Time for Two Parties Again

Gregg Hart’s October remarks about a fading Republican Party in Santa Barbara County provoked an outcry from local party members, but you would never know it since the current Republican Central Committee did not return the favor.

Growing up here in Santa Barbara during the ’60s and ’70s, this area was as red as a matador’s cape. However, things began to change in the ’80s and ’90s. Now Republicans are at 25 percent. When a cancer patient is diagnosed, doctors do everything they can to find the source. Republicans need to do the same and examine local leadership.

Most people we talk to are not even aware there is a Republican Central Committee. A Democratic one also operates here, as well as in all other California counties except two. They are deemed to be too small to support them.

What do Central Committees do?

Well, they are responsible for recruiting and endorsing candidates as well as locating funding sources. Local Committees are allowed an almost unlimited donation amount to support state candidates.

Former city councilmember Dale Francisco explained the Republican Central Committee on a recent podcast. The GOP analyst told host Josh Molina that this committee doesn’t have the infrastructure to find good candidates. He also mentioned that Chair “Bobbi McGinnis and Assistant Treasurer Julie Bischoff don’t get a lot of basic things about how campaigns are run. They do things too late, like finding good candidates. It seems disorganized, they don’t seem to be accomplishing much.”

And the current committee is the only one in California that has endorsed themselves on the slate mailer. Francisco referred to this: “Which to me is, I mean, that is straight out unethical. That should not happen. And no matter who ends up winning this race, the first thing they should do is change their bylaws so that can’t happen again.”

Cheryl Trosky serves on the current committee, but she did not get endorsed. Cheryl is responsible for 27,000 UC Santa Barbara votes being redistricted out of Santa Ynez and Lompoc, giving those conservatives who live there year round a voice again. She accomplished that through hard work and determination. Nick Sebastian, Charles Cole, and I are the other qualified candidates on the District One ballot.

It’s time to have a two-party county again!