Two Local Legislators Abandon Santa Barbara Constituents
By Justin Shores
Our region endures relentless challenges: wildfires that scar our landscapes, economic pressures that strain our families, and now the bewildering policy choices from Sacramento, championed by our own elected officials – Senator Monique Limón and Assemblyman Gregg Hart. Their legislative records reveal a troubling pattern: prioritizing ideological experiments over the safety and well-being of our community. While families in neighboring Los Angeles and Ventura Counties sift through the ashes of the Palisades and Eaton fires, Limón and Hart seem more preoccupied with appeasing party lines than preparing Santa Barbara County for the disasters looming on its horizon. From weakened child protections to dangerous prison policies and neglected fire prevention, their leadership—or lack thereof—demands scrutiny.
We deserve representatives who fight for us, not against us.
Child Protections Gutted: Limón and Hart’s Complicity
Consider their stance on protecting our youth, starting with SB 1414, a bill authored by Senator Shannon Grove to combat sex trafficking of minors. In its original form, SB 1414 sought to make soliciting or purchasing sex from anyone under 18 a felony—a straightforward measure to shield vulnerable teens. But Sacramento Democrats, wielding their supermajority, amended it to exclude 16- and 17-year-olds unless they’re proven trafficking victims. They’ve set a bar so high that prosecutors rarely meet it due to the complexities of victim testimony and evidence. Limón voted for the bill on the Senate floor on May 23, 2024, as documented in the roll call , but her silence on the gutting amendments speaks louder than her vote. She didn’t publicly challenge the dilution, aligning instead with her party’s softened stance.
Gregg Hart mirrors this passivity. On August 30, 2024, the Assembly passed SB 1414 with a unanimous 73-0 vote, Hart included. Yet, like Limón, he offered no visible resistance to the amendments that stripped protections for older teens. This isn’t just a procedural footnote—it’s a failure with real consequences. A 2023 California Attorney General report highlights that trafficking victims are disproportionately Black, Brown, and LGBTQ youth, while the buyers—often older, wealthier men—face little deterrence under this weakened law.
The rhetoric from their allies doesn’t help. Senator Scott Wiener, a prominent Democrat, argued, “Sending an 18-year-old high school senior to state prison for offering his 17-year-old classmate $20 to fool around isn’t smart criminal justice policy.” This cavalier framing minimizes the predatory nature of exploitation, and neither Limón nor Hart has publicly distanced themselves from it. Their silence signals complicity in a Sacramento culture that downplays the gravity of child exploitation.
Then there’s AB 379, a bill targeting buyers of prostitution, specifically those purchasing sex from 16- and 17-year-olds, as part of a broader effort to curb the exploitation of minors. This measure aims to impose stricter penalties to deter predators. Yet Limón and Hart have not emerged as vocal champions for strengthening AB 379 in their respective chambers. Their muted response leaves a gap that predators exploit, especially in a county like ours where the proximity to Los Angeles amplifies the risks. Families in Goleta and Carpinteria, already stretched thin, deserve lawmakers who fight for tougher penalties and better safeguards, not ones who sit on the sidelines.
Prison Policies: Democrat Outrage Meets Hypocrisy
Nowhere is the disconnect more glaring than in Limón and Hart’s prison policy stances. Democrats, including some local voices, have decried conditions at the federal prison in Lompoc, where 2020 saw a COVID-19 outbreak and multiple deaths, sparking outrage over neglect and overcrowding. Fair enough—those failures warrant criticism. But contrast that with their support for SB 132, a 2020 bill authored by Wiener that Limón and Hart backed, allowing male inmates identifying as women to transfer to women’s facilities. The result? At least 16 reported pregnancies and dozens of assault claims in women’s prisons, turning cries for reform into a cruel irony.
When Senator Grove introduced SB 311 in 2025 to bar registered male sex offenders from women’s prisons, it was a chance to correct course. Instead, the Senate killed it, and Limón offered no public dissent, aligning with Wiener’s brush-off of female inmates’ fears as mere “culture war” noise. Hart, too, has stayed in lockstep with this agenda, supporting SB 132 through his broader alignment with Democrat priorities and budget votes. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, bolstered by those votes, now spends taxpayer money on condoms for women’s prisons—handed out, as one inmate grimly noted, “just in case you get raped.” Meanwhile, $4 million reportedly funds cosmetic surgeries for male inmates transferring in, while the state’s $14 billion prison budget towers over the $2.7 billion for wildfire prevention in 2024.
California families with loved ones in these facilities feel the betrayal acutely. Women incarcerated at places like Chowchilla describe a “nightmare’s worst nightmare,” their safety traded for political points. The same Democrats clutching pearls over Lompoc’s dead turn a blind eye to the living victims of SB 132. Limón and Hart’s refusal to challenge this hypocrisy—or push for SB 311—underscores their misplaced priorities.
Wildfire Risks and Neglect: A County Left Vulnerable
The stakes climb higher when we turn to wildfires. The Palisades and Eaton fires of January 2025 torched over 16,000 homes in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, killing at least 16 people and displacing thousands. Santa Barbara City Fire sent 18 personnel to help, but 100 days later, recovery crawls. In the Palisades fire alone, 7,000 buildings were lost, yet only 12 rebuild permits have trickled out—some estimates say as few as four. Governor Newsom pledged to slash red tape, but Los Angeles’ permitting quagmire, averaging five years for multifamily units and nearly as long for single-family homes, tells a different story.
Santa Barbara County isn’t just a bystander. The 2017 Thomas Fire, whipped by Sundowner winds from the Santa Ynez Mountains, left us with scars and a stark lesson: we’re next in line. Leila M. V. Carvalho, a climate science professor at UC Santa Barbara, warns that unseasonably dry conditions and unburned fuel in the southern Santa Ynez range signal a ticking time bomb. Our firefighters, already stretched aiding LA, face a local breaking point. City Administrator Kelly McAdoo told the Santa Barbara City Council in January that a fire matching Palisades’ ferocity could overwhelm our resources—think water shortages, clogged evacuation routes, and embers raining on Montecito rooftops.
Yet Sacramento’s response, backed by Limón and Hart, falls short. Newsom’s $2.5 billion “bridge funding” for fire recovery—supported by their votes—is mired in lawsuits against the Trump administration, not reaching victims or bolstering prevention. Republican calls for more suppression, home hardening, and arson crackdowns get drowned out by prison spending. Santa Barbara County needs brush cleared along Highway 154, upgraded firebreaks in Los Padres National Forest, and water infrastructure that doesn’t falter mid-blaze. Instead, Limón and Hart greenlight millions for prison programs that coddle predators while our hillsides dry out.
The ripple effects hit home. Evacuees from Palisades landed in Solvang, where the Alisal guest ranch offered discounted stays. Displaced families strain our housing stock, driving up rents and pushing teens into riskier situations—perfect prey for traffickers. Our economy, tied to tourism and agriculture, buckles when fire seasons stretch longer and fiercer.
Limón and Hart’s focus on ideology over firebreaks leaves us exposed.
Santa Barbara County’s Call to Action
This isn’t leadership—it’s abandonment. Limón and Hart’s votes for the hollowed-out SB 1414, paired with Wiener’s flippant excuses, endanger teens. Their backing of SB 132—and Limón’s silence on SB 311’s defeat—sacrifices women’s safety for progressive optics. Their neglect of AB 379 lets predators who buy 16- and 17-year-olds for sex off the hook, while their wildfire funding priorities leave us one spark away from catastrophe. Santa Barbara County residents, from Lompoc to Orcutt to the Gaviota Coast, deserve better than this.
Will Limón and Hart step up? It’s time to make them. Write to Senator Monique Limón and Assemblymember Gregg Hart; demand they push to repeal SB 132 and protect women in prison, not expose them to harm. Insist they restore felony protections for all minors under SB 1414—no exceptions, no loopholes. Urge them to champion AB 379 with teeth to jail predators buying our teens for sex. And press them to redirect Sacramento’s bloated budgets—cut the condoms and surgeries, fund firebreaks and victim aid instead.
Better yet, we need new leadership. If you’re a qualified, principled leader who’ll put Santa Barbara first, run against Limón and Hart—or support their opponents in the next election. Together, we can force accountability and reclaim leadership that prioritizes our safety. The clock’s ticking—let’s not wait for the next fire or tragedy to act.
•••
SB 1414: Shannon Grove (R) Aimed at making soliciting or purchasing sex from minors under 18 a felony, but amended by Dems to exclude 16- and 17-year-olds.
AB 379: Jim Patterson (R) Seeks to crack down on fentanyl traffickers.
SB 132: Scott Wiener (D) Allows male inmates identifying as women to transfer to women's prisons.
SB 311: Shannon Grove (R) Proposed to bar registered male sex offenders from women's prisons.
Take a look at COLAB’s latest video, “The Great Fee Heist”
The blue voters of this county bear the blame for returning people like Hart and Limon to Sacramento. You could also blame many apathetic conservatives and libertarians who wring their hands, but don’t get involved in trying to reverse the blue tsunami drowning all of us. These legislators are why California is a place many choose to flee. People we know and will miss are packing their belongings and moving to much less hospitable climates, looking for freedom and sanity. I have been to multiple meetings with Hart, and his persistent fake smile belies the confused and awful ideas behind his face. We need a new set of state senators and assembly members, as well as a new governor. The parking congestion at the recent event to hear from Steve Hilton is a measure of the fact that there is a minority of us here, in what Ronald Reagan said was “the same zip code” as heaven.
Putting these two faces, Gregg Hart and Monique Limon, at the forefront instead helplessly blaming "The State" is the very first step on the road to our own local political recovery. Thank you, Justin.
One leaving the local school district in shambles (Limon) and the other dumping ruinous pro-union mandates on our city (Hart). Yet these records of ignominy launched the next steps on their own political ladders.
Performative virtue-signaling and slavish party loyalty is their sole legacy. Let the Democrat food fight to eventually replace Congressional Representative Salud Carbajal begin. And do watch out for the sharp elbows coming from heir-apparent Laura Capps, when it all gets real.