Santa Barbara County 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal on Thursday officially entered the race for the 24th District congressional seat, which Representative Lois Capps said on Wednesday she will be vacating at the end of her current term in 2016. Carbajal, long rumored to have his eye on that position, joined City of Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, also a Democrat, and businessman Justin Fareed, a Republican, in announcing their plans to run.
Below is the press release sent out by Carbajal’s office.
Our region has been well represented by Congresswoman Capps for the past 17 years and I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work collaboratively with her to improve our local communities. Following her recent announcement that she would not run for reelection, I have decided to run for Congress to be an effective voice in Washington for the issues that people care about on the Central Coast - creating jobs, educational opportunity for all, preserving essential safety net services, improving our infrastructure and protecting the environment. I have a proven track record of working in a bipartisan way to get results on these issues in my service as County Supervisor and want to bring the same effective and collaborative approach to Congress.