Happy Birthday, Indeed

In a show of strength and popularity, Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal raised “well over” $300,000 – unprecedented for a single fundraiser in a county seat race – at a December 7 fundraiser at the Montecito home of Nina Terzian. That windfall could serve as a wake-up call to the conservative wing in Santa Barbara County that Carbajal is here to stay, and to expect a battle in his and other districts-namely the open third-as well.

Technically, it wasn’t a birthday party for Carbajal, whose real birthday is November 18, but a repeat of a 2004 fundraising event held near his birthday which raised roughly $140,000 for his first campaign. Then, the highest level of donors were expected to dole out $1,500, but this time around names like Mark Melchiori and Peter Sperlings paid $15,000 apiece to be a sponsor of the event. There were also two intermediate levels of sponsorships, as well as a number of guests who got in for $125.

The fundraiser even topped those held recently for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani – which, until Oprah Winfrey’s September bash that raised more than $3 million for presidential hopeful Barack Obama – were rumored to be some of the biggest single fundraising events ever held in the county. At a March fundraiser, $241,000 was raised for Giuliani, after expenses, according to event organizer David Lack.