Election Reflections and Recommendations

by Andy Caldwell

Due to Gavin Newsom’s order that everyone receive their ballot by mail, your ballots may have arrived by the time you read this message.

I would like to share some of my personal recommendations for this election cycle.

For the governor’s race, I am leaning towards Steve Hilton, but I would be happy with Chad Bianco. That is to say, I am hoping that things are bad enough in our state that people will wake up and realize the current day Democrat Party has nothing to offer but more of the same, namely, the interrelated and cumulative impacts of inane policies and priorities resulting in the most unaffordable housing, gasoline, and electricity, not to mention the highest taxes, poverty, and homelessness, in the nation.

Our problem here in California, considering decades of failed leadership by elected Democrats, is that some people, namely Democrat voters and some Independents, are under the awful delusion that maybe the next Dem they vote for won’t be so bad. Let me tell you something. We haven’t had a good Democrat serving as Governor since Pat Brown. Having said that, Grey Davis would be an improvement over the likes of Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, or any of the Dems running for governor in this election cycle; the party is becoming progressively worse over time.

Here Are My Recommendations

For Congress, District 24, Bob Smith

For State Insurance Commissioner, Stacy Korsgaden

For State Superintendent of Public Schools, Sonja Shaw

For Attorney General, Michael Gates

For State Controller, Herb Morgan

For State Assembly District 37, Sari Domingues

For State Assembly District 30, Shannon Kessler

For Board of Equalization District 2, J. Brett Marymee

For Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, Luis Esparza

Local Races

For the following races, please be advised that some of these are going to be over in June. You can’t wait until November to decide who you want to vote for.

In SLO County, I am supporting Adam Verdin for 4^th District County Supervisor.

And Michael Erin Woody – SLO County Board of Supervisors, District 2.

For SLO County Clerk-Recorder, Vanessa Rozo.

In Santa Barbara County’s Fifth District please vote for Maribel Aguilera for County Supervisor.

For Santa Barbara County for Auditor Controller, please vote for Betsy Schaffer.

For Santa Barbara County Clerk, Recorder, Assessor, please support Melinda Greene.

In Conclusion

Have you ever done the math on our election process and its abysmal results in our state? There are approximately 22 million eligible voters in California.

A very large number of eligible people, three to four million, have never bothered to register to vote in CA, some 17%. In the general election of 2024, nearly 29% of registered voters did not vote, which equates to over 6.5 million voters. Add those numbers up and you have some 10 million people that are sitting out our elections regularly.

Here is where things get interesting. Of the 16 million who do vote, approximately 60% (9.6 million) of those continue to vote for the politicians that have been making a mess of this state for decades at every level of government, namely Democrats. That is, they keep voting for the party of regular debt and pension debt, high taxes, failing and undersized infrastructure, and decarceration, not to mention rampant waste, fraud, and abuse (rising to a cost of $17,000/yr per voter by some early estimates).

All in all, Democrats represent about 45% of the voters in CA, but control some 75-100% of elected positions, depending on the community (most all coastal communities are solid blue). In Santa Barbara’s south county, I don’t believe there is a single Republican on any city council. In our state legislature, Democrats have had super-majorities for some 14 years. Our state’s congressional delegation consists of 42 Dems, 7 Republicans and 1 Independent in the House of Representatives and two Democrat U.S. Senators.

Their stranglehold appears to be breaking, however: the GOP flipped three seats in the 2024 election (which is the real reason for the gerrymander of Prop. 50), and the CA Democrat Party has failed to unify behind a candidate going into this open primary.

Q. What would happen if the ten million residents sitting out our elections finally get fed up and weigh in with their ballots?

A. We could turn this state red in a flash.

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