Roy Lee this week nailed down Santa Barbara County's most stunning political victory in decades, ousting entrenched Supervisor Das Williams, who with his handlers, was left to blame everything and everyone but himself.
With only a few provisional ballots left to process, the tally in the county's First District stood:
Lee. 12,670 50.95 percent
Williams 12,116 48.72 percent
The improbable upset by Carpinteria City Council member Lee over the seemingly ineradicable Williams - his first loss since the earliest days of his peripatetic local career, and only his second ever - shocked the local political establishment and pierced the cloak of invincibility of the county Democratic Party organization.
The Willy Loman of Santa Barbara politics, Williams conceded the race, more or less, soon after the latest vote count was posted on Wednesday, in a passive-voice statement ("my re-election has fallen short" -- mistakes were made!), that lacked the courtesy of even a word of congratulations or a wish of good luck to Roy.
Team Das had plenty of excuses, though: It was the campaign manager's fault! Low turnout! Trump voters! People who promised canvassers they'd vote for him and didn't show! And the most risible of all - "vicious and false...negative campaigning" -- this from a guy who defamed coastal advocate Susan Jordan with a photoshopped mailer during a 2010 state legislative race and, four years ago, stood by while Republican allies smeared Laura Capps on his behalf.
Sheesh.
Nick Welsh and Josh Molina join the genial host on this week's episode of Newsmakers TV, for some post-game analysis of Lee's surprise triumph and Das's defeat in the First, along with a final look at Joan Hartmann's landslide win against two opponents in the Third District.
And Callie Fausey joins the gang with all the latest on those big jobs cuts approved in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, where the administration and the teacher's union still have not reached agreement, and also details a troubling story out of the Carpinteria Unified district, where the superintendent and the head of the teachers' union are locked in a legal cage match over his suitability to work in a classroom.
More: affordable housing advocates weigh in on the mega-project being negotiated for Paseo Nuevo; the SB city council has yet more thoughts on restaurant parklets; and ice plant is under serious attack at East Beach -- to the possible detriment of allergy sufferers.
Plus: A fond farewell to City Hall scrapper Bob Hansen.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
Check out the latest episode via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.