Tag: Salud Carbajal

That’s why Justin Fareed, a Republican congressional candidate in Santa Barbara, is running on an issue that does get the local voters stirred up: widening Highway 101. “For far too long, politicians have used U.S. Highway 101 as a pawn in their bids for election and re-election,” Fareed, who is seeking a rematch of his 2016 loss to Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal, said in a campaign email. “I will work to ensure your tax dollars are spent the way they were proposed.” Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill famously said that “All politics is local,” and in Santa Barbara County, it doesn’t get more local — or more political — than the fight over Highway 101, the region’s main north-south artery. It’s also far from clear exactly what a member of Congress can do in a battle that’s essentially between California and Santa Barbara County. If an issue is important to voters, it’s important to them. — John Wildermuth Republican no more: Former Republican state insurance commissioner and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner is running for his old job again, this time as an independent candidate. Of course, there’s no better time pick to up the pioneering spirit and shed the Republican label in California than when the leader of the party — one President Trump — is highly unpopular in California. Aside from a Republican who starred in the movie “Terminator,” the last Republican to be elected statewide in California was a guy named Steve Poizner, when he won the office of insurance commissioner in 2006. But Poizner insisted Friday that his new lack of affiliation isn’t politically opportunistic. “I don’t feel any pressure to endorse anybody or to take positions on every little thing coming out of Washington.