Article II, Section 6 of the California Constitution states that all county, school and city elected offices in the state “shall be nonpartisan.”
How quaint.
In a series of federal court rulings, political parties decades ago won the legal right to endorse and support candidates for purportedly nonpartisan local offices in California— and now, 45 days before the Nov. 3 election, the local Democratic Party is well-positioned to enlarge its power substantially over local government throughout Santa Barbara County.
From its bid to elect a fourth member of the Board of Supervisors to battles against MAGA culture warriors in Santa Maria and Lompoc, and its aggressive effort to dominate the city council in Santa Barbara, the party is wielding an army of volunteers, coordinated strategies and slate cards, and sophisticated voter data sets — at a time when Democrats across the nation are organizing to construct a massive “blue wave” to check some of the right-wing extremist excesses of the Trump administration.
“Where are there nonpartisan issues left?” said Christian Alonso, chair of the county party.
In an interview with Newsmakers, Alonso expressed the urgency progressives feel — in the face of Trump’s economic, political and militarized attack on California — about defending liberal values and programs down to the most local school board and special district. He also offered an insider’s look under the hood of the campaign mechanics they are using in Santa Barbara to elect candidates chosen by the party leadership to receive what, as a practical matter, has become the most critical campaign endorsement available — at a time when registered Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one countywide and four-to-one in the city.
Low-key, friendly and engaging, the 34-year-old Alonso grew up around politics in Nevada, where his father built a successful career as a gaming industry lawyer-lobbyist at the state Capitol in Carson City. He landed in Santa Barbara by way of UCSB, graduating in 2014 — when he and many campus colleagues were deeply affected by the Isla Vista mass murder. He paid his dues in Democratic politics working on campaigns for Supervisor Doreen Farr and Rep. Lois Capps, knocking on endless doors for countless local candidates, and was voted in as party chair in January 2025, just in time for Trump’s second inauguration.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get paid for this for some time, and I wait in vain,” said Alonso, whose day job is as a tech product marketer — apparently helping to figure out how to train AI to replace him.
“But yeah, it’s really a labor of love,” he added about his second, unpaid career. “I tell this to people all the time, but for me, it was like, either I step in and help lead us through this challenging national landscape that we find ourselves in, or I’m going to run screaming into the ocean.
“So this work, I’ve been involved in the work for a long time,” Alonso said. “The work doesn’t go away.”
Check out our complete conversation about the upcoming election with Christian Alonso via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs Newsmakers every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.
The Newsmakers Guide to the city of Santa Barbara election.
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