he was unsuccessful in his bid to defeat Oscar Gutierrez, who also backed a rent cap on the City Council.

Throughout the county, there are about 41,000 unprocessed vote-by-mail ballots turned in before or on election day; 1,000 provisional ballots; 5,100 conditional voter registration provisional ballots; and about 2,000 challenged ballots or ones left to “cure” because of missing or incomparable signatures, or other issues.

There are seven members of the City Council. All are registered Democrats except for Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse. Rowse was the only member of the City Council to publicly support Gutierrez in her bid for re-election.

“While I was supportive of Alejandra Gutierrez, I extend my congratulations to Wendy Santamaria on her victory,” Rowse said. “I look forward to getting to know Wendy personally and her thoughts on issues facing the city.”

Rowse said there are many issues for councilmembers to consider.

“While the issue of rent control was front and center in the race, there are so many other important items to discuss and I will not assume anything about her positions before having the opportunity to have a substantial conversation,” Rowse said.