Sheriff Bill Brown Runs for His Fifth Term

By any reckoning, Sheriff Bill Brown, now running for his fifth term, is the single most accomplished and compelling elected figure now performing on the Santa Barbara political stage. He is, as the saying goes, the 8,000-pound gorilla in the room.

Bill Brown is a large man; he moves through a room like a battleship through the ocean, and he does so without being intimidating. He smiles easily. He likes facts. He loves history. And he really loves to talk ​— ​a lot. With a microphone in front of him, Brown is utterly at ease. Few people press the flesh better. He remembers names. He even remembers the family stories of the names he meets. 

Little wonder. Brown’s father worked as an advance man for pioneering evangelist superstar Billy Graham. His mother was a stage actress who in her youth briefly dated Bobby Kennedy. You might say Bill Brown came by his gift for politics and flair for theater the old-fashioned way; he inherited them.