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Santa Barbara County was one of the original counties of California, formed in [[1850]] at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to [[Ventura County, California|Ventura County]] in [[1872]].
In recent years, some residents of the northern half of the county have agitated for the county to be split in half, claiming that the southern half of the county ignores their needs. A proposed "Mission County" would be formed from the northern half. The true force behind this agitation for a county split comes from a small and wealthy group of development, oil, and other pro-growth interests who hope to profit greatly from gutted environmental controls and political ascendency. A recent impartial study, commissioned by the Governor of California, revealed that if the county were split, the part that would become Mission County would take on a huge operating deficit from the day it begins operations, with no real hope for improvement.
Politically the county has long been divided between competing interests, for the economies of the north and south counties are dramatically different. North of the [[Santa Ynez Mountains]], agricultural activities and oil development have long predominated, though in recent years oil leases have been decommissioned, and more white-collar workers have been moving in as people choose to live in north county and commute to the south county because of the relatively favorable housing prices in the north. On the other hand, the south county has had an economy based on tourism, but with a significant percentage of people with white-collar jobs, formerly in aerospace but more recently in software and other high-tech pursuits. Additionally, the north county contains a large military base--[[Vandenberg Air Force Base]]--and the south county has one of the most notorious "party schools" in the United States, the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]]
The voting record of north and south counties has indeed shown a profound split between a "conservative" north and "liberal" south. However, the relatively heavy population growth in the northern part of the county and the present (2005) majority bloc of three pro-growth supervisors, suggests that a trend may be developing. With the next redistricting after the 2010 census, it is quite possible that the county may become much more conservatively-oriented than it is presently. Countering this trend to some degree is the realization by residents of the northern part of the county that their qualitiy of life is becoming seriously eroded by rampant growth and poor planning.
== Geography ==
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