If current results hold, the Santa Barbara City Council will see a new face next year. Provisional results show newcomer Wendy Santamaria has taken the lead for the Eastside District 1 seat, defeating incumbent Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez. Incumbents Oscar Gutierrez and Mike Jordan both won re-election to represent their districts.
Wendy Santamaria – District 1:
District 1 Councilman Alejandra Gutierrez (center) at Validation Ale on Election Night | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom
Santamaria took an early lead over Gutierrez — who won the Eastside district seat in 2019 by nine votes — though the lead narrowed as the night continued. By the end of the week, that lead had grown to 152 votes, with semi-official results showing Santamaria winning with about 46 percent of the vote, while Gutierrez received about 41 percent. Multiple-time candidate Cruzito Cruz won by just over 11 percent.
On election night, Santamaria said defeating the incumbent was an uphill battle, but the results underscored her belief in the power of community organizing.
“It is very satisfying and encouraging and reaffirms my belief that as long as ordinary people are willing to organize and fight for what we deserve, it is doable,” she said.
The 1st District election was the most competitive of all three races, both at the polls and during the contentious campaign season, with incumbent Gutierrez criticized for her record of missing meetings while her challenger Santamaria was pegged as a single-issue candidate. Focus the laser on the housing. On this issue, the candidates were on opposite sides, with Gutierrez drawing on the support of real estate companies and landlords, while Santamaria relied on her close relationships with tenants’ rights advocates.
Santamaria, who emphasized her role as a grassroots organizer, said being a city council member is a vehicle for change, not a vanity project.
“We look forward to a new era of housing reform and justice for working families in this city,” she said. “And I’m not exaggerating. I mean literally finally getting enough votes on the City Council to make some reforms and create policy based on life experience and not special interests.”
Mike Jordan – District 2:
Current Jordan won by the largest margin among the three candidates, according to semi-official results. He received more than 77% of the votes, while his competitor Tera Taylor won less than 22%. Jordan Mesa also saw the highest turnout of the three counties, with nearly 60 percent of registered voters casting ballots.
On Tuesday night, Jordan said he feels confident about his race. Jordan has raised more than $41,300 for his 2024 campaign, with more than $10,000 remaining from his 2019 campaign. His rival Taylor received just $100 in donations during her campaign.
When asked what work he was excited about on the council, Jordan said that since the earthquake nearly a century ago, so many large projects have been planned in Santa Barbara, from plans for State Street to proposed housing on Paseo Nuevo La Cumber Plaza.
“I personally believe we are on the verge of some of the greatest good things to come in the near future, especially downtown,” he said.
Oscar Gutierrez – District 3
Semi-official election results showed Gutierrez winning 59 percent of votes cast in West Side District 3, with Becerra receiving just over 40 percent.
Gutierrez said he was nervous at the beginning of his re-election campaign because his opponent, Tony Becerra, has a respected role in the community.
District 3 candidate Tony Becerra in Sazon on election night | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom
“But over the last few months, I’ve definitely started to feel from people at their doors that they support me,” Gutierrez said.
During his time on the council, Gutierrez became one of the most recognizable faces around the city, and during his campaign, he touted his record as the “most accessible and responsive” council member, both in person and via social media. Gutierrez has the support of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and several prominent local politicians. Becerra received overwhelming financial support from landlords and had a solid reputation on the Westside after decades of coaching and coaching young men.
On election night, Gutierrez said he was concerned about the ongoing presidential election, but said he wanted people to feel safe locally.
“I hope the people of Santa Barbara will see that we elected to the City Council care about their rights as renters and tenants. I hope they will see that despite what will happen nationally, they will feel protected locally.”
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With Santamaria’s victory, the City Council will now have a majority of council members who have spoken in favor of stronger tenants’ rights and programs aimed at addressing the housing crisis, such as the Permanent Right to Counsel program for tenants facing eviction, and the RENT program. Registration and rent control — an issue that may have become more complicated with California voters’ rejection of Proposition 33, the statewide measure that would have allowed Santa Barbara to set its own rent control rules.
The District 1 race has not been officially called, although Santamaria has a comfortable lead of 5 percent. More than 135,000 ballots have been processed countywide so far; However, an estimated 50,620 ballots remain unprocessed in the county, and it is unknown how many of those ballots are from voters in District 1, where the 2019 race was decided by just eight votes.
