Santa Barbara County will likely have the same superintendent of schools and the same sheriff in the coming four years, as it did in the last, according to preliminary vote counts from the primary election.
Current county Superintendent Susan Salcido holds 64 percent of the vote—with 28,877 votes thus far—and candidate Christy Lozano earned 35 percent of the votes—16,093 votes—according to unofficial results from election night. The county was planning to release an updated count after the Sun went to press on June 14.
Preliminary vote totals show Sheriff Bill Brown leading his race with 56 percent, while candidate and Sheriff’s Office Lt. Juan Camarena trails with 42.96 percent of the vote—about 6,000 votes shy of tying with Brown.
Current county Clerk Recorder Assessor Joseph Holland has a large lead with 80.9 percent of the votes, with candidate Elrawd MacLearn receiving 18.8 percent of the tallies.
Only one candidate signed up to run for each of the 2nd and 5th District Board of Supervisor seats—Lara Capps and incumbent Steve Lavagnino, respectively. The race for county District Attorney and County Auditor Controller only had one candidate per race as well—current Deputy District Attorney John Savrnoch and incumbent Auditor-Controller Betsy Schaffer.
Capps will replace current 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart, who’s running for the state’s 37th Assembly District, and Savrnoch will replace current county District Attorney Joyce Dudley, who announced her retirement earlier this year.
Official results should be ready by mid-July. For updates, visit countyofsb.org/3294/Election-Results.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2022.
