On February 12 of this year, the Indy staff published a seemingly hasty and illusory endorsement of Das William's for 1st District County Supervisor. This endorsement smacked of a once-alternative press turned gravely establishment. It was an endorsement made with scant inclusion of a bounty of dissenting viewpoints.
"Every election year, the Santa Barbara Independent researches the issues and the candidates as carefully as possible," the Indy Staff proclaimed. "In the races where we see clear choices, we make endorsements. We do not endorse in every race, but in those we do, we do so with confidence, or at least with a clear understanding of why we support one candidate or one ballot initiative over another.
“But after following Williams’s position on cannabis legalization for years, we are convinced that Williams’s support for the new industry is not a politically corrupt one," they continued. "As long as he has been in elected office, Williams has been a proponent of legalization, regulation, and taxation. He was that way when he served on the Santa Barbara City Council; he’s that way now."