The news that Supervisor Gregg Hart is running for Santa Barbara's newly-drawn 37th state Assembly District sets off a cascade of scenarios, schemes and change in the local political landscape.
With his big announcement, Hart instantly was installed as an overwhelming favorite* in the Assembly race, and political junkies immediately turned to the question of who would replace him as the 2nd District supervisor, with SBUSD board member Laura Capps and Goleta Union School District Trustee Luz Reyes-Martin topping the speculation list of possible successors.
Nick Welsh and Josh Molina join the Genial Host on this week's edition of "Newsmakers TV" to break down the turmoil on the Campaign '22 front, while Noozhawk's Jade Martinez-Pogue and the Indy's Ryan P. Cruz have all the latest data and details on the pandemic, as the county jail and public schools struggle through the extraordinary spike in new Covid cases fueled by the Omicron variant.
Plus: an update on that serial goat killer - and chihuahua stalker - mountain lion near Painted Cave.
It's all here, right now on Newsmakers TV. Check out the show via YouTube below or click through this link. The podcast version is here.
* (Correction: Gregg is not quite as heavy a favorite as described by the Genial Host, who inaccurately and bafflingly misstated the rules of state legislative races during the program, opining that Hart could win the Assembly seat by capturing a majority vote in the June primary. Wrong, wrong, wrong - the top two finishers in June will face off in a November runoff. Unsolicited advice: don't ever get old).
JR