Dirty Tricks?

On February 15, I received an email from an organization calling itself “SB Citizens for Democracy.” On opening the communication, I was treated to a campaign-style flyer with the heading “Republican Rogues Gallery.”

The entirety of the email was an attack on supervisor candidate Frank Troise and other “Rogues,” including James Fenkner (misspelled “Fenker”), as well as education reform candidate Christy Lozano. After a few generic accusations against Troise (cozy with moneyed interests, etc.), the balance of the email was aimed at Lozano and Fenkner. Out of all the Republican candidates running to represent their party, why were Lozano and Fenkner singled out?

It’s no secret that Lozano has called for reform of a school district rife with corruption; like most others around the state, ours is completely beholden to teacher union money. Most recently, she published 12 publicly disclosed cases of sexual abuse in schools right here in Santa Barbara County (Santa Barbara Current, 02/07/2024). The abusers have harmed scores of our local students and have cost millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded settlements. All of this took place on the watch of our local school administrators.

As typically happens when one starts to peel back the veneer of public education, one finds a lot of obfuscation — and a lot of projection. There are indeed rogues in our midst — “SB Citizens for Democracy” is no doubt intimately familiar with them. Who exactly are behind “SB Citizens for Democracy”? It would be instructive to know.