Eric Early, a conservative candidate for attorney general, is headed to Santa Barbara later this month.
Mr. Early is a co-owner and managing partner at Early Sullivan, a firm specializing in business, entertainment and real estate. On his campaign website, he boasts of clients such as the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign.
“I will do everything possible to make California and Californians safe again,” Mr. Early told the News-Press in a recent interview.
It’s a mantra that sounds similar to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rally cry — and that’s not a coincidence. Mr. Early ardently bills himself as a “Trump Republican,” which means a myriad of things to him: stopping illegal immigration, protecting gun rights, lowering taxes, being tough on crime and addressing so-called critical race theory teachings in schools.
And it’s the latter issue that makes his upcoming campaign stop in Santa Barbara County a bit of a homecoming.
Mr. Early is proud of his work with a group called Fair Education Santa Barbara, which sued the Santa Barbara Unified School District and the nonprofit Just Communities.
The 2018 lawsuit challenged the no-bid contract awarded to Just Communities. However, the effort was also considered to be a challenge to the anti-bias training and what’s been called critical race theory taught in schools.
Critical race theory is an academic and legal study of how racism has impacted the U.S., from politics to culture and more. But the umbrella has been expanded by some to include teachings on other issues, such as abortion or gender identity and expression.
In December, a California appeals court sided against Fair Education, and Mr. Early maintains the effort would have been more successful if parents and children would have felt more comfortable speaking on the record.
“So many of these parents are literally terrorized by people on the far left who call them racist, who call their kids racist, who call them everything in the book,” Mr. Early contended. “I will use the resources of the state Department of Justice, which is what the attorney general oversees, to protect the parents who are on the frontlines doing everything they can to protect their kids and protect our country.”
He vowed to devote a special section in the California Department of Justice to focus on education issues.
Mr. Early would not be the first attorney general to tackle education issues.
In Missouri, Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against a large school district in an effort to obtain critical race theory-related documents. And Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen issued an opinion last year saying critical race theory and anti-racism programs are unlawful. (Both Mr. Schmitt and Mr. Knudsen are Republicans.)
Mr. Early said he’s supportive of a recent contentious Florida law prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for lower grades and “instruction that is not age-appropriate.” Supporters have dubbed it a “Parental Rights in Education” law while opponents call it “Don’t Say Gay.”
Mr. Early will campaign in Santa Maria on May 24 at the library at 421 South McClelland St. from 11:30-2 p.m. He will be joined by Mike Stoker, a Republican candidate for Assembly, and Christy Lozano, who is running for Santa Barbara County superintendent of schools.
The same cohort will then be at the Goleta Valley Library at 500 N. Fairview Ave. in Goleta from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
According to his campaign website, Mr. Early has the backing of the Santa Barbara County Republican Party. (Bobbi McGinnis, chairwoman of the county GOP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Mr. Early faces incumbent Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, as well as Republican attorney Nathan Hochman and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert for the spot.
Prior to Mr. Bonta, the attorney general position was held by Xavier Becerra, now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, and Kamala Harris, now the vice president.
Mr. Early, who trails the other three candidates in terms of fundraising, is trying to disprove the idea that a Republican — particularly a very conservative, Trump Republican — cannot win a major statewide office.
“I am well aware of the political geniuses — and I use that term very lightly — what they say and how nobody who has the positions I have could ever win because this is California,” Mr. Early said. “I just don’t agree with them. … We have thousands and thousands of people — I believe millions, frankly — that are fed up with what’s going on here. This crosses party lines; this crosses racial lines; this crosses socio-economic lines.”
“At the end of the day, being a Trump Republican is fighting for the people and giving the people a voice again in our government. We have a government in our state, just like in D.C., there is a serious deep state, and they treat every one of our citizens across the racial spectrum as if we’re their serfs, and we answer to them,” he continued. “Being a Trump Republican is giving the people again control of our government.”
Aside from critical race theory, another big issue for Mr. Early is tackling homelessness. He was quick to criticize Gov. Gavin Newsom for his efforts to aid the unhoused.
Mr. Early said his “preliminary vision” is to take state-owned vacant property and turn it into “military-style tent encampments” with utilities, food and security provided. He said a separated portion of the encampments would house those suffering from a mental illness where health care and drug rehabilitation services could be provided.
He said house-building efforts should be tailored to those who are now unhoused because they “simply can’t afford housing.”
“This notion that you could build housing and then hand over a key to most of these folks who are homeless and say, ‘Here you go, here is a free house for life, a free condo for life, you’re good’ — this notion that they would ever be able to take care of themselves in that housing on their own is a fantasy,” Mr. Early said. “You could go back and revisit most of these people in two, three, four weeks, and it would be a disaster area that they would be living in.”
“This is going to require a lot of work. This is going to involve removing people from the street, many times against their will,” he added.
About 822 individuals in Santa Barbara are experiencing homelessness this year, according to data provided to the city council in April. And that number, which may in actuality be much higher, is about 41% of the countywide unhoused population.
When Mr. Early comes to Santa Barbara later this month, he said he plans to discuss public safety and education. He said he will promise to “do the deepest dive in the nation on election integrity” and would be “protecting our children from these forced vaccines, experimental vaccines.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has maintained the COVID-19 vaccination is safe for children. It recommends anyone who is at least 5 and older should be vaccinated against COVID.
A recent Berkeley IGS poll found housing affordability, homelessness, crime and public safety and gas prices to be the top four issues impacting California.
However, crime and public safety and gas prices topped the list of issues for Republicans in California whereas Democrats cited housing affordability, homelessness and climate change as the most pressing issues.
The survey was administered online in English and Spanish from March 29 to April 5 among nearly 8,700 registered California voters.
A recent report from the California secretary of state found nearly 79% of Santa Barbara County residents who are eligible to vote are registered. The largest chunk of voters in the county are Democrats (47.05%), followed by Republicans (24.85%).
email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
