The Santa Barbara County Clerk-Recorder’s Office released its final numbers shortly after 11:30p.m. on election day last night, posting results for state, federal and local contests relevant to California and Santa Barbara County.
Congresswoman and Democrat Lois Capps, representing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, kept her seat by a slim margin of 52.3 percent of the vote over her competitor, Republican and actor Chris Mitchum. Democratic Assemblyman for Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties Das Williams, who has been in the assembly since 2010, won again. Measures P and S, the former a county-wide cyclic steam injection ban and the latter a $288 million dollar bond measure for facilities improvements to Santa Barbara City College, both failed. Measure P went down with over 60 percent of voters saying no, while the Measure S failed by roughly 1,000 votes. County Measure O, which called for increasing an existing transient occupancy tax for the county of Santa Barbara, also failed, with 58.51 percent of voters against it.
Incumbent California Governor Jerry Brown was also victorious over Republican challenger Neel Kashkari, beating Kashkari with just over 58 percent of the vote with 96 percent of precincts reporting. With the victory, Brown will enter an historic fourth term as governor, which will also be his last per California law.
Also notable was the victory of former Associated Students president and community organizer Jonathan Abboud in his campaign for a seat on the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees. Abboud won against retired entrepreneur Ethan Stone, capturing just over 60 percent of the vote for the Area 6 seat, encompassing Isla Vista. Abboud, at 22 years old, is the youngest trustee ever elected to the board.
Statewide ballot propositions 1, 2 and 47 also passed, while propositions 45, 46 and 48 all failed by large majorities. Proposition 1, which passed with 66.7 percent of the vote, authorizes roughly $7 billion in general obligation bonds toward water infrastructure projects, while Prop 2, which passed with 68.8 percent of the vote, amends the California Constitution to require annual transfer of state general fund revenues to a “budget stabilization account,” with half the funds to be used to pay off state debts while the other half will be used in the case of “emergencies” or budget deficits. Prop 47, which passed with 58.4 percent of the vote, reduced the penalties for certain drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
Proposition 45, which requires the state’s Insurance Commissioner’s approval before a health insurer can change its rates, failed to get more than 40.1 percent of the vote. Proposition 46, which required drug testing for physicians, also went down with 67.2 percent of voters saying no.
In national elections, the Republicans picked up seven seats in the U.S. Senate, gaining a majority in that house for the party for the first time since 2007. The GOP also picked up 13 seats in the House of Representatives, placing majorities in both houses of Congress in control of the Republicans.
Since Prop P was defetted, what can we expect too happen in the future in the Oli industry?
Maybe people will learn to spell?