Carbajal wins, likely to face off with Fareed

June 8, 2016
Salud Carbajal

Salud Carbajal

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal emerged from a crowded field of candidates as the leading vote-getter in the 24th Congressional District primary election. It appears Carbajal, a Democrat, will face Republican Santa Barbara businessman Justin Fareed in the general election.

Carbajal received 32.7 percent of the vote, placing him more than 12 percent ahead of Fareed, who garnered 20.5 percent of the vote. Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, who led all candidates in polls conducted ahead of the election by several of the candidates, finished in third place with 18.9 percent. Achadjian, a San Luis Obispo County Republican, is currently trailing Fareed by 2,357 votes.

Justin Fareed

Justin Fareed

Ballots have been counted in all 369 precincts in the congressional district, but the election results are not yet final. Achadjian has not conceded. His campaign did not release any statements following the vote count Tuesday night.

Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, who was seen as a contender heading into election day, finished fourth with 14.4 percent of the vote. Schneider, a Democrat, placed as high as second in early polling.

But, high-ranking members of the Democratic Party tapped Carbajal, not Schneider, as the successor to retiring Rep. Lois Capps. Carbajal also raised the most money out of all candidates in the race, amassing $1,877,397 in campaign contributions, as of May 18.

On the Republican side, the party did not throw its weight behind either Fareed or Achadjian. Still, Fareed managed to surpass $1 million in campaign contributions. As of May 18, Fareed raised $1,128,136. Achadjian received $751,965 in contributions.

Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian

Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian

While Achadjian performed much better in San Luis Obispo County than he did in Santa Barbara County, his popularity appears to have dropped as the result of sponsoring legislation for a failed Paso Robles basin water district 77 percent of the voters rejected.  Achadjian received 26.6 percent of the vote in SLO County and 12.9 percent in Santa Barbara County.

Fareed garnered 22.3 percent of the vote in his home county and 18.5 percent in SLO County.

The 24th Congressional District consists of all of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties and part of Ventura County. Voter registration in the district is 37 percent Democrat, 33 percent Republican and 23 percent decline to state.

In all, there were nine candidates in the race. Democrat Bill Ostrander finished fifth with 5.5 percent of the vote, narrowly beating Republican Matt Kokkonen, who received 5.3 percent.

Independents Steve Isakson and John Uebersax received 1.0 percent and 0.9 percent respectively. Democrat Benjamin Lucas finished last with 0.7 percent of the vote.

In 2014, Capps defeated Republican challenger Chris Mitchum 51.9 to 48.1 The 24th District is now considered a swing district, and this year’s race is expected to garner national attention. The 2016 general election is scheduled for Nov. 8.


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I can’t believe psycho Ostrander got ANY votes.


While the water district legislation certainly hurt Katcho, I did not vote for him because he is weak on illegal immigration. Just look at his votes to give illegals driver’s licenses, etc.


RINO that is why he lost. The weak and frightened will not be standing after November… It’s time for a fighter not a reacher. California has more debt than most nations on the planet no more reaching across the isle.


I agree. Katcho is as nice a guy as they come, but “nice” doesn’t win in the world of politics. I believe he abstained from the dust rule vote or something that had to do with that because the libtards told him he had a conflict of interest due to a gas station he owned in the area. He didn’t bother checking with the FPPC because if he had they would have ruled “no conflict”.


RINO is a serious problem…that is why the GOP is going down in flames with Trump. The GOP should have supported and nominated a TRUE GOP conservative, Ted Cruz.


Katcho always touted himself as someone who reached across the aisle.

The water board legislation was too big a stretch and ultimately his coup de gras.

It seems Katcho forgot who he was working for.

Last night the voters in SLO county reminded him.


Exactly what we DON’T need…”reaching across the aisle”. What we DO need is giving the finger to those across the aisle.


You must be fun at parties.


https://i.imgur.com/91sn32Q.jpg


When they ran the anti- Achadjian ads about him attempting to create a water board. The one that 77% of voters voted against.

They should have included Gibson and Hill cause they started that whole ball rolling of attempting to control the water basins. Todays thought.


At least Fareed is NOT another version of Capps!!!!


Fareed will be easy to beat since he does NOT KNOW HOW TO WORK


TRUST FUND BABY wanting to be BIG MAN ON CAMPUS!


He makes me cringe!


He is almost as bad as the dnc tool Carbajal


It is really sad some of the choices we have in this election process. My vote for Fareed was really a vote against Katcho regarding the game plan with Gibson and Hill which was a critic situation in the North County. He made his choice and I made!


As for the National Election, we had two choices: Corrupt/evil Killary or Political Incorrect Trump. I had to talk the Trump Train but certainly not with glee. I cannot comprehend why anyone with a moral compass and bit of intelligence would vote for Killary. At least the Republicans knew how to get rid of their anointed Bush but the Democrats obviously have no one better in their party then Killary and Billary.


I am glad Debbie won with no runoff as I think she has done a great job this past four years and has had to sit on that Board with Hill, Gibson, Ray and disappointing Frank. She held her own, spoke her piece and stood up for the North County,


I wish John Peschong would have won outright but I have no doubt that he will win the runoff in November.


As for District 3 these people just have no priorities and ethnics then the people in the North County. It goes to show that some people still believe in the power of money and corruption and they will get what they deserve. I thought they had gotten smart after watching City Manager Steve Adams situation and Mayor Tony Ferrara and the fall of Caren Ray. I know they have to deal with big powers and developers for Adam Hill and of course the Democratic Central Committee but I am hoping Debbie Peterson will back Dan Carpenter and we can have some solid reasoning on the BOS.


Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all the losers for participating in our election process and giving us a choice. You are all winners for your hard work and commitment to our democracy!


Go Katcho… just go away. Paying for his horrible voting record.


It wasn’t just that Achadjian sponsored the legislation for the failed Paso Robles basin, it was that from the beginning the “regular” people all told him it wouldn’t succeed and to drop it but he pushed forward because “the elite” $$$$ players, including a couple of supervisors Hill and Gibson, told him they wanted it and no mater what push it through. Then to make matters worse he failed at explaining his actions, possibly because his actions were so flawed.


I heard one Katcho supporter tell me that Katcho pushed it through because he knew it would go down in flames and he wanted the public vote to send a message to Hill and Gibson. Not sure I really buy that.


Are you serious? ???


Katcho will listen to the last person in the room before he votes; and that is usually some Democrat who wants to be able to “count on him” as the big guy who can “reach across the aisle.” It sounds so flattering, and Katcho fell for it over and over again.


There is an aisle there for a reason – more of a Berlin Wall than an aisle, really. The RINO Republicans have torn it down brick by brick, bill by bill, until they have nothing to show for their voting records except a track record of compromises on immigration, taxes, health care, and water issues, which happen to be pretty important issues around here. Katcho, you lost because you forgot your base. I for one am glad we will have a real choice in November,between a Mrs. Capps 2.0 and a Conservative 101.