Platform

My vision for Santa Barbara County involves the development of robust, competitive, local economies where entrepreneurs can afford to open and operate businesses and provide local jobs with maximal ease. As a principle, I will fight to minimize competition-killing and cost-raising red tape, regulations, and taxes placed on local businesses whenever possible, while speaking up about artificial protections and benefits granted to corporate oligarchs by the State and Federal Government. 

If elected, I will fight to facilitate a harmonious relationship with our local ecosystems by fostering more localized and self-reliant economies, enabling and empowering small-scale regenerative and organic agriculture, and preserving our county's beautiful wilderness as our collective gift and heritage. I won't settle for, or waste your time and money on unsustainable, often deceptive and lobbyist-driven large scale wind and solar projects.

 I've heard the same story from friends and neighbors in Santa Barbara county and beyond; we need more competitive housing markets for working and middle class Californians in a state of either subsidized housing or luxury homes. I've seen a great multitude of those around me, often multi-generational locals (whether students, business-people, or hopeful retirees), pushed out of the area due to costs of living, with housing prices and rents being a major contributor.

I hope to work with State and Local leadership to ensure that sufficient, efficient, and aesthetically desirable housing of all types, (giving long-term community members first priority) is built to help meet organic demand while maintaining historic district/neighborhood characters.

 I support maintaining a strong and well-resourced police presence to keep our neighborhoods safe from violent crime, while also working closely with local governments to promote officer accountability and transparency. This means supporting the tools and training law enforcement needs to serve our community effectively, but also implementing new ways to build trust and ensure fair treatment for all citizens, and swift action in response to negligence and improper conduct.

I also hold that victimless crimes such as possession of controlled substances are best addressed as public health issues, not criminal ones; I will advocate for, via engaging with Local & State Governments, diverting nonviolent drug offenders (with no histories of violence) into treatment and support programs, rather than indefinitely cycling them through the prison system on the taxpayer's dime.

I will work with state and local leaders to develop comprehensive plans for intervention that focus on rehabilitation and treatment instead of simply jailing our homeless population or alternatively leaving them on the streets as dangers to themselves and, often, threats to public health and safety. This means working to support evidence-based programs that provide shelter, mental health care, and addiction recovery services, while ensuring that our public spaces remain safe and accessible for everyone. 

A number of local politicos, with the best of intentions, have been pushing to completely halt oil extraction and processing in the Santa Barbara area, effectively offshoring these activities to areas in and outside of the US with fewer safety and environmental regulations on oil than our county. Besides the explosive taxpayer-funded legal battle with the oil industry such policies would trigger, these suggestions ultimately serve to further American dependence on foreign and/or poorly-regulated oil, while taking hundreds of jobs from locals. I hold that as long as demand for oil remains a constant, it's best to neither restrict or expand oil extraction and processing in SB, and maintain processing in a county with top-of-the-line standards for environmental safety.