It was a birthday party, and a six-year-old Alexander Stoeber was balancing on a bodyboard in an apartment swimming pool. He got brave and paddled over to the deep end.
And then fell in.
Young Alexander didn’t know how to swim. The apartment manager jumped the pool fence and pulled him out of the water. Stoeber said what he saw at that moment was “a long-haired figure eclipsing the sun while I was drowning, sinking to the bottom of the pool.”
Stoeber believes his rescue was divine: “I do believe in Angels.”
When the ambulance arrived, Stoeber said he “puked” water and was told by paramedic crews that he flatlined for seven seconds.
When he woke up at the hospital, his mom was by his side and told him “you were meant to be here for a reason.”
“Throughout my life I have been trying to find out what that reason is,” Stoeber said.
At age 34, he is still searching.
But for the past year part of that journey has included a run for Santa Barbara City Council in District 6.
“I am passionate about Santa Barbara,” Stoeber said. “I am passionate about people. I am passionate about good ideas and I think I have some.”
It’s a unique candidacy, even for Santa Barbara, which attracts its fair share of eclectic and diverse characters seeking the public eye.
Stoeber is an enigma. He grew up homeless, living in tents, people’s couches, hotels and in cars. He went to seven different elementary schools—in the first grade alone, and had to repeat the first grade. He said his mother struggled with drug addiction, and he grew up without a father in the home. Stepfathers, he said, physically abused him over the years.
“All of them did. Grabbed my ears with pliers. Dumb stuff like that. So I have trust issues,” he laughed.
His mom worked hard to bring in money, he said, but his childhood was marked by instability.
“I grew up reliant on social programs,” Stoeber said. “I was totally dependent on food stamps and Medi-Cal, financial aid to go to college. I believe in those programs so I see how we need a safety net.”
But as an adult, Stoeber is fiscally conservative. He is endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Republican Party and works as a real estate agent. He hangs in conservative political circles and was formerly registered as a Republican.
“When people think of me as conservative, they would be right to say that I am financially conservative,” Stoeber said. “I do think the government should not be telling us how to live our lives. I am libertarian in a way that government should provide basic necessities of safety, of order, of cleanliness, of infrastructure, but I don’t think it should be in our lives.”
His public image is also layered.
On Instagram, he looks like a mash-up of a well-dressed businessman and a fitness influencer, comfortable in clothes, as well as out of them. He wears fancy suits and professional attire, but is also running shirtless, with six-pack abs on the beach, or kayaking in the Santa Barbara Harbor.
But no matter his look, there is one feature that remains. He perpetually wears a smile.
Stoeber appears joyous, with a grin that lights up a room. At political forums, Stoeber somehow mastered the art of smiling continuously for an hour—even when the cameras weren’t on him. It’s a feature he credits to his faith. He’s also an evangelical Christian, who goes to church every Sunday, and greets people at the door.
“In greeting I have learned that even saying ‘good morning,’ to people, sometimes that is the first time they have been seen or talked to that day,” Stoeber said. “And I am the first person to say hello. And they will come up to me and cry and ask me for prayer because they have been through so much.”
Stoeber said sometimes people don’t want to be fixed—they just want to be heard. And he is OK with that.
“That’s my favorite part about church is that I don’t have to bring a tool box, I just get to bring my tissue box,” Stoeber said. “I let God do the work.”
But Stoeber is not a cookie-cutter conservative.
“I am not anti-abortion,” Stoeber said. “I don’t think I should really be in that conversation. I think that should be between a woman and her doctor.
He doesn’t want to be labeled.
“It is a very difficult thing for me to be,” he said. “I don’t see myself as a Realtor. I don’t see myself as a fitness guy. I see myself as just me. There are binaries in life. There’s so many labels. But labeling me as a Trump supporter-Republican doesn’t label me accurately because I am liberal in so many ways.”
He said he doesn’t judge.
“For me to judge other people for their decisions would be, I think selfish and arrogant for me to think that I know what the recipe is for happiness for everyone,” Stoeber said. “I am accepting of everyone because I think everyone deserves to be loved for who they are.”
Born in Texas, Stoeber found God in the fourth grade, in youth camp in Turlock.
“I was overcome with this sensation, this tingling, while I was singing,” he said. “This pastor came up to me and said ‘it looks like you had an experience. Do you feel called to accept Jesus into your heart?’ And I was like, ‘yes, absolutely, right now.’ And ever since then I have been a Christian.”
On the campaign trail, Stoeber has faced an uphill battle, but has cemented himself as a serious candidate.
He is a renter, but opposes the city’s rent stabilization ordinance. He said the answer to the housing crisis is to build more housing. He said he loves the “ambition” of the State Street Master Plan, but that the focus first should be on infrastructure and drainage. He also says e-bikes should be permitted, speed limits should be posted, and law enforcement and emergency responders should be present when things go wrong.
To solve the city’s budget problems, Stoeber said the City Council needs someone with business experience, and someone who can make businesses feel included in City Hall conversations. Someone needs to start building trust with the business community.
Stoeber has raised about $29,000 in his campaign. He is endorsed by the Santa Barbara Police Officers Association and the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce. The Santa Barbara County Republican Party backs him, although he said he is registered as an Independent. His chief rival in the contest, Gabe Escobedo, a member of the Santa Barbara Unified School Board, has the backing of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party and many other organizations, and has raised about $24,000.
The News-Press reached out to Escobedo to comment on Stoeber’s candidacy, but he declined.
Barney Melekian, former Santa Barbara Police Chief, who worked in the Obama Administration as the head of the Community Oriented Policing Services Office, has endorsed Stoeber.
“He called me over a year ago,” Melekian said. “I was very impressed with his questions.”
Melekian said he appreciates Stoeber’s work ethic. He’s also not a fan of Escobedo over previous interactions with him at City Hall.
“It is very clear to me that Alex is willing to do the work,” Melekian said. “He is willing to learn. His life story is compelling. If you want someone who will be empathetic to the disenfranchised and the marginalized, Alex is the guy to do it.”
Electrician Jason Carlton and loan signing agent Anabella Lehne are also running for the seat.
Stoeber graduated from UCSB and said he became a real estate agent because he enjoys helping people achieve their dreams.
“I care about homes so much because I was homeless,” Stoeber said.
The job, he said, rewards parts of his personality that already exist.
“It allows me to be a therapist, to give people information about finance, it allows me to be a project manager, allows me to be a transactional coordinator, allows me to be a contract attorney, it allows me to be social, it allows me to do all these things I just love to do anyway,” Stoeber said.
He said he has sold about 50 homes since he started about six years ago.
His mental and physical outlook on life go hand-in-hand. Stoeber says he shows off on Instagram not for arrogant reasons, but to serve as an inspiration. He himself has lost about 30 pounds since the campaign started, dropping from 200 to about 170.
“I want to inspire people,” Stoeber said. “My brother has lost 100 pounds just watching my content. I don’t even talk to you about getting fit. I just say this is where I am at, come with me. No matter what you are going through, you can prioritize yourself.”
There’s another part of Stoeber that he’s proud of. He has fully embraced artificial intelligence, using parts of it for his website, to do research for his campaign and to just learn new things.
“I love it as a tool,” Stoeber said. “It is a form of self-expression. I can speak to AI and have it truly hear me.”
He said he is a creative person, but if you give him a blank page it is difficult for him to start.
“It helps me think, and think out my ideas,” Stoeber said. “I am a visionary person. When I have ideas in my head, I can take my ideas that I spit into AI and it turns it into an image.”
He understands the environmental concerns around AI, but remains optimistic.
“I am hopeful that the benefits are going to outweigh the costs of AI,” Stoeber said. “I think that automobiles were terrible for the environment, still are, but they are still necessary to make our world work. If we didn’t have trucks we would have no commerce. Everything would be more expensive.”
Stoeber doesn’t know what to expect on Election Day. He said he is walking the district and meeting voters every day. He said he is too right for Democrats and sometimes too left for some Republicans. Being in the political middle in a campaign can be a lonely place, he said. But he believes people are tired of party politics driving the agenda. He enjoys talking to people who disagree with him. He and the other person both learn things.
“Curiosity is where the magic happens,” he said.
No matter the outcome on Election Day, he said, he will fall back on his faith.
“I need something to rely on that is not other people,” Stoeber said. “It’s not some substance or some experience in life because those things are fleeting. It’s really easy to get wrapped up in what people think of you, or what you think of you, rather than what God thinks of me.”
