It appears Santa Barbara will have a new mayor.
Randy Rowse, the affable former owner of the Paradise Cafe who spent nine years on the Santa Barbara City Council, was leading the mayor’s race Tuesday night.
Election night results showed him with 40.4% of the vote, ahead of candidate James Joyce III, who had 25.9% of the vote, and current mayor Cathy Murillo, who had 24.4% of the vote.
About 2,800 votes separated Rowse and Joyce in early results.
The winner gets a five-year term since Santa Barbara is moving to even-year elections in 2024 and 2026.
The Elections Office said there are 4,612 ballots still to be counted, but those ballots are not expected to affect the final results. The Tuesday night total includes 19,587 ballots received up until Election Day. Final results are expected later this week.
If Rowse stays ahead, he will be the first man to serve as mayor in nearly 30 years.
Rowse jumped into the mayor’s race in March of this year and immediately shook up the contest. While he had claimed to be retired, his friends and political observers urged him to run.
Rowse, a no-party-preference candidate, ran on a platform of bringing common sense back to City Hall, making decisions based on what’s best for residents, not political parties, and addresssing Santa Barbara’s homelessness challenges.
He was also the top fundraiser in the contest, bringing in $309,000.
After seeing the results Tuesday night, Rowse reminisced about how his political career started when he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Council.
He also reflected on what it meant to him to be the likely next mayor of Santa Barbara, a city where he has lived for decades.
“This wasn’t on my bucket list,” he said, adding that he was driven to get involved after getting frustrated at the direction the city was going.
Joyce, founder of Coffee With a Black Guy, raised $72,000 in his election bid. He previously worked as a field representative for former assemblymember Das Williams and district director for former state senator Hannah-Beth Jackson.
Joyce also said many people became donors of campaign workers for the first time because of his campaign.
“Before we came in here tonight, my mindset was we’ve already won. Regardless of the outcome, there’s been many victories through this campaign,” Joyce said Tuesday night.
“Let’s keep building a community. Let’s keep connecting with one another,” he said. “If you take nothing else from this, take love. … Be better people, love one another.”
Shortly after the Tuesday night results were released, Murillo said she was still hopeful. She expected to move into second place after all of Tuesday’s ballots were counted.
Democratic-Party endorsed candidates tend to get more votes from volunteer efforts on Election Day.
“More ballots will come in, and I have to stay hopeful, but if that holds, then certainly I’ll call Mr. Rowse later and congratulate him,” she said.
“I’m with my family tonight, so we’re going to be celebrating all the work that I’ve done over the last 10 years. You know, there’s a lot to be grateful for and a lot of accomplishments to relish and enjoy.”
Later in a rousing speech on the back patio of The Cruisery, Murillo thanked her supporters.
“There’s really a lot to be proud of and that’s what I am going to focus on,” Murillo said. “My 10 years of public service and everything we got done.”
Murillo’s speech was met with enthusiastic cheers from the dozens of people in the crowd.
“It’s such an honor to be part of this movement and part of this community,” Murillo said.
She raised $229,000 in her re-election effort. She was also outspent leading up to her 2017 mayoral campaign, when she raised $168,000.
Murillo’s first term was marked by controversy.
Community development director George Buell resigned, as did City Administrator Paul Casey and assistant City Administrator Pam Antil. Longtime finance department director Bob Samario abruptly resigned in February 2020.
Earlier this year, Jennifer Tomaszewski, the city’s finance and treasury manager and former interim finance director, filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment,
Murillo also faced controversy in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder when she approached marchers at a downtown rally. Organizers did not allow her to speak to the crowd and when asked to take a knee, she did not, and eventually left the scene.
Candidate Deborah Schwartz, who received 6.8% of the vote, frequently said Santa Barbara needed a “course correction.”
At one point she proposed changing the form of city government from a strong city manager system to a strong mayor system. Schwartz is in her 12th and final year on the city Planning Commission.
Candidate Mark Whitehurt, who publishes a weekly newspaper and received 1.6% of the vote, raised $13,000 in his election bid.
Also on the ballot was Matt Kilrain, a harbor resident, who didn’t raise money, but placed hand-painted signs all across town. He received 0.7% of the vote.
Other seats on Tuesday’s ballot include District 4 City Council member, District 5 City Council member and District 6 City Council member.
In early results, incumbent Kristen Sneddon held a strong lead in the District 4 race, Eric Friedman (who is running unopposed) will be re-elected for the District 5 seat, and Meagan Harmon was well ahead in her re-election bid for District 6.
The Santa Barbara City Clerk’s Office released information late Tuesday night saying there are another 4,600 ballots that need to be processed and counted citywide, including ballots cast at Voter Services Centers and ballot drop-boxes.
Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz contributed reporting to this story.
— 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.
