Ten days after the June 2 primary election and two weeks before the election results are scheduled to be finalized, nearly 45 percent of the ballots have been cast and counted. None of the outcomes already reported have a chance of being upended.
The big upset of the race remains the big upset, but only more so. Incumbent judge Thomas Reagan Adams — a 50-year veteran of Santa Barbara’s judiciary — was beaten by more than 3,000 votes by Luis Esparza, a private attorney with a relatively small practice. Esparza seems to have successfully tapped into whatever anti-incumbent sentiment has been percolating throughout the county, winning the endorsement of not just the local Republican Party but Indivisible—the organization leading the charge in organizing the No Kings rallies against President Donald Trump.
Throughout his long career, Adams pioneered several key programs to make the court system more sensitive to the needs of juveniles and families, but that was many years ago. More recently, as an arraignment court judge, Adams sought to humanize what for many is an intimidating and forbidding experience.