With 61 candidates for California governor on the June 2 election ballot, making a choice can feel intimidating. 

To make the choice feel less overwhelming, Noozhawk and CalMatters hosted an election roundtable on Monday at the Montecito Association Community Hall focused on the top eight gubernatorial candidates.

More than 40 members of Noozhawk’s Hawks Club membership program heard the candidates giving their views on affordability and homelessness in a series of short videos before discussing their thoughts in small groups.

“Out of all of the sources that I have gotten information from, this was the best, and I want to see all of those videos,” attendee Patrick Murray said.

“I also want everybody else in California to see all of that.”

A majority of other participants shared similar sentiments and felt they left the event more informed about the election, and those eight candidates: Democrats Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond and Antonio Villaraigosa and Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton.

Susan Johnson was grateful for the small group discussions. She said it felt productive because it brought together people with different perspectives.

The event — co-sponsored by The Montecito Village Shopping Center and Spotlight Santa Barbara — was one of more than a dozen stops that Dan Hu, CalMatters’ partnerships director, is co-hosting with newsrooms and community groups throughout the state.

Hu equipped attendees with a CalMatters governor voter guide that features a quiz matching people with candidates who share similar views.

“The attendees were just so engaged and asked incredibly thoughtful questions,” Hu said of Monday’s event.

“CalMatters, as a statewide publication, has to work with local organizations to actually reach people at the community level, and we’re so glad to work with Noozhawk again.”

Noozhawk held a similar event with the nonprofit CalMatters for the 2024 election, which a few of Monday’s attendees also participated in.

Hu also showed attendees how to access the online CalMatters voter guide for the positions up for election this year. It includes candidate profiles, endorsements and fundraising information.

“I am proud of what we do,” he said. “(The voter guide) is the most-read voter guide in the state of California.”

Hu said he appreciated attendees sharing their experience with them, including how one, Marty Conoley, said he learned more in one evening than he did watching the candidates debating each other.

Additionally, local topics appearing on the ballot such as the Santa Barbara City Charter amendment — which would lift the 50-year limit on leases for city-owned property and simplify modifying city property leases for future housing development projects — were explained to attendees by Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk’s executive editor.

Vote-by-mail ballots have already been mailed to Santa Barbara County residents.

As Noozhawk previously reported, the county saw a large increase in late ballots in the 2025 election due to the U.S. Postal Service no longer postmarking all same-day mail.

Martin Cobos, chief deputy registrar of voters, encourages voters who wait until the last few days to mail in their ballot to bring it into a post office and ask a clerk to postmark it before sending it off in the mail.

The last day to register online to vote for the June 2 primary election is May 18.

Noozhawk has its own Election Section where readers can find all election-related stories. Click here for the CalMatters voter guide.