Not since Clint Eastwood famously spoke to an empty chair in backing Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican National Convention has there been an endorsement as self-referential as the one Das Williams just provided council candidate Jim Scafide.
Number of mentions of Das, via “I” pronouns, in Das’s endorsement: 9.
Number of mentions of Jim by Das in Das’s endorsement: 3.
Among other things we learn, in an email treatise of Supervisor Williams on behalf of 4th District candidate Scafide:
--Das spent a lot of time talking to the candidates.
--Das thinks his 732-word endorsement should be read in full because “it is an important and informative one.”
--Das lives in Carpinteria and is "priced out" of Santa Barbara.
--Das must sit in traffic every day.
--Das recognized housing as a major problem when he sat on the council years ago.
As for the scarcely-mentioned Scafide, we learn….umm...exactly nothing….except: Das is “confident” that Jim agrees with Das on housing policy.
Dem-on-Dem. In his defense, Williams faced a tricky political situation in delivering the endorsement.
He earlier bucked the county Democratic Party in endorsing Hal Conklin for mayor, so it’s hard to imagine him also foregoing Scafide, who carries the Democrats’ seal of approval.
However, Kristen Sneddon, Scafide’s insurgent rival, is making a bid for an upset in the 4th, and is endorsed all-but-unanimously by local Democratic women officials and influencers, mostly Williams allies, from State Senator Hannah Beth Jackson, Supervisor Janet Wolf and Mayor Helene Schneider to school board president and member Kate Parker and Laura Capps, planning commissioner Sheila Lodge and ex-supe Susan Rose.
The old school Dem-on-Dem dynamic (which could benefit ex-Republican turned registered independent Jay Higgins in the 4th) came about because the local party, as per usual, prepared its endorsements in the spring, months before Sneddon decided to run. And along with several other surprise endorsements, it’s caused some bruised feelings this season, as Josh Molina reported over at Noozhawk last week.
It’s also worth noting that Williams does ably lay out the case for the more, more, more housing partisans in this election.
Here’s a link to Das’s full endorsement on Scafide's Facebook page.
And, just because, here's the Clint Eastwood chair endorsement of Romney, in full:
JR
Images: Das Williams; Jim Sca
fide; Kristen Sneddon; Clint Eastwood.
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