Justin Fareed hopes the third time is a charm.
There’s not a lot of lady luck, however, riding on his side.
Fareed trails his opponent, incumbent Rep. Salud Carbajal, in the money race. As a Republican, he’s climbing uphill in party registration.
And Fareed, who conspicuously doesn’t have a statement in the voter information guide, is chasing a well-known Democrat who has been elected to office four times in the past 14 years.
None of that fazes Fareed, a charismatic, energetic and exuberant rising star in the Republican Party. He has worked exhaustively to cast himself as a political outsider with the combination of skills and vision to shake up Washington D.C.
“One of the problems with Washington is the number of people there with decades of political experience that put their own re-election ahead of the people in the communities that they are supposed to serve,” Fareed told Noozhawk. “Where has that gotten us as a country, and how has that benefitted people on the Central Coast? It hasn’t.”
Fareed is challenging Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, for the 24th Congressional District seat that represents Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and a slice of Ventura County.
While Carbajal is running a campaign that primarily focuses on himself and his record, Fareed has taken a full-steam-ahead approach, like the fast and strong running back he was in high school and college, hoping to knock the incumbent over and swoop into the political end zoone — the U.S. Capitol.
“Salud Carbajal has been in the extreme minority by voting against measures that both sides have supported,” Fareed said. “Mr. Carbajal supports the sanctuary policy, which obstructs inter-agency coordination and cooperation, and regularly votes against bipartisan bills designed to support our local law enforcement and keep our families safe.
“Mr. Carbajal voted against multiple bipartisan measures that would mitigate and prevent disastrous fires throughout California, like the Thomas Fire. Mr. Carbajal voted against regulatory and tax relief for our families and our small businesses.”
Fareed has gone as far as to launch a website, “Stop Salud,” that targets Carbajal’s voting record and makes a variety of accusations about his time in office the past two years. In addition, Fareed has been a one-man press release machine, frequently weighing in on national issues, and at times blaming Democrats for inflaming political divisiveness.
On Oct. 12, he issued a press release that stated, “In the last few weeks, Democrat leaders have ratcheted up calls for violence, taking the political climate to a new low. Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently enflamed the rhetoric by inciting activists by saying, ‘When they go low, we kick!’
“Representative Maxine Waters called for people who encounter Republicans to ‘push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome.’ Senator Corey Booker even called on activists to ‘get up in the face’ of elected officials who they disagree with.”
Fareed included video of one of his canvassers being chased and shouted at by an “unhinged man,” the release stated.
In the aftermath of the pipebombs sent to several prominent Democratic officials last week, Fareed issued a statement that said: “The violent rhetoric in politics of late is not a reflection of who we are as Americans. The person behind sending these packages should be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
But Fareed, by no means, is a fringe candidate. He has garnered some notable support.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson has endorsed Fareed.
“Public safety is more critical today than ever before,” Parkinson said. “Our children deserve the opportunity to grow up on our city streets in an environment that is free from drugs and violence. Our schools should be safe from harm, and our parents should feel comfortable knowing that our future is sleeping safe at night.
“Justin Fareed understands that to accomplish this, we must uphold the rule of law, support law enforcement, and give those on the front lines the tools they need to do their jobs. I have all the confidence that Justin will look out for the well-being of Central Coast families, law enforcement and the next generation, while working in Washington.”
The San Luis Obispo County Sworn Deputy Sheriff’s Association also has endorsed Fareed.
Fareed, 30, has spent much of his campaign talking about Carbajal and what’s wrong with Washington, and less so about himself.
He made a decision to not to spend the $9,100 for a candidate statement in the voter information guide: “We made a strategic decision that those funds would be better spent in the manner in which they’ve been spent. Information about my position on the issues is readily available at www.JustinFareed.com.”
Fareed is president of his parents’ business, Pro Band Sports Industries, Inc., which makes sports medical devices. He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science. A star football player at Santa Barbara High School, Fareed played for the UCLA Bruins.
He also served as a legislative aide for Kentucky congressman Ed Whitfield, who served as chairman of the Energy & Power Subcommittee. His legislative and business experience will help him be effect in Washington, he said.
“I have experience running a business and creating jobs,” Fareed said. “I know how hard small business owners work to make payroll and to keep up with increasingly overreaching regulations and laws. I know what it takes to not only to survive in business, but to grow that business and create more jobs.
“Furthermore, I have experience working on Capitol Hill, where I was able to build consensus among members from both sides of the aisle and in both chambers. For all of his talk about reaching across the aisle, my opponent has not been able to accomplish even getting a single bill to a hearing.”
Dale Francisco, a former two-term Santa Barbara City Councilman and an ex-chairman of the Santa Barbara County Republican Party. also believes Fareed will be more effective in Washington.
“I like both Salud and Justin as people, and I admired Salud’s diligence on the Board of Supervisors when it came to constituent service,” Francisco said. “But when it comes to philosophy of government, the two are poles apart. Justin believes in free-market economics, the Constitution, and the founding principles of this country.”
Francisco said the timing is right for someone with those values.
“There’s a path in the House for a new Republican congressman to act on those beliefs, either through the Republican Study Committee or the House Freedom Caucus. Salud is a career politician, and will vote in line with the far-left, socialist philosophy now so dominant in the Democratic party, even though some of his own policy positions are closer to the center.”
Fareed is battling uphill on some matters that are out of his control.
There are 383,696 registered voters in the district. Of those, 149,169 are registered as Democrats, and 115,893 are registered as Republicans. Another 98,401 are registered with no party preference, and 20,233 people are registered as other, according to Political Data Inc.
Knowing he has to make up ground, Fareed has hit Carbajal hard on his support of sanctuary states, problems with illegal immigration, and health care.
“Congress can’t pass comprehensive immigration reform,” Fareed said. “They have a hard time passing a budget without threatening to shut the government down. They tried to fix our health-care system but only ended up making costs higher for everyone.”
Fareed said Washington is broken.
“They’ve created a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy that is costly, putting us more than $20 trillion dollars in debt, and which doesn’t effectively meet the needs of the American people,” Fareed said. “Their failures have harmed our families and created an economy where the children who grow up here and go to school here can’t afford to raise their families here.
“I will bring a fresh perspective to Washington, and the drive and determination necessary to champion bipartisan solutions to critical issues.”
— 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.
