Ecstatic energy filled the streets of Santa Barbara’s downtown as results came in for the mayoral race along with three city council seats.
With 40.5% of the total votes, Randy Rowse took the lead in the preliminary results on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Runner-up James Joyce III pulled 26% of the total votes. Current mayor Cathy Murillo came in with 24.5% of the total votes.
“I’m very, very proud of the way we did things and I’m really proud of the amount of participation I have in the community,” Rowse said at his election party. “The community was ready for this focus back on Santa Barbara to be what we should be.”
Rowse said if he wins mayor he would gather his colleagues to agree on how to reform themselves and improve the city. The former councilmember said he already has projects in full effect reflecting the desires and vitality of the community.
The numbers for the night are not final. The remaining candidates are hopeful that the results may change by Thursday, Nov. 4 once the rest of the ballots are accounted for.
“I’m fine. I was ready for anything,” Murillo said. “I’ll wait until the votes are totally counted on Thursday to make it final for myself and put out an official statement.”
She kept a high spirit throughout the night, staying optimistic for the awaited count as she socialized and delivered a speech to her supporters.
Murillo had been up for re-election after her first round as mayor beginning in 2018. Murillo said she is proud of her team’s work, highlighting its voter outreach both in Spanish and English.
In spite of her place in the results, she felt the need to celebrate and made her party’s accomplishments the focus of the night.
For the city council results, incumbent Eric Friedman ran unopposed in District 5.
The main competition was between the candidates of District 4 and 6. The victors came down to incumbent and City College professor Kristen Sneddon with 60.9% of the votes in District 4 and incumbent Meagan Harmon with 53.1% of the votes in District 6.
At the election party shared between Murillo and Harmon, the councilmember thanked those who supported her and congratulated all the efforts for the night’s results.
“Tonight in downtown Santa Barbara renters won. Tonight in downtown Santa Barbara working families won,” Harmon said. “We said yes to a shared vision of a world that is more equitable, more just, that’s more livable for all of us and we said yes to starting in our neighborhoods.”
Harmon said she feels good about the final count and “can’t wait to start working on projects to better Santa Barbara and its people.”
Regarding the process of counting the votes, Interim City Administrator Rebecca Bjork informed the public that the initial count is based on the ballots collected from that morning through noon.
The remaining votes are expected to be counted on Thursday, Nov. 4 to name the official mayor and councilmembers of Santa Barbara.
