Ed Maschke, famous over the years as one of the key political strategists to give the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors a slow-growth progressive slant for the better part of two decades, died last week at age 77 of bladder cancer.
In person, Maschke was gleefully pugilistic, passionate, and driven by a profound concern about the ecological imbalance inflicted by too many human beings chasing too few resources. Practically speaking, Maschke was a key cog in the political machine that figured out how to harvest the outraged idealism of Isla Vista’s youthful voters to keep the 3rd District supervisorial seat solidly in the hands of Bill Wallace, a veterinarian and slow-growth crusader. Maschke relished the take-no-prisoners combat with South Coast developers at a time when skyrocketing growth, urban sprawl, and oil development were the hot-button issues of the day.
Maschke moved to Santa Barbara in 1970 after a stint in the military to study under Garrett Hardin, then a charismatic and polarizing figure in environmental circles and author of such books as Tragedy of the Commons. Initially, Maschke helped engineer the takeover of the Goleta Water Board, electing candidates who turned the spigot off to new development on the grounds that the district was in severe overdraft. Maschke was also part of the environmental machine that fought the importation of state water.
He was appointed to serve on the county Planning Commission from 1987 to 1992 and played a major role in Supervisor Bill Wallace’s last hurrah in 1992, in which he came back from what appeared to be a seven-vote deficit to the far more conservative Willie Chamberlin in a grueling recount fight that lasted 17 months to win by 12.
After leaving the Planning Commission, Maschke worked for the Service Employees International Union, then as now a political powerhouse in local politics. A public service for Maschke will be held sometime this August.
