Assembly seat could hinge on failed oil deal

Carbajal endorses Williams, if he runs

By COLBY FRAZIER — Feb. 6, 2009

The fallout from a State Lands Commission vote last week that killed an agreement between local environmental groups and an oil company to expand offshore oil drilling in exchange for the early decommission of several offshore platforms, continued yesterday when First District County Supervisor Salud Carbajal announced he wouldn’t run for the 35th Assembly District seat in 2010.

Carbajal’s public announcement that he wouldn’t run came before he publicly stated he would.

His interest, however brief, in replacing current Assemblymemeber Pedro Nava, appeared to gain traction after the oil deal failed. Nava did not support the project while Carbajal was an outspoken proponent.

Carbajal said many people have encouraged him to seek the office, “especially the environmental community.”

While Carbajal, who was just elected to his second term on the board of supervisors after running uncontested, has opted not to seek the seat, he threw his support behind Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams. He said he would “enthusiastically support” Williams if he decides to run.

Williams said he has not yet decided if he’ll run. But like Carbajal, he feels the pressure to succeed Nava bearing down from the environmental community.

Williams, who will be termed out of his council seat in 2010, said the failure of the oil deal isn’t his “primary” motivation to run, but it is at the forefront of the minds of those encouraging him to do so.

“There’s people who are my strong supporters who have said ‘No, you don’t have a choice. You have to run. We need you.’”

Many in the environmental community were less than thrilled that Nava didn’t give the oil deal his blessing.

Nava, who is serving his final two-year term in office and has expressed interest in running for California attorney general, was already thought to have a successor in Susan Jordan, his wife.

Jordan opened a campaign committee last month, announcing she planned to run for the office.

But Jordan, the director of the nonprofit environmental advisory group the California Coastal Protection Network, also criticized the oil deal, known as the Tranquillon Ridge Project.

If Williams decides to run against Jordan, he’ll be doing so against a person he worked closely with to help get Nava elected, and whom he considers “a capable and talented activist.”

While it’s difficult to know how much sway Nava and Jordan’s concerns about the oil deal played in the commission’s 2-1 vote against it, some feel slighted by the duo’s take on the matter.

David Landecker, executive director of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), which was one of a trio of environmental groups that brokered the deal with Plains Exploration and Production (PXP) to drill, acknowledged that there is a lot of “anger and resentment” about the project’s failure.

“People are upset and I think when people are upset about a political decision, they tend to be angry with the people behind it, that’s just the way it is,” he said, speaking for himself and not on behalf of EDC.

“[Nava] used his considerable influence to undermine it, but didn’t work to get us to understand what his issues were,” Landecker said. “People felt betrayed. There are ways that one disagrees and there are ways that one works through issues that keep your friends and keep good feelings.”

Nava said his concerns were two fold. The first centered on the confidential agreement between the environmental groups and PXP. He said the fine print was never made public to anyone other than the commission’s staff.

His second concern was that the commission’s staff, presumably based to in part on the contents of the confidential agreement, recommended the project be denied.

One of the main thrusts of this recommendation was the staff’s belief that the early decommission dates of four offshore platforms operated by PXP could not be enforced. In other words, because the federal office of Minerals Management Service oversees the leases, it could insist the leases remain open and pumping as long as oil remained in the ground, deal or not.

Nava said kinks like these could have been worked out had the deal been made public, and the project would have had a better chance of being approved.

“Other people could have seen it and figured out its flaws and there would have been a much greater chance of an enforceable agreement,” he said. “I think the fundamental mistake that was made was insisting on the confidentiality. That caused a great deal of suspicion.”

While Williams described Nava and Jordan’s non-endorsement of the PXP deal a “strategic difference of opinion,” it appears to have dug deeper with Carbajal.

He declined to comment at length on Nava and Jordan, saying: “I’ve said enough about my concerns and disappointments. Quite frankly, I don’t want to continue the soap opera.”

Carbajal was more animated in his comments to the Santa Barbara Independent. He’s quoted there as saying: “Like many residents of Santa Barbara County, I, too, have experienced the non-responsiveness and lack of customer service our Assemblymember Pedro Nava has inflicted on us, and I regret that his wife, who wants to succeed him in office, will continue the same way.” He goes on to say: “It’s about time someone said it. My phone has been ringing off the hook [with] environmentalists, labor, and social justice people,” urging him to run.

Nava didn’t take Carbajal’s comment lightly.

“His remarks about Susan are recognized by many as sexist, paternalistic, condescending and demonstrate an ignorance of how difficult it has been for women to distinguish themselves based on their own accomplishments,” he said. “That’s exactly how I feel.”

Nava, like Williams, characterized his feelings on the PXP deal as a “difference of opinion,” and one he hopes everyone can get past.

“I firmly believe that this disagreement will resolve itself and that all of us who are fighting to protect the environment in a very short time will once again be standing together,” he said.

Nava added that he feels it’s important to not forget the commission staff, and ultimately the lands commission denied the project, not him or Jordan.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to blame Susan Jordan for that result,” he said. “I don’t think it’s reasonable to blame me for that result.

“Everyone shouldn’t be expected to have the same opinion all the time.”

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Blowhard Central : 2/6/2009

OK--- Carbajal and Williams are competing for A-Hole of the year awards here. Not that there's ever been a doubt about the size and power of Das's ego but his comments in this article are extraordinanary and matched in their hubris only by Saluds. Both of them need to go on a retreat somewhere and get in touch with their humility.

Now Ive heard it all

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Das term on City Concil ends in December 2011 : 2/6/2009

Das Williams terms out of his City Council seat in December 2011, not 2010 as stated in this news article. The City is very very special to have its City elections during the odd-year election cycle. The Democratic Primary election for State Assembly will be held in June 2010, but the term for his City Council seat is scheduled to end in December 2011, a year after the term for State Assembly begins. Accordingly, if he makes it to the Assembly, Das would be cutting short his Council term by a full year, notwithstanding a dent in his effort and attention involved in City Council meetings and other affairs during any campaign to be elected to State Assembly.

Déjà Vu All Over Again Running for Higher Office

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