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Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne shook up the political establishment recently when she announced her bid for the Santa Barbara County Third District county supervisor’s seat.

The news came as shock to incumbent Joan Hartmann and the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party power brokers.

“It is a free country and if I choose to take the risk and run, that is my choice,” Osborne told Josh Molina, in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks.

Watch the full conversation by clicking on the YouTube video below.

Youtube video

For several months, it was looking like a matchup between Hartmann, endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, and Frank Troise, a Republican.

The Hartmann camp had hoped to win outright in the March 5 primary, but with Osborne in the contest, it’s more likely that there will be a runoff in November between the top two vote-getters.

If it goes to a runoff in November, the Democratic Party will have to fundraise and spend more money than if there is an outright win in March.

Osborne said she had a brief exchange with Hartmann at a recent Santa Barbara County Association of Government’s meeting.

“The first opportunity to interact with her was right before last week’s SBCAG meeting,” Osborne said. “And she frankly, very aggressively said, ‘a courtesy call would have been nice, but we still have to work together, so we will.’ And that is the extent of the conversation.”

Osborne said she is running to represent the issues throughout the district, including the mid-county.

“I realize I have offended many, but at the same time, the issues and the discussions need to change,” Osborne said.

In this podcast, she talks about her views on housing, homelessness and broadband services. She has been a strong proponent of expanded broadband service, as a member of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments and even prior as mayor of Lompoc.

The need for broadband service erupted during the COVID-19 pandemic

“We discovered, especially in Lompoc, how difficult it is to homeschool, how difficult it is to remote work, when all you have is dial-up and cable,” Osborne said. “So many of our households didn’t even have access to internet services, and were sitting in the parking lots at schools to do their homework or online classes.”

She said the community realized that “internet and broadband is an essential service.”

She said SBCAG is now designated as a “regional office” to represent and voice the “middle missing mile” and how do we get fiber into our communities by making sure it is implemented, in partnership with the Economic Alliance Foundation.

Please check out the full hour-long conversation to hear all of Osborne’s views on the issues.

Subscribe to Josh Molina’s newsletter here and his YouTube channel here. Make a contribution to support this podcast series by visiting www.santabarbaratalks.com. Molina writes for Noozhawk.com, teaches journalism part-time at Santa Barbara City College hosts the popular Santa Barbara Talks podcast.