Image source: Laura Hobbs campaign.
A few months ago I received a suggestion that I should investigate District 2 Shasta County Supervisor candidate Dan Sloan’s background. The tipster said Sloan had several skeletons clattering around in his closet. The tipster said that Sloan’s historical dirt called into question his potential stability as an elected leader.
So I started digging. I spent hours going over files at the courthouse. Sure enough, lo and behold, there were numerous court cases that revolved around Sloan, his ex wife and their volatile divorce that spanned many years.
But something bigger than my slow-moving investigation became public: a comprehensive dossier about Sloan was made public, and by public, I mean that the Facebook page Redding Patriots posted it. From there, the link was shared and shared and shared over and over again.
This wasn’t just garden-variety campaign dirt. It was a thorough dump on everything imaginable about Sloan’s entire life, including detailed summaries of the Sloan court cases I’d seen at the courthouse.
Before we proceed, I have an announcement: I will not be publishing that link, or its corresponding video. I’ll explain why in a moment.
My first reaction was that I’d hit the information jackpot. The details appeared fact-based. It was as if everything I wanted to know about Sloan was served up for me on a silver platter.
There it was, the Sloan File.
It even had a table of contents, partially shown in this screen grab. The Sloan File was incredibly detailed and specific. It was a massive quantity of information; impressive, really.
Next came and equally damning video about Sloan. It was slick. It had music. It painted Sloan as a violent, dishonest and deranged human being.
But before I could process that information, let alone do anything with it, another similar file became public on social media: The Plummer File. This time the target was District 4 Supervisor candidate Matt Plummer.
Wonder of wonders, The Plummer file resembled Sloan’s, right down to the table of contents’ style, although the content was different.
Then, like Sloan, came a corresponding smear video about Plummer. Like the video about Sloan, the Plummer video was professionally produced, had music, along with a somber narration that showed Plummer in the worst possible light where even his most seemingly innocent actions were cast in darkness.
It quickly became obvious that The Plummer File, The Sloan file and the matching nasty videos came from the same unknown source who’d used the same techniques and template.
Why Sloan?
District 2 candidate Dan Sloan.
Sloan is running for District 2 in a four-way race. The other three candidates are Allen Long, Susanne Baremore and Laura Hobbs. Of the three, Hobbs is the far, far-right extremist candidate, endorsed by not just local far-right citizens as Richard Gallardo, Nick Gardner and Terry Rapoza, but even MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Sloan is also a far-right guy, but apparently he’s not the right kind of alt-right; at least not far enough to the right to please the hard-core, even-further right folks. For sure Sloan’s not as ultra-right as Hobbs. And if the goal is to tear apart Shasta County, you’ll want the worst of the worst in power; the most extreme, unhinged candidates possible. Hello Hobbs, Jones and Carpenter.
Why Plummer?
Shasta County District 4 Supervisor candidate Matt Plummer.
The obvious reason why Matt Plummer is being targeted is because he had the courage to run against Reverge Anselmo’s No. 1 most dependable pawn, incumbent Patrick Jones.
If you’re new here, Reverge Anselmo is the Connecticut son-of-a-billionaire who’s been pulling election puppet strings ever since his $100,000 campaign contribution to Patrick Jones propelled Jones to a seat on the board of supervisors in 2020. Since then, Anselmo has dumped more than $1.5 million into his favorite Shasta County candidates and causes.
One of these things is a lot like the others
Around the same time that the dirt dumps about Sloan and Plummer first appeared, Hobbs’ campaign started circulating posters on social media.
They had a particular look, reminiscent of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
They had a folksy, nostalgic, Americana style. Even the faded colors seemed from a bygone era. Two of the posters featured a woman holding a huge American flag, standing with children, staring off toward snow-capped mountains, perhaps Mt. Shasta.
Another poster included the same snowy mountains, backed by a massive American flag, but this time there were throngs of people — again, seen only from the back – waving flags, standing in front of what might be Shasta Dam, with the words, “Make Shasta Great Again!”
But wait, one short post included music, too.
That same blue sky/American flag/snowy mountain graphic style is found on Hobbs’ Facebook page header.
It dawned on me what the Hobbs’ campaign material style and colors reminded me of: Vintage national parks promotions.
When I mentioned my observations to a friend, he shot back with a different perspective. Rather than national parks posters, he said Hobbs’ campaign materials reminded him of Nazi youth propaganda materials.
Sure enough, my friend had a point.
Taking a closer look at the Plummer smear video, “Who is Matt Plummer?” it was posted on a profile page with just 10 subscribers by “ShastaAnon” — identified as a “local right-wing artist, journalist and researcher”.
ShastaAnon also claimed responsibility for the Sloan hit video. Between Plummer’s video and Sloan’s, ShastaAnon’s subscribers had climbed from 10 to 21.
Notice the same snowy mountains and same American flag style and colors as Hobbs’ materials.
I hope you’re not sick of the American flag and snowy mountain motif, because look where else it appears: Mountain Top Media’s logo.
If you’re keeping score, that same artwork style was on ShastaAnon’s Facebook page, the ShastaAnon Sloan and Plummer videos, Hobbs’ campaign materials, and Mountain Top Media’s Facebook header.
Coincidence? Not a chance.
On social media, Sloan supporters have rallied around him and against Hobbs. Some Sloan followers speculate that the entire American flag/snowy mountains graphics style was created by either Hobbs, or a Hobbs family member, perhaps a husband.
To many people, Hobbs is a curiosity in the same vein as Vladislav Davidzon who was here a long, painful stretch.
Vladislav Davidzon
Davidzon was an extremist trouble-maker who seemingly dropped out of nowhere just to orchestrate the attempted recalls of Supervisors Rickert, former Supervisor Joe Chimenti, and the eventually recalled Supervisor Leonard Moty. I speak of Vladislav in the past tense because it seemed as soon as the lie-based dirty recall of Moty was over, then Daviszon’s job was done. After that, poof, he was gone. Thank God. He’s bopping around Lord knows where hosting spa resorts, or something related to that. (Yes, I know he still periodically sends irritating emails to Shasta County folks.)
That’s how it seems with Laura Hobbs. She dropped into Redding in 2021, immediately spewing the Big Lie about stolen elections and the need for hand counted ballots. She showed up at board meeting after board meeting shuffling crumpled papers filled with tiny pen marks to show on the overhead projector. She was flustered and unprofessional.
Suddenly, she was running for office, and please, call her Dr. Laura Hobbs, would you? Some people wonder if Vladislav and Hobbs were both hired as agitators to come to Shasta County precisely to carry Anselmo’s water and help destroy stable Shasta County government.
We may never know.
Sloan and Plummer respond
No surprise, Sloan and Plummer were well aware of the hit lists and smear videos. A News Cafe reached out to both men for comment.
Sloan replied first, with basically a non-answer:
“Please contact my attorney David Wilson on the allegations and other malicious information. Thank you so much! In Christ, Dan Sloan.”
A News Cafe did contact Wilson, who explained he had nothing to say about The Sloan File, because he’s not Sloan’s campaign manager, but rather Sloan’s attorney. Wilson said he represented Sloan many years ago during Sloan’s contentious divorce that included an ex-wife’s restraining order application against Sloan.
Plummer replied next with a direct response:
“This is an attempt to distract from the real issues facing our community – homelessness, crime, mental illness, addiction, and potholes – and the incumbent’s failure to make progress on them over his 11 years in elected office,” he said. “I will remain focused on solving these problems and continue building out plans to address them to ensure the county delivers a benefit to the community.”
Why not show the files and videos?
I decided against publishing The Sloan File and The Plummer File and the matching dirty movies for two reasons. First, I wasn’t in the mood to be used by team Reverge Anselmo or team Mountain Top Media or team Hobbs.
Do I believe Sloan would be a fine supervisor? No, not by a long shot. R.V. Scheide explained myriad reasons why Allen Long or Susanne Baremore are far better choices than Sloan.
Even so, there are enough current, relevant reasons to not vote for Sloan without tossing in a kitchen sink piled with nasty, dirty skeletons. Besides, it’s possible “love in Christ” Sloan would say that any long-ago sinful stuff happened before he found Jesus, and now he’s a born-again good guy.
Second, although The Sloan File and The Plummer File have been widely circulated on social media, their conception and original distribution remain shrouded in mystery. While A News Cafe does sometimes report information provided by confidential sources — such as in the Kevin Crye story — those confidential sources are not anonymous. They are vetted individuals known to us. A News Cafe doesn’t report details provided by anonymous sources, which is exactly what the ShastaAnon character is, and why we’re not using his/her/their videos and dossiers. Even on Redding Patriots, one of the first places The Sloan File appeared, one of the page’s moderators seemed perplexed about who sent them.
“I don’t know who sent this to me,” the moderator wrote. “I’m hoping they send me 1 on Mary Rickert, it came on a weird number.”
Whoever created the files and videos is attempting to conceal their identity, even to alt-right groups like Redding Patriots. Why?
A changed Harmon
Meanwhile, there’s Corkey Harmon, the District 3 candidate who initially appeared on a Mountain Top Media interview and a League of Women Voters forum as a humble, golly-shucks country guy who seemed reluctant to be running for office against incumbent Mary Rickert in the first place.
Corkey Harmon answers questions during a Mountain Top Media interview.
During the forum Harmon seemed the least prepared, the least polished, and so incapable of describing his own attributes that he read aloud a list his wife wrote for him about his finest qualities.
That was then. Suddenly, there’s the new Harmon, repackaged. Now he’s presented as a confident leader, thanks to slick videos with music that sounds almost identical to what played on Red White and Blueprint videos, and filming that looks almost identical to scenes shot for Red White and Blueprint videos, complete with drone footage over his property.
The property in the video looks a lot like Corkey Harmon’s Palo Cedro property that hosted the Red, White and Blueprint’s first fundraiser. Speaking of Red, White and Blueprint, Carlos Zapata, a Red, White and Blueprint co-founder, attended the Harmon fundraiser.
District 3 Supervisor candidate speaks with Red, White and Blueprint co-founder Carlos Zapata at a recent Harmon fundraiser.
Harmon’s property also hosted Nathan Mendes’ daughter’s wedding. No big deal? Would you host on your property a massive fundraiser or a wedding for people you disliked?
Not likely.
Since the moment Harmon tossed his cowboy hat into the race, he was seen as the vote-splitter, the spoiler who’d steal votes from either Carpenter or incumbent Supervisor Mary Rickert. The prediction was that Harmon’s presence would trigger a November runoff, since it’s difficult in a three-way election for one person to earn the necessary 51% to win outright. Even so, if anyone could come away with 51% of the votes in a three-way race, Rickert could.
Harmon doesn’t need Anselmo, because Harmon has plenty of his own money. But still, Harmon’s affiliations with Mendes and Red, White and Blueprint are noteworthy.
Election Day will be here one week from today. Connect the dots. Ask yourself what’s in it for Anselmo to donate money to anyone or any campaign, whether it’s to keep Supervisor Kevin Crye from being recalled, or to ensure that Hobbs, Jones and Win Carpenter gain seats on the Shasta County Board of Supervisors.
Anselmo’s No. 1 focus has always been Anselmo, and his No. 1 goal is to destroy Shasta County. Anselmo doesn’t care about making Shasta “great again”. In fact, Shasta County is worse than it’s ever been, because of Reverge Anselmo and his specially chosen, well-financed candidates. Anselmo is killing us, and enjoying every minute.
The only way to bring Shasta County back from the brink of total anarchy is to vote against anyone or any campaign funded by Anselmo, or any candidate or campaign promoted by Mountain Top Media.
Pay attention to the trail of anonymous dirty dots that create slick smear campaigns. Revealed is a dot-to-dot painting of a filthy landscape of dirty money that soiled a county whose weary, shell-shocked people are now at risk of losing the best parts of Shasta County if we don’t show up in droves and vote.
Vote as if Shasta County’s future depends upon it, because it does.
Editor’s note: This story was edited for clarity and corrections at 8:15 a.m.
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