Election 2024

Santa Barbara City Council’s Three Leading Candidates on Election Night

District 1 Candidate Wendy Santamaria Poised to Be Newest Councilmember

Santa Barbara city councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez and Mike Jordan and District 1 candidate Wendy Santamaria on election night, November 5, 2024 | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

If current results hold, Santa Barbara’s city council will see one new face next year. Provisional results show that newcomer Wendy Santamaria has taken the lead for the Eastside District 1 seat, beating out incumbent councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez. Incumbents Oscar Gutierrez and Mike Jordan each won reelection to represent their respective districts.

Wendy Santamaria – District 1:

District 1 councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez (center) at Validation Ale on election night | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Santamaria took an early lead against 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 grew to 152 votes, with semi-official results showing Santamaria winning approximately 46 percent of the vote and Gutierrez garnering about 41 percent. Several-time candidate Cruzito Cruz won a little over 11 percent.

On election night, Santamaria said that defeating an incumbent was an uphill battle, but the results confirmed her belief in the power of community organizing.

“It is very satisfying and encouraging and further reaffirms my belief that as long as everyday folks are willing to organize and fight for what we deserve, it’s doable,” she said.

The District 1 election was the most competitive out of all three races, both at the polls and during the contentious campaign season, during which the incumbent Gutierrez was criticized for a record of missing meetings while her challenger Santamaria was pegged as a one-issue candidate laser-focused on housing. On this issue, the candidates were on opposite sides of the spectrum, with Gutierrez earning the backing of real estate companies and property owners while Santamaria leaned on her close ties with tenants rights advocates.

Santamaria, who stressed her role as a grassroots organizer, said that being a city councilmember is a vehicle for change, not a vanity project.

“We are looking at a new era of housing reform and justice for working families of this city,” she said. “And I’m not exaggerating. I literally mean finally having enough votes on the City Council to really make some reform and really create policy based on lived experience and not on special interests.”

Mike Jordan – District 2:

Incumbent Jordan won by the largest margin of all three candidates, according to semi-official results. He took home more than 77 percent of the votes cast, with his competitor Terra Taylor winning just under 22 percent. Jordan’s district on the Mesa also saw the biggest turnout of the three, with nearly 60 percent of registered voters casting their ballots.

On Tuesday night, Jordan said he felt confident about his own race. Jordan raised more than $41,300 toward his campaign in 2024, in addition to more than $10,000 more leftover from his 2019 election campaign. His opponent, Taylor, claimed only $100 in donations during her campaign.

When asked what work he was excited about on the council, Jordan said that not since the earthquake nearly a century ago Santa Barbara had so many big projects lined up, from the State Street plans to the proposed housing at Paseo Nuevo and La Cumbre Plaza.

“I think personally, we’re on one of the precipices of some of the greatest good things that are coming in the near future, particularly in downtown,” he said.

Oscar Gutierrez – District 3

Semi-official election results put Gutierrez winning 59 percent of votes cast in the Westside District 3, with Becerra taking a little over 40 percent.

Gutierrez said he was nervous at the start of his reelection campaign, because his challenger, Tony Becerra, holds a respected role in the community.

District 3 candidate Tony Becerra at Sázon on election night | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

“But within the last few months,” Gutierrez said, “I definitely started to get the sense from the people at their doors that they were supporting me.”

During his time on the council, Gutierrez had become one of the more familiar faces around town, and during his campaign, he touted his record of being the “most accessible and responsive” councilmember, both in person and over social media. Gutierrez had the support of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and several prominent local politicians. Becerra won the overwhelming financial support of property owners, and had a strong reputation in the Westside district from decades of coaching and training youth.

On election night, Gutierrez said he was concerned about the unfolding presidential election, but he said that locally, he wanted people to feel safe.

“I hope the people of Santa Barbara see that we elected on the city council care about their rights as renters, and as tenants. And I hope they see that despite what’s going to happen nationally that locally they’re going to feel protected.”

What to Look For

With Santamaria’s win, the city council would now have a majority of councilmembers who have spoken out in favor of stronger tenants rights and programs aimed at tackling the housing crisis, such as a permanent right-to-counsel program for tenants facing eviction, a rental registry, and rent control — an issue that may have gotten more complicated with California voters rejecting Proposition 33, the statewide measure that would have allowed Santa Barbara to set its own rules for rent control.

The District 1 race has not been officially called, though Santamaria has a comfortable 5 percent lead. Over 135,000 ballots have been processed countywide so far; however, an estimated 50,620 ballots remain unprocessed in the county, and it’s unknown how many of those are from voters in District 1, where the 2019 race was decided by a mere eight votes.