Incumbent earns just over 64% of the votes with all precincts reporting
A ballot box stands outside Santa Barbara City Hall.
(UPDATED ON JUNE 8) The race for Santa Barbara County superintendent of schools — arguably the one that got the most attention in Tuesday’s primary — showed Dr. Susan Salcido, the incumbent, ahead , with all of the 216 precincts reporting and the mail-in votes counted.
A sign points to the polls at Direct Relief in Goleta.
Dr. Salcido had 28,877 votes or 64.06% of the ballots. Challenger Christy Lozano, a Santa Barbara Unified School District teacher on voluntary leave from Dos Pueblos High School, had 16,093 votes or 35.7% of the votes.
The Santa Barbara County elections office called the results “semi-official.”
In a candidates forum last week on Zoom, the candidates addressed school safety in the aftermath of the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas. Ms. Lozano came out in favor of placing school resource officers on campuses and stressed the importance of discipline. Dr. Salcido called for a “common sense approach” in which assault weapons don’t end up in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. She also noted she assembled a meeting of public and private school educators and law enforcements to align safety plans.
Dr. Salcido added that she was proud of the priorities reflected by the budget for the County Office of Education: 74% is budgeted for student services. Ms. Lozano called for improving the transparency of the budgetary process.
In other races, Sheriff Bill Brown was ahead in the race against Sheriff’s Lt. Juan Camarena. Sheriff Brown had 25,913 votes or 56.79% of the votes in his bid for re-election. Lt. Camarena had 19,599 votes or 42.96% of the votes.
County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Joe Holland enjoyed a strong lead in his bid for re-election with 35,989 votes or 80.97% of the votes. Challenger Elrawd MacLearn had 8,356 votes or 18.8% of the votes.
Running unopposed Tuesday in local races were Laura Capps for the 2nd District seat on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, Steve Lavagnino for the 5th District seat on the Board of Supervisors and county district attorney candidate John Savrnoch, who’s currently a deputy district attorney. Current District Attorney Joyce Dudley decided not to seek another term.
Also unopposed were county Auditor-Controller Betsy Schaffer and county Treasurer and Tax Collector Harry Hagen in their re-election bids.
In Santa Barbara County, there was a total of 235,212 registered voters, as of May 23. That’s according to sbcvote.com, the county elections office’s website.
The number breaks down to 110,734 Democrats, 58,341 Republicans, 49,472 nonpartisan voters and 16,395 who registered with other parties.
email: dmason@newspress.com
