January 10, 2024
Dear Governor Newsom:
I guess you have heard of Shasta County’s Supervisor/Chair Kevin Crye, and the effort to recall him in March. I wanted to let you know that your name is being used in the effort to prevent him from being recalled.
Billboards are popping up around Redding that say, “STOP NEWSOM. NO ON CRYE RECALL.” The anti-recall people are insinuating that you are trying to influence County government by appointing a “liberal” supervisor in Crye’s place. You are being used as the bogeyman in this election to try to frighten people into retaining this awful supervisor.
In the year he has been in office, Crye has done one awful thing after another. He was elected to the Board through the dark money financing of Connecticut alleged billionaire Reverge Anselmo, who is also financing these “Stop Newsom” billboards. You are aware of Crye’s election denial nonsense, since new State legislation was required to address his advocacy of hand counting the county’s ballots. I think his worst decisions involve selecting unqualified people for important County positions and cementing their tenures with hefty severance packages so future Boards will hesitate in firing them.
I think you could help by making it clear that you do not like being used as a bogeyman, and have no intention of appointing a new Supervisor when Crye is recalled. I’m sure you can think up many good reasons. For example: You do not want to get involved in Shasta County politics. You want the people to be able to pick their own replacement in a special election. You know that some of the people of Shasta County are not your biggest fans, and you do not want their dislike of the way you lead California to be a factor in this important decision about Shasta County management.
I fervently hope you will not let the voters’ opinion of you to factor into this election. You are not even on the ballot!
I hope you will weigh in on this issue frequently in the weeks leading up to the March recall vote. I thank you for doing what you can to publicly combat these lies.
Sincerely,
John Springer
Redding, CA
