A danger to democracy is hiding in plain sight right here in Santa Barbara County as voters prepare to cast ballots in the 2022 election: The decisions about who will fill a host of powerful county positions have already been made.
Because so many candidates for high office are running unopposed or are appointed, our county soon will be run almost entirely by those who are functionally unelected. Consider:
- The new District Attorney will be John Savrnoch, a virtual unknown to most voters; he served as the chief assistant to retiring DA Joyce Dudley. She anointed him at a press conference she called, just days before the deadline to get on the ballot, crushing the ability of anyone else to run a serious campaign.