## **Exhibit 31.1**

## **SECTION 302 - CERTIFICATION**

I, James W. Lokey,President and Chief Executive Officer of Mid-State Bancshares, certify that:

1.                               Ihave reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Mid-State Bancshares;

2.                               Basedon my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement  of a material fact or omit to state amaterial fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading withrespect to the period covered by this report;

3.                               Basedon my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial informationincluded in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financialcondition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, andfor, the periods presented in this report;

4.                               Theregistrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishingand maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange ActRules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting(as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrantand have:

a)              Designed suchdisclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls andprocedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that materialinformation relating to the registrant, including its consolidatedsubsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularlyduring the period in which this report is being prepared;

b)             Designed suchinternal controls over financial reporting, or caused such internal controlover financial reporting to be designated under our supervision, to providereasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and thepreparation of financial statement for external purposes in accordance withgenerally accepted accounting principles;

c)              Evaluated theeffectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures andpresented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of thedisclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by thisreport based on such evaluation; and

d)             Disclosed in thisreport any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reportingthat occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter (theregistrant’s fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that hasmaterially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, theregistrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5.                               Theregistrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our mostrecent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’sauditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors (orpersons performing the equivalent functions):

a)              All significantdeficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internalcontrols over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adverselyaffect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and reportfinancial information; and

b)             Any fraud, whether ornot material, that involves management or other employees who have asignificant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.
| Date: August 8, 2006 |   | /s/ James W. Lokey            |   |
|----------------------|--------|-------------------------------|--------|
|                 |   | JAMES W. LOKEY                |
|                 |   | President and                 |
|                 |   | Chief Executive Officer       |
|                 |   | (Principal Executive Officer) |

 

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