This piece first appeared at Newsmakers with JR on October 6, 2022.
In recent weeks, Representative Salud Carbajal embarked upon a “Central Coast Community Project Victory Tour,” trumpeting his support and sponsorship of newly passed federal legislation that yields large sums of cash, grants, and pork for his 24th Congressional District.
Campaigning for a fourth term against token Republican opposition, the Democratic congressmember positions himself as a transactional, pragmatic problem solver more interested in delivering for constituents — $75 million for the 101, $3.7 million for SBA, $3 million for the Goleta Valley Community Center, $1.3 million for the Veterans Memorial Building, $1 million for Santa Maria’s Airport, half-a-million for Carp shoreline “resilience work,” the list goes on —than in the extremist politics now tearing the nation apart.