Mayor Cathy Murillo and challengers James Joyce, Randy Rowse, Deborah Schwartz and Mark Whitehurst all have accepted an invitation for a Santa Barbara mayoral debate co-sponsored by Newsmakers and the "Santa Barbara Talks" podcast.
The event, the first meeting of all the top candidates in the city election campaign season, is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27. It will be recorded and available on video on Newsmakers' You Tube channel, and on Santa Barbara Talks, shortly after, through the Nov. 2 election.
The debate, to be produced by Hap Freund and co-moderated by podcast proprietor Josh Molina and our own genial host, also will be broadcast on the TV Santa Barbara public access channel through the election, as well as available through other news organizations,..
Among the issues to be covered: economic development, homelessness, housing and other critical policy matters.
Newsmakers and Santa Barbara Talks also is co-sponsoring similar events for the City Council races in Districts 4 and 6, and we'll have more information on those soon.
Thanks to the candidates for agreeing to share their views with our audiences, and for putting themselves out there to run for public office.
Who is Larry Elder. Less than four weeks before the Sept. 14 recall election -- mail ballots are arriving this week -- embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom has switched messages, cutting back on touting his own record, in favor of drawing sharp contrasts between himself and radio talk show host and conservative heartthrob Larry Elder, who has been leading many polls of potential replacements. As Politico reported:
“Larry Elder is an anti-vax conspiracy spreader — not the guy you want in office while Delta rages,” Newsom wrote in a recent fundraising email entitled “Larry Elder.” “Now hear this: Larry Elder is just 2 points from being our next governor. Sorry to scare you, but it’s true.”
Elder, a Black Republican, has a long and checkered career on radio in L.A. including a stormy stint on KABC in the 1990s, when he was the target of a well-organized community effort to get him fired for being the "White Man's Poster Boy" because of espousing positions such as minimizing racism, bashing affirmative action and proclaiming O.J. Simpson's guilt.
The best piece we've read about him - which details Elder's opposition to abortion rights, gun control and the minimum wage, among other issues - comes from veteran political writer (and Friend of Newsmakers) Carla Marinucci and her partner, Jeremy White, Politico's chief California correspondents. Highly recommended.
One more thing: Here's Elder on "The Morning Answer," on L.A.'s AM 870, explaining why Joe Biden didn't really win the 2020 election.
We regret the whole thing. Sure, forgetting things is one of the crummy features of getting old. Remembering things that never happened is even worse, however.
So it was that Newsmakers "remembered," and so reported in Tuesday's post, that SB mayoral candidate Randy Rowse had once been a Republican, a non-Actual Fact that we should have checked before publishing but didn't.
"Jerry - I have to give you a hearty WTF? this morning," Rowse emailed bright and early on Wednesday. ".I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Republican...Most of my adult life was spent as a registered Dem, until I switched to Decline to State some years ago."
False memories, indeed.
For our perspective, it seemed an especially untoward factual error, because one of Rowse's key arguments in the mayor's race is that purportedly non-partisan office in city government have largely been overtaken by partisan politics. So we invited him on for a quick hit segment to set the record straight. Check it out on YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.
We get letters. A selection of other feedback to yesterday's "Power Rankings."
"Good for Ed St. George: A claim of misogyny in the event of concern for the development of children seems misprioritized. Minors have little leverage in pursuing a superior up-bringing when dealt an over-committed parent.
If the upward mobility of women takes a backseat to the development of children, call me a misogynist. And no, children and parenting won't be a closeted topic. If you see something, say something."
-- Matt McLaughlin
"I have noticed- since I am a sentient being- that every gain that women have fought so hard for, in my lifetime and before - including bodily autonomy- is under assault. I think men have altogether lost their "right" to run their mouths on these topics unchallenged and unchecked.
I am sorry you were triggered by the word "platform". With the First Amendment right to practice journalism comes a certain responsibility- dont you agree?- not to let unadulterated bullshit go unchallenged? Otherwise, what is the journalist, "old school",- or complicit?"
-- Jana Zimmer
Re Item #6 ("Montecito Journal"):
"You like to tell it first. I like to tell it best."
-- Gwyn Lurie, Editor in Chief, Montecito Journal
There were no injuries.
JR