Ten-year incumbent Mayor Dick DeWees won a close

80-vote race over challenger businessman John Linn, according to the official certified vote totals released Tuesday.

DeWees received 4,493 votes to Linn's 4,413 votes.

“I'm glad the election is certified, and I'm looking forward to the next two years. It's going to be very challenging the way the economy is,” the mayor said.

Businesswoman Dulcie Sinn trailed a distant third, with 2,884 votes, but played an important role in the outcome of the race, according to Linn.

“I lost, but the mayor didn't win,” Linn said. “He got 38 percent of the vote; that's less than half.”

Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters Joe Holland announced that the countywide voter turnout Nov. 4 was a record 86.3 percent.

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“We have not seen this level of voter participation since the 1960s,” said Holland. “In the presidential elections of 1956 through 1964, we actually saw turnout as high as 89 percent. However, we were a much smaller county at that time, with total registration of only 55,000 in 1956 and 100,000 in 1964.

“Today we have over 200,000 registered voters in Santa Barbara County.”

DeWees said he anticipated a close race, though he didn't know whether Linn or Sinn would be the one to challenge him at the end.

“The battlefield was strewn with the bodies of incumbents this year, locally and state and nationally,” DeWees said. “I knew it was going to be a nail biter; I didn't know it was going to go down to the cuticle.”

Now, DeWees said, he is looking forward to he challenges facing the city, especially keeping the level of services high in light of the economic recession.

“The economy. No doubt, the money. I've been saying that for months now and it's more true every day. These are perilous times. It will be another year, two before get out of this mess. I hope I'm wrong.”

Linn said he plans to stay involved with city issues and hopes to work closely with DeWees and the City Council.

“I think there were a lot of people voting for change; that was obvious in the council race,” Linn said. “I think the electorate wants to see things different than they are and I'm sure he sees that, and I want to work with him to get things done.”

He said he believes the city can overcome the poor economy. “You know, you just make changes. I'll be pushing for the same changes I campaigned on,” Linn said.

He said there are solutions to the toughest problems, such as public safety funding, that don't involve cutting services.

Holland said that a record 176,562 county voters cast ballots in the election, exceeding the 171,564 ballots cast in the 2004 presidential general election.

He attributed the high turnout to the historic nature of this election but also pointed to a high participation of voters voting by mail.

December 3, 2008