UCSB's placement history is not impressive, they do not have any well-known faculty members other than Jennings, and usually fall way outside the top 50 in most rankings. I have been around some of the graduate students there as well and some of them do not take their schooling very seriously.
What is most peculiar about GW is the political psychology courses taught there. The curriculum in the majority of the classes does not seem to dovetail with the average political psychology coursework taught at other universities. I do not know one political theorist, so if you say GTOWN is on the up, I will take you at your word.
The article "A Dynamic Labor Market: How Political Science is Opening Up to Methodologists and How Methodologists are opening up Political Science" by Box-Steffensmeier and Anand Sokhey illustrates the marketability of having formal theory or quantitative methods as a primary or secondary field in polisci.
A WELL RESPECTED PROFESSOR IN AMERICAN POLITICS TOLD ME I SHOULD AVOID ALL PHD PROGRAMS IN WASHINGTON D.C., IF I WANT TO PERSUE A CAREER IN ACADEMIA. IT WAS PROBABLY OVERLY GENERALIZED ADVICE, BUT I TOOK IT NEVERTHELESS.
NOT ONLY IS UCSD LOSING THREE OF THEIR TOP PROFESSORS, THEY CANNOT GUARANTEE FUNDING FOR ALL THEIR ADMITS, AND THEIR UNTENURED PROFESSORS MIGHT BE GOING ELSEWHERE AS WELL.