Former city councilman and restaurant owner Randy Rowse will be Santa Barbara’s new mayor after winning Tuesday’s election with 38.6% of the votes, according to updated election results released Thursday.
The latest tallies included another 6,484 votes that were unprocessed at the time the County Elections Office reported election night totals.
Final results will be certified approximately 30 days after the election.
Rowse, a no-party-preference registered candidate, made his campaign about getting party politics out of city elections and bringing common sense to City Hall.
He was appointed to the City Council in 2010 to fill a vacancy, was elected to two additional terms, and left in 2020 due to term limits.
His mayoral campaign raised the most money out of any candidate this election, with $309,000 reported.
Rowse, who owned the Paradise Café in downtown Santa Barbara for decades before selling it in 2019, had broad support from the business community, and got big endorsements from the Santa Barbara Police Officers Association, Santa Barbara Firefighters Association and Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce.
He had the advantage of running as an insider with experience in city government and an outsider looking to shake up City Hall, Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina has reported.
Rowse had 10,037 votes, according to the post-election results, which was a 2,912-vote margin ahead of second place James Joyce III.
Joyce, owner of Coffee With a Black Guy and a former legislative staffer for state assembly and state senate members, has 27.4% of the vote.
Outgoing Mayor Cathy Murillo has served three terms on the City Council, first as a councilwoman representing District 3, and then one term as mayor.
She came in third place with 25.2% of the vote (6,551 votes), according to the County Elections Office.
“It has been an honor and a joy to serve Santa Barbara as its Mayor and I’m proud of the 10 years of public service making budget and policy decisions for our beautiful full-service city,” she said in a statement Thursday.
“I contacted incoming Mayor Randy Rowse on election night, expressing congratulations and offering my assistance in transitioning to a new City Council. I am committed to doing what’s best for our city in this transition after the November 2 election.”
Rowse will be the only change coming to the Santa Barbara City Council when members are sworn in next January, since all three City Council incumbents won their re-election races.
Kristen Sneddon will continue to represent District 4, Eric Friedman will remain the District 5 representative, and Meagan Harmon will continue to represent District 6.
Sneddon beat Barrett Reed by getting 61.5% of the vote (4,176 votes) which was 1,582 more votes than him. Reed raised more money in his campaign than any other council candidate this election.
The District 4 race had the highest turnout of the three council districts, with 58.2%.
Harmon, who was in a four-way race, had 53.6% of the vote (1,912 votes) as of Thursday’s count.
She was 710 votes ahead of second-place Nina Johnson, who got 33.7% of the vote.
Friedman was unopposed and had 95.9% of the 5,510 total votes, with unqualified write-ins getting the rest, according to the County Elections Office results.
City Election Turnout
The city reported 47.1% turnout in the election, which is 26,071 ballots cast out of 55,308 registered voters.
This is the second-highest turnout rate in the past 12 years for Santa Barbara municipal elections. The only one higher was in 2017 when there was an open mayor’s seat and sales tax measure on the ballot.
Santa Barbara has held off-cycle municipal elections for decades, but Tuesday was the last one before the city switches to even-year elections in 2024.
It’s the only city in Santa Barbara County that holds odd-year elections.
While the switch to district elections (starting in 2015) has not significantly increased voter turnout, transitioning to even-year elections is expected to have a bigger impact.
In the last 10 years of odd-year city elections, turnout has been between 36% and 51%.
City voters have turned out in far higher numbers for even-year elections.
In 2020, the presidential general election, the city saw 89.6% turnout. In 2018, the general election with governor as well as state and federal legislators on the ballot, the city recorded about 70% turnout.
The city of Ventura transitioned to even-year elections and district elections in the past 10 years, and saw its turnout rate increase significantly.
In Ventura’s last odd-year, at-large election in 2015, turnout was 26.1%.
In Ventura’s first even-year, district-based election in 2018, turnout was 61.5%.
Both elections had four City Council seats on the ballot.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
