Ready to run for judge
Senior
Deputy County Counsel Kevin Ready on March 15 announced that he will run for
the vacant seat of former Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Diana Hall.
Ready
will be one of four candidates for the seat on the June 3 ballot, along with
Jed Q. Beebe, a court research attorney, and two deputy district attorneys,
Lynn Cutler and John Mackinnon. The seat they are vying for was vacated by
Judge Diana Hall, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger did not appoint a
replacement.
Ready
has been in his present position in the County Counsel’s office for 18 years.
He has been endorsed by Supervisors Salud Carbajal and Brooks Firestone, as well as several mayors
and city councilmembers. His campaign announcement
noted that every city mayor in the County has either endorsed him for Judge or
has chosen not to endorse anyone in the judge’s race.
Ready
is the legal advisor to the County Petroleum Administrator in its dealings with
oilfield spill and pollution problems that have plagued the county this winter.
He and his wife, Olga, live in Ballard with their two younger children. Their
oldest son, Kevin Jr., is serving as a U.S. Army Captain in Iraq, near Baghdad.
Their other adult son, Kenneth, also served in Iraq during the invasion and is
now in college.
The new candidate received his law degree from the
University of Denver and has taught at Santa Barbara College of Law. He was an
Army Judge Advocate, and also a Navy Surface Warfare Officer with decorated
service in Vietnam and in the Persian Gulf. Before attending law school, Ready
served as an Arabic and Russian linguist and intelligence analyst in Europe.