As the Nov. 4 general election approaches, residents looking to run for special district seats around Santa Barbara County rushed to get their candidate paperwork submitted before the 5:00 p.m. deadline Friday.
A number of candidates joined the ballot in the last week of the filing period, with the Cuyama area’s special district elections seeing activity for the first time since the filing period began July 14. Nicole Rodriguez, Troy Carpenter and incumbent Kim Eichert filed paperwork to campaign for spots on the Cuyama Valley Recreation District, and incumbent Maria Medina also submitted paperwork to run for one of the recreation district’s short-term seats.
The Santa Maria Public Airport District saw another familiar name join the race last week when incumbent Carl Engel Jr. filed his papers the day before Michael Spingler filed, bringing the total to four candidates who are now vying for two seats.
The field of candidates sparring for two seats on the Vandenberg Village Community Services District also grew after incumbent Anthony Fox pulled his papers Aug. 7.
And days ago, J. Brett Marymee jumped into the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District Division No. 5 election, joining incumbent Jeffrey Newton on the ballot. Meanwhile, Lee Rosenberg and R. Brad Joos got into the race for the one at-large seat on Improvement District No. 1.
Incumbent Susan Gregg also pulled papers to campaign again for her place on the Los Alamos Community Services District.
For those races in which incumbents didn’t file their nomination documents by 5 p.m. Friday, any person other than the incumbent has until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13, to file.
The Nov. 4 ballot also will include the highly contentious Measure P, which would ban new high-intensity oil operations in the county’s unincorporated areas if passed by a majority of voters. Countywide voters will see Measure O on the ballot as well, which, if passed, would raise the hotel bed-tax in the county’s unincorporated areas from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.
The 24th District Congressional race and the 37th District State Assembly election also are set to be decided during the general election.
For more information on the upcoming ballot or the Nov. 4 general election, call 568-2200 or visit sbcvote.com.
August 8, 2014 Santa Maria Times Staff