U.S. Representative for the 23rd District Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) will face Republican candidate Tom Watson and Libertarian Darrell N. Stafford in November.
Capps and Stafford ran unopposed on their parties’ respective tickets. Watson took 38 percent of the vote on the Republican ballot, trailed by Clark Vandeventer who took approximately 21 percent and John A. Davidson with 20 percent. Also vying for the Republican nomination was Santa Maria businessman Dave Stockdale, who took 14 percent of the vote and Carole Lee Miller with 6 percent.
Capps has held the office since she won a March 1998 special election to fill the seat held by her husband until his death nine months into his term. A former nurse, Capps has sponsored bills supporting health care and the environment. In February of last year, Capps voted for President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill, and her knowledge of the health and medical field came into play with the current debate regarding health-care reform.
The conservative Watson is a political newcomer who decided to run for office after getting frustrated about politics as usual.
“I’m a constituent,” he said. “I’m sure not happy. I’ve never run for anything before.
I’m worried about the ways things are going. I’m upset.”
Watson explained the need for political change is apparent across the country, as voters in many areas have cast their votes away from incumbents. Watson said the sentiment may hold and work in his favor come November.
“My sense is every incumbent is vulnerable to some degree—as they well should be,” he said. “Government is not listening to the people.”
A retired, third-generation Naval officer with an extensive military background, Watson has since been involved in two startups in the private technology sector. He’s currently co-owner and executive of a Goleta-based next-generation wireless company, where he’s responsible for sales and marketing, business planning, fundraising, strategic partnerships, and program management.
Watson supports reduced government spending, which he said he thinks is motivating most of the voter angst in this country and believes job growth and economic recovery
can best be delivered by the private sector. He supports protecting personal liberties and reducing the public sector.
This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2010.