Last minute flier courtesy of Shasta General Purpose Committee
You have to laugh when a political movement funded by a carpetbagging Connecticut billionaire labels its locally born-and-raised public servant/opponent a king. That’s just what the Shasta General Purpose Committee has done with its last-minute mailing featuring a poorly rendered photoshop depiction of Shasta County District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty wearing a crown amid stacks of cash.
The fraudulent flier pushes the envelope when it comes to the number of lies that can be expressed in a single mailing, beginning with the totally bogus claim that Moty has been bought off by Dominion Voting Systems Inc.
“King Moty approves contract with Dominion Voting machines for over $2 million,” the flier claims. In fact, according to Shasta County Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen, the contract with Dominion was a consent item that was passed unanimously by the board of supervisors in 2017. Sure, Moty approved it. So did District 5 Supervisor Les Baugh. So did everybody else.
“The original contract is an 8-year lease for an amount not to exceed $1.9 million,” Darling Allen said. “It was signed on Dec. 5, 2017. In February 2019, the Secretary of State decertified the previous voting system we had used, so we were relieved we made the move [to Dominion] prior to that time, when counties were all forced to update their technology at the same time.”
Supporters of former President Donald Trump continue to claim that Dominion Voting Systems Inc. helped rig the 2020 presidential election against Trump. Dominion is currently suing right-wing networks Newsmax, OAN and FOX News for promoting fake news stories that made the false assertion.
That didn’t stop the recallers from making the same claim about Moty after one of Moty’s old friends who happens to be a Dominion employee donated $200 to his campaign.
Curiously, District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones, a recall supporter who has also spread lies about Dominion Voting Systems, didn’t contest the Dominion machines’ accuracy when he won his seat in 2020.
Let’s examine the rest of the lies on the fictitious flier.
Fictitious flier sent out by Shasta General Purpose Committee
Moty Receives an F on 2nd Amendment Report Card
As usual, the Shasta General Purpose Committee doesn’t provide a source for this claim, but we can presume Moty’s report card was issued by the Shasta County Gun Owners, the local chapter of the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
As A News Café’s Shawn Schwaller reported in December, the local chapter presented a 2nd Amendment sanctuary resolution to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors in July 2021. Unfortunately, the resolution contained several unconstitutional clauses, including the claim that Shasta County would no longer recognize federal and state laws regarding the ownership and carrying of guns.
The Shasta County Gun Owners’ resolution was so unconstitutionally overboard, even the CRPA disavowed it. That hasn’t stopped recall supporters, including Supervisors Les Baugh and Patrick Jones, from continuing to foist this poorly written and thought-out unconstitutional screed on the public as evidence that pro-2nd Amendment Moty is somehow anti-gun.
Who are they calling unconstitutional?
Moty Bows Down to Special Interest Groups
The special interest group in question here is ConnectGen, which last October lost its bid to build a new 48-turbine wind farm near the already existing Hatchet Ridge wind farm after the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to quash the project. Perceived fire risk and NIMBYism were the causes of death.
Moty was the lone vote supporting the wind farm, citing climate change and the number of temporary construction and permanent onsite jobs the $350 million project would have brought to Shasta County.
The Shasta General Purpose Committee’s claim that ConnectGen has donated to Moty’s campaign is false. “Just like they said Dominion Inc. donated,” Moty said. “More lies. It’s like Pinocchio talking.”
Moty Supports Moty
The recall movement remains butthurt that Supervisors Joe Chimenti, Mary Rickert and Moty outmaneuvered Jones and Baugh at the Jan. 4 Board of Supervisors meeting and installed Moty as chair of the board instead of Baugh as scheduled.
The first thing Moty did was limit filibustering by the anti-mask anti-vax maniacs who’ve held the board hostage for more than a year to 45 minutes at the beginning of the meeting. Any complaints and conspiracy theory beyond that may be presented after the board has completed its business.
That’s right. The recallers will have to actually sit through the meetings to get their say in at the end. The horror! The horror!
As I’ve already said elsewhere, nothing could be more ironic than an authoritarian rightwing political movement headed by a hot-blooded ex-Marine prone to violent outbursts claiming Shasta County is currently ruled by a king.
Moty Dismembered Shasta County Marijuana Eradication Team
The recallers first smeared retired Redding Police Chief Moty as an alleged marijuana kingpin in Episode 5 of the RWB docuseries, in which a mysterious, anonymous, totally fake recorded message claims that “all roads lead back to Moty” when it comes to the lack of enforcement of illegal cannabis cultivation in Shasta County.
A recent Shasta General Purpose Committee commercial broadcast on local TV blamed Moty for the elimination of the Shasta County Sheriff’s marijuana eradication unit in 2016. That happened on Sheriff Tom Bosenko’s watch, after Prop. 64 passed, decriminalizing marijuana and taking the profit out of policing it; Moty had nothing to do with it.
It’s hard to take the recallers concern about illegal cannabis cultivation seriously, given one of its most prominent members is Jon Knight, owner of Northern Roots Indoor Garden and Hydroponics Supply.
Just like everything else the recallers claim, it just doesn’t add up.
