Conservative Karen Jones and progressive Jessica Alvarez Parfrey joined the race for Santa Barbara County 3rd District supervisor before the Dec. 6 filing deadline, bringing the total candidates vying for the seat to four.
Jones ran against current 3rd District candidate Bruce Porter and incumbent supervisor Joan Hartmann in the last election, and she said she had the highest vote per dollar of any candidate.
“I spent 1,200 bucks and got 1,200 votes,” Jones said.
She calls herself an “individual liberty and personal responsibility” Republican.
Hartmann, who defeated Porter four years ago, heads into her second campaign with a Democratic, sometimes progressive, platform that seeks to expand public infrastructure like bike lanes. She won 53 percent of the vote in 2016.
Porter is back too, certain he can gain ground in the district’s southern tip of Isla Vista where he was “thumped pretty hard” the last time around. Although Porter was a registered Republican in 2016, he said he didn’t run as part of the party or seek its support. Currently, he’s not affiliated with either party and is registered as “no party preference.”
Parfrey, a member of sustainability group Eco Vista who is described as a community organizer in the county’s “semi-official” list of primary candidates, did not return emailed requests for comment as of press time.
Jones, 61, wants to preserve the district’s rural character, something she thinks Porter won’t do and that Hartmann has failed to accomplish. She pointed to the Chumash Casino as one encumbrance on local quality of life.
“Bruce Porter, I believe, is motivated by money and Joan by collective politics,” Jones said.
A political novice in the 2016 campaign, Jones said she has been building her résumé since the last supervisor election. She was invited to run for several posts, including the Santa Ynez Valley Airport Authority, where she serves on the board of directors, and the Santa Ynez Community Services District—she’s now president of the board.
But her civic engagement goes back further. She said when the Affordable Care Act passed, she helped organize a protest in Santa Barbara outside of former 24th District Congresswoman Lois Capps’ office.
Among Jones’ heroes, she counts Abraham Lincoln, Moses, and Spartacus. She said she knows a real Republican when she meets one, and she’s not afraid of oil.
As for how she plans to vote?
“I cannot think of a single vote that [4th District Supervisor] Peter Adam made during his almost eight years in office that I would have voted differently,” she said.
Jones’ hasn’t decided yet whether she’ll raise money for the primary, but she said she will accept help from Republican donors.
“I know if I make it to the top two, I’d have to take money, and people would be lining up to give it to me,” she said. “My history with the Republican Party is in my DNA.”
This article appears in Dec 19-26, 2019.