PURELY POLITICAL Requirements

By Jim Buckley

Apr 23, 2026

November Mid-Terms Looking Dicey For Republicans

It all looked so promising after President Donald Trump’s blowout win in November of ’24. After all, he took every toss-up and/or “swing” state, ending with a substantial majority of the Electoral College (312-226) and for the first time for a Republican in twenty years, also won the popular vote (77,302,580-75,017,613).

Fast forward a year and a half, and Trump’s victories are and have been substantial: passage of the big beautiful bill that contained all those sizeable tax breaks and reductions, along with all the social victories of wiping the federal calendar clear of DEI (Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!) preferences in hiring, and doing away with so much malodorous “gender affirming” nonsense aimed previously at those under the age of 18.

And so much more.

Golden State Slips Further Away

However, California – although it did move slightly right – held fast to its supermajority in both the Assembly and the Senate. The Harris/Walz ticket soundly defeated Trump/Vance (9,276,179-6081,697 by a 58.5% to 38.3% margin. Funny enough, that’s pretty much the same margin Republican candidates can expect to receive in Santa Barbara.

What’s worse, Democrat bete noire Adam Schiff beat hapless Steve Garvey handily to replace the late Dianne Feinstein’s Democrat-appointed fill-in candidate (58.9%-41.1%). The sad fact is that Mr. Garvey did better than any other Republican in a statewide race in the last twenty years.

California Democrats have also pared the Republican lead in the U.S House of Representatives: Adam Gray (D) took out 13^th District incumbent Republican John Duarte; 27^th District incumbent Mike Garcia (R) lost to George Whitesides; Derek Tran (D) defeated Michelle Steel in the 45th District; Dave Min (D) over Republican Scott Baugh (47^th District).

Then, in a special election on November 4, 2025, Prop 50, which replaced the then-current congressional map (drawn up by an independent commission) with a Democrat-sponsored map of its own passed overwhelmingly (64.4%-35.6%), likely giving California an additional five U.S. House seats.

It Looks Bad Nationally Too

There was now-governor Abigail Spanberger’s easy victory in Virginia over Winsome Earle-Sears. Virginia Democrats also flipped 13 seats in its House of Delegates, giving Democrats a whopping 64-36 advantage. Let’s not stop there: Democrat Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, who openly fantasized about shooting his opponent in the head, and wishing for the death of his opponent’s wife and children, also won, flipping the office to Democrat control and contributing to a sweep of Virginia’s statewide officeholders.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill won handily in New Jersey in what was supposed to have been a close race against Jack Ciattarelli. This was the first time since the 1960s that Democrats have held the governorship three terms in a row.

Lest we forget, New York City now has a communist mayor (Zohran Mamdani) who calls himself a “Democratic Socialist.” Oh, and he’s also a Muslim.

Miami elected a Democrat mayor for the first time in nearly 30 years.

You probably don’t know this but in Georgia in November ’25, two Democrats were elected to its Public Service Commission, which were the first such victories for Democrats in that state in twenty years.

It hasn’t gone well for Republicans in several other states either: Iowa, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, all have recorded gains by Democrats since Trump’s re-election.

So, it’s not looking very positive for Republicans in the upcoming November ’26 mid-terms.

Not looking good at all.

Susan Salcido Takes Advantage of Her Advantage

And, this is where Christy Lozano’s plight enters the picture. The odds are stacked in favor of Susan Salcido to maintain her position as Superintendent of Schools SBUSD. But Democrats – locally and nationally – are apparently not satisfied with fair competition for public office. Especially now, when pay scales for administrators have gone hyperbolic. There’s simply too much at stake, so if and when a challenger like Ms. Lozano appears, the first response of office holders such as Ms. Salcido is to challenge the right of the would-be usurper to run at all.

Which is what happened to Christy four years ago. But, she prevailed and a legal opinion allowed her name to remain on the ballot in 2022.

She lost but decided to try again.

This time around she figured it would be the same, but, no, the rules were tweaked in favor of the incumbent and Christy’s name will not appear on the ballot, thanks to a timely fix.

Lozano was not likely to prevail, being a conservative in this far-left-controlled city, but the scorched-earth response by Democrats to any mildly serious competition to their dominance here in Santa Barbara is almost always met with a fierce, almost rabid, reaction.

Christy Lozano Blocked by Santa Barbara’s “Catch-22”

Standards are important. Without them, things can go bad. Very bad. Consequently, there are certain requirements one must meet when running for public office

Christy meets them all, albeit one: she doesn’t have the newly required “administrative” experience. Four years ago, if she had won, her victory in obtaining the post would have qualified her.

But, not this year. Christy has run up against “Catch-22,” author Joseph Heller’s observation that a man is classified as insane if he seeks to fly dangerous missions, but sane if he requests to be grounded, proving his sanity, and thus his fitness to fly.

Christy has all the qualifications for the office of Superintendent, but here are some of the online directions she was facing: “If you do not yet have an administrative job offer [she had applied for more than 40 such positions and all were promptly ignored], apply for a Certificate of Eligibility (no expiration date). This verifies you have met all preliminary requirements and authorizes you to seek administrative employment. Once you secure a job [such as winning an election for the position?], convert it to the Preliminary Credential using Form 41-4 and CL-777.”

“My credential,” she says, “allows me to seek employment in an administrative position and that recent legislative changes (Assembly Bill 872) do not limit my eligibility; it only clarifies that I am eligible. It also references a prior court ruling that upheld my candidacy, asserting that election statutes should be interpreted in favor of ballot access.

Christy Lozano presents a threat to the bureaucratic status quo in Santa Barbara’s school system.

That’s the only reason her name won’t be on the June 2nd ballot.

And the removal of Christy Lozano’s name should be cause enough to remove Susan Salcido from office.