How do you spot a true political outsider? It’s easy—whichever candidate isn’t sitting on a mountain of money!
I see an interesting parallel between two races for completely different offices happening right now—the 24th Congressional District (see page 7) and the Santa Barbara County sheriff (page 4). Both races feature incumbents comfortably perched on stacks of cash—that’s Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and Sheriff Bill Brown.
Both are facing two challengers who are duking it out in the June 5 primary with hopes for November. Among those challengers, each race has one that has garnered some significant financial backing. I’m talking about perennial 24th Congressional District candidate Justin Fareed and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brian Olmstead, both of whom have raised competitive amounts of cash for those races.
Fareed and Olmstead definitely have a swell of support among local monied interests, though they may strike the “outsider” pose. This still allows them to criticize Brown and Carbajal for donations from wealthy backers like Jonathan Soros in Carbajal’s case (cue rant from Justin Ruhge on page 16) or locally based bigtime investors Eric Phillips or Patrick Nesbitt for Brown.
Now we get to the true outsiders, or broke-as-a-joke candidates, in both races—Michael Erin Woody and the Sheriff’s Office’s Lt. Eddie Hsueh. It looks like Hsueh is such an outsider that he didn’t even file some of his meagre donations within the correct time frame, potentially violating election law. Do you still have to report donations if you know you’re going to lose?
These two have more in common than just the moths flying out of their pockets, like the fact that their campaigns are largely symbolic.
Money in politics is a huge problem, which concerns voters across party lines. That’s why a bunch of environmentalists were concerned when former 5th District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Mike Stoker was the announced appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)regional administrator position for Region 9 by scandal-ridden EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (see page 4).
Stoker was a spokesman for Greka Oil and Gas, the oil company now known as HVI Cat Canyon, which has spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and chemical-laced water all over the 5th District since Stoker was its supervisor. A recent ruling says that the company owes Santa Barbara County more than $2 million for multiple spills.
The concern is understandable—why should the former spokesman for the county’s most prolific polluter be in charge of protecting our entire state and others from companies like Greka? As far as Stoker sees it, he was brought in to help clean up that mess. How convenient, and how did he do on that job?
Well, according to a recent report, most of the violations by oil companies in the county were Greka’s.
I know, Mike, it’s hard to see all the problems in Cat Canyon behind those rolling hills, especially when they’re made of money.
The Canary is drilling for paydirt. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 7, 2018.