For the past 26 years, Andy Caldwell has held down the right
end of the political dial, espousing conservative viewpoints and delivering
sharply barbed commentaries on local airwaves and in local newspapers, but
mostly in front of the County Board of Supervisors as spokesperson in chief for
the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business, or COLAB. Today, Caldwell
delivered a missive confirming rumors that he will run for Congress against
Democrat Salud Carbajal, the two-term incumbent.
The two clashed on occasion during the years Carbajal served
as 1st District county supervisor and felt the need to rebut or object to
Caldwell’s criticisms. Caldwell has never run for public office before, let
alone held one. He has, however, functioned as combination cheerleader, gadfly,
and ideological disciplinarian for the dwindling number of conservative
Republicans able to secure public office throughout Santa Barbara County.
Carbajal, by contrast, is the consummate political animal, a liberal Democrat
endowed with a moderate sensibility. In a district that tilts distinctly
Democratic — it includes both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties with a
fingernail of Ventura thrown in — it would appear Carbajal’s race to lose.
Caldwell, a published columnist in the Santa Barbara News-Press who hosts a weekly radio show, is well
known among those who track local politics and is a spirited, if on occasion
outrageous, debater. The two will differ on a host of issues, the most obvious
and immediate being oil development.