Whether you are a first year student or fifth year veteran, it is essential to recognize the movers and shakers within the county. These individuals hold significant political sway and have the potential to directly affect your community on a daily basis.

Lois Capps — 23rd District Congressional Representative:

Congresswoman Capps has a longstanding history of working diligently within the Santa Barbara community. Capps earned a master’s degree in education from UCSB in addition to her master’s degree in religion from Yale University.

Capps worked as a school nurse in the Santa Barbara School District for 20 years, taught at SBCC and directed the Santa Barbara County Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Project.

Capps served as the 22nd District Representative from 1998-2002, suceeding her late husband Congressman Walter Capps as 23rd District Representative. The 22nd District became the 23rd District in 2000.

According to Capps, her role in Congress allows her to bring local issues of healthcare, the environment and college affordability directly to the federal government.

“Ensuring the education of our youth is essential to long term economic prosperity of our country,” Capps said.

Doreen Farr — Third District Supervisor:

Farr has served on the county board of supervisors since 2009. Farr has also served as the Second District’s Planning Commissioner and the Goleta Union School District Advisory Committee.

According to Farr, it is the district supervisor’s role to ensure the community is fairly represented in county affairs.

“I am the only locally elected government official for the Isla Vista community,” Farr said. “There is the Park and Recreational and they are also elected, but they only address issues concerning the community’s parks. For all the other issues it goes to the county board of supervisors.”

Farr noted that she is currently working on improving tenants’ rights and affordable housing in the community.

Margaret Connell — Goleta City Councilmember:

Connell moved from England to Goleta in 1956. She served on the Santa Barbara School Board from 1975-1992 and served as the first mayor of Goleta from 2001-2006. She was then reelected in 2008, and has served as the Mayor Pro Tempore since 2009.

Part of Connell’s role is to ensure the cooperation between the university and city’s development plans.

“We devised a whole memorandum of understanding with UCSB regarding the long range impact of their LRDP,” Connell said. “It outlines proposed problems of growing traffic impacts as UCSB increases.”

Das Williams — Santa Barbara City Councilmember:

A resident of Isla Vista since the age of four, Williams transferred from Santa Barbara City College to UC Berkeley, and later returned to Santa Barbara to attend the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB.

As a member of city council, Williams has voiced his opinion on important issues for students and his support for legalized medicinal marijuana.

“I think it is better to have a legal trade in the hands of reputable people than an illegal trade in the hands of people who cause violence inside and across the border. I think if we taxed it we could use the funds to afford our public school system,” Williams said.

Williams also said he is focused on topics including environmental conservation, alternative energy use and ensuring more minorities attend graduate school.

Ray Vuillemainroy — Isla Vista Foot Patrol Lieutenant:

Throughout his 23 years of law enforcement, Vuillemainroy has worked as a sheriff, a member of a hostage negotiations team and a senior deputy on patrol. Vuillemainroy helped stymie a Congressional Bill that made information from schools readily available to law enforcement, in order to address crisis situations on campus.

Vuillemainroy said he hopes to create a firm but understanding relationship between foot patrol officers and the student community.

“I want to have an open door policy with the students, with the university,” Vuillemainroy said. “I want to be someone that students can come up and talk to and not be afraid of.”

Joyce Dudley — District Attorney:

Elected District Attorney in June 2010, Joyce Dudley is the second woman in the history of the county elected to the position. Dudley graduated from UCSB in 1975 with a B.A. with honors and later returned there to continue her post-graduate work. Dudley began working in the district office in 1990 and was appointed to Senior Deputy District Attorney in 1999.

Dudley said her duty is to guide the focus of the district attorney’s office and create programs to address local concerns, like an instructive course aimed at educating youth offenders that offers a chance to drop first time misdemeanor offenses.

Dudley said she would also support efforts to establish a sobering center in Isla Vista as an alternative to arresting first time offenders.

“Of course I would love to get a sobering center in Isla Vista,” Dudley said. “If there were funds and if the sheriffs are all behind it that would be great.”