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Election Day in Shasta County: A final chance to restore, repair and reclaim

On this Election Day, what we’ve got here in Shasta County is a life-and-death election tug of war; a battle for Shasta County’s heart, soul, viability and reputation.

Both sides are fighting with all they’ve got to pull the lion’s share of their rope over the finish line. Both sides are trying with all their might to avoid being pulled into the abyss of defeat.

On one side are stable, rational voters of all parties. Many of these voters support the recall of District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye. These voters long for the return of Shasta County’s governmental sanity, to a time when board of supervisors meetings were short, civilized, productive and frankly, boring.

On the other side of the tug of war are top-shelf extremist conservatives, so conservative that they mock and label Republican District 3 Supervisor and rancher Mary Rickert as a RINO (Republican in name only).

Many of these voters supported their far-right board majority’s decision to cancel Shasta County’s Dominion voting machines. They cheered when a lie-based, outside-money-funded dirty recall removed Leonard Moty from his District 2 supervisor seat.

They were ecstatic when the board majority fired — without cause — top health officer Dr. Karen Ramstrom, an esteemed physician who skillfully walked a fine tightrope between keeping her oath of office to protect the county during a pandemic, and using a light touch with regard to enforcement to appease the suspicious, disgruntled masses.

Likewise, the extremists applauded the board majority’s choice of a less-qualified, mostly unavailable (he’s busy winding down his 5,000-patient practice) replacement doctor who’s got the county on the hook to finance his ongoing education to bring him up to speed for a job that’s far over his head.

The extremists enjoyed enthusiastic high fives at the news that all their bullying, harassment, death threats, taunts, ridicule and doxing of Shasta County Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen had finally paid off. She recently announced her May retirement, because of a serious heart condition. The extremists can congratulate themselves for breaking Darling Allen’s heart.

They admired when Supervisor Patrick Jones blackmailed former CEO Matt Pontes into quitting.

They were delighted when an exodus of stellar county workers fled their jobs, rather than remain in a toxic, hostile work environment. Social workers, attorneys, department directors, top support staff — to name a sample — are gone.

They saw nothing wrong when Crye flew on the county dime to hobnob with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, or when he charged the county to install his PacMan arcade machine in his office, or when he planted a friend in a failed townhall meeting and feigned zero recognition of her, or when he lied so often that soon Crye became the little boy who called truth; rendering it impossible to discern Crye’s facts from Crye’s fiction.

The extremists preach the gospel of local control, but fail to see the irony that they willfully ignore extremist Shasta County candidates who’ve been bought and paid for by out-of-state millionaire Reverge Anselmo, a sore loser who seeks revenge over soured Shasta County dealings.

Weeks in review

If you think these are hyperbolic descriptions, consider just a few bat-guano-5150 examples that occurred in the last few weeks alone:

At the most recent Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting, District 2 supervisor candidate Laura Hobbs gleefully doxed and slandered Supervisor Rickert from the lectern.

Shasta County District 2 candidate Laura Hobbs, a proud pro-MAGA election-denier.

First Hobbs held up Rickert’s license plate for all to see. That gesture will come in handy for those who have suggested on recent social media posts that they should follow Rickert to her home to see if she truly does live in District 3. (She does.)

Next, Hobbs pointed out the triplet sixes on Rickert’s license, which Hobbs said Rickert chose intentionally (like Satan worshippers are wont to do).

Rickert, who’s endured unrelenting verbal abuse during board of supervisors meetings for nearly four years, pushed back uncharacteristically hard. It turns out that Rickert reacted as strongly as she did because Hobbs’ license plate stunt struck a personal nerve for Rickert. According to Rickert, those license plates were no ordinary plates, but special-ordered agriculture plates.

The primary reason why Rickert feels so strongly about her agriculture plates is that when Jim and Mary Rickert’s son James was young he was involved with the California Ag Leadership program. His class project was to lobby the California Department of Food and Agriculture in conjunction with the DMV to develop agricultural specialty plates that would provide funds for 4-H clubs and Future Farmers of America programs.

The lobbying succeeded, the specialty agricultural plates became available, and Rickert was honored to be among the first citizens to pay extra for an agriculture license plate. The fact that there was a trio of sixes on Rickert’s license plates didn’t matter to her one wit. A devout Catholic, Rickert says the numbers mean nothing to her, or her beliefs.

There’s more. In 1929 Rickert’s grandfather, who was also president of Cal Poly, founded the Future Farmers of America (FFA) in California. Later, in 1969, Rickert was the first female to show livestock at Cow Palace. Then-young Rickert also lobbied and won the right for girls to be allowed into FFA. Furthermore, her father was an ag teacher, and she grew up surrounded by agriculture.

So when Hobbs went after Rickert’s agricultural license plates, she went after Rickert’s history and way of life. Perhaps Hobbs knew that.

As you can see and hear in the following video of the license-plate incident, the board chambers erupted into chaos as Hobbs’ supporters hooted and clapped their approval, while the other half of the room yelled and booed their disapproval.

District 2 Supervisor Tim Garman weighed in, and agreed with Rickert. He called Hobbs’ behavior disgusting.

And what did Chair Crye say to Hobbs regarding her license plate stunt? Or District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, or District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones, or even CEO David Rickert?

Nothing. Not a word.

(The interim county counsel did make a brief feeble verbal protest.)

Back to Crye. The Feb. 27 board of supervisors meeting had the distinction of being Crye’s last meeting prior to the March 5 election. With that in mind, several commenters delivered special messages to Crye.

One comment came via song, written and performed by Recall Kevin Crye supporter David Hallagan. His lyrics to “Kevin’s Way” were sung to the tune of “My Way” in what Hallagan described as Crye’s “year in review”.

What Hallagan lacked in vocal excellence he made up for with creativity. Even Crye grinned.

And Jeff Gorder, who’s held Crye accountable for more than a year during public comment periods, recited a litany of justifications for Crye’s recall.

During the same meeting, after a short Fire Safe Council presentation, Lori Bridgeford went headfirst down a tin-foil-hat rabbit hole where she decided the board of supervisors meeting was the appropriate place to screech about chemtrails conspiracies. The expressions upon the Fire Safe visitors’ faces reflected shock and disbelief.

Oh, poor Shasta County.

Wanted: Dead people’s ballots

But perhaps the most stunning incident to happen last week was when Bev Gray, a member of the controversial board-majority-controlled Citizens Elections Commission, was heard on a radio commercial asking the public to call a number for help with so-called problem ballots, such as those mailed to deceased people, or people who’d moved.

Gray did not suggest the public deliver questionable ballots to the elections office, but rather, the problem ballots would go first to Gray’s cohorts.

Here’s the commercial that includes the phone number.

Community advocate Nathan Pinkney did a deep dive into Gray’s ad, and discovered a number of compelling pieces of evidence.

First, Pinkney learned that the phone number Gray had given in the commercial wasn’t hers, but rather, it was associated with Lit From Within company.

If that business name sounds familiar, Lit From Within was the location of Crye’s flop of his first townhall meeting, during which Crye never provided a single straight answer, and he planted a friend in the audience to pose as a random citizen asking a question that blasted bad ol’ Shasta County.

Friends Susan Taylor and Kevin Crye pretend they don’t know each other at Crye’s town hall meeting.

Follow the bread crumbs.

Ashley Martin, one of Lit From Within’s co-owners, is Jon Knight’s life partner.

Knight, an election-denier, and Red, White and Blueprint docuseries funder, attended the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

Knight was also inexplicably voted by the board majority to serve on the Shasta County Mosquito and Vector Control board, selected over two highly experienced applicants, including former head of Health and Human Services Agency, epidemiologist Donnell Ewert.

Knight was also among those who stormed the elections office in 2020, demanding answers via the back alley door.

Jon Knight, right — along with Katie and Authur Gorman — was among a group of citizens who entered through the back door of the Shasta County Registrar’s office on Election Day to confront Cathy Darling Allen, Shasta County Registrar of Voters, and her staff. Photo by Doni Chamberlain

Gray’s radio spot was so egregious that the county sent out a press release telling citizens to ignore the commercial.

Although for many months Gray has been a frequent speaker at board of supervisors meetings, in February of 2022 she was just another person holding a Recall Leonard Moty campaign sign that promoted a lie-based recall election that eventually removed Moty from office and destroyed his career as an elected leader. 

During that 2022 rally along Cypress Avenue in Redding, Gray could not articulate why she wanted Moty recalled. Likewise, did not know her supervisor’s name, or the district in which she resided.

Pinkney’s investigation into Gray’s radio spot included an online chat with Gray without immediately revealing his true identity in an attempt to learn who’d instructed Gray to make that commercial, and who’d scripted her statement.

Pinkney never learned the answers to all his questions. However, it’s been alleged that Supervisor Jones paid for the ad that aired on KQMS radio.

For what it’s worth, Jones appointed Gray to the elections commission.

It’s clear, the end is near

If Shasta County citizens vote wisely enough, they could right the wrongs caused by the current board majority’s horrible decisions. Like a sorrowful country song played backward, a sane board could rewind and undo more than a year’s worth of the extremist board majority’s missteps, misdeeds and mistakes.

To start, they could dismiss the board majority’s unqualified health officer. Then, they could welcome back not just Dr. Karen Ramstrom, but other key exiled county leaders. A newly elected stable board could dismiss all current board majority cronies, as well as the board majority’s poor personnel choices, from Knight on the Mosquito and Vector board, to the underwhelming new county counsel, to the milquetoast milk dud of a CEO who seems intimidated by the board majority – especially Crye.

Perhaps the CEO is doing the best he can with what he’s got, but he appears to be missing crucial metaphorical body parts, starting with the spine and moving south to where testicular fortitude should reside.

Shasta County’s recovery won’t happen overnight. Plus, even if Crye is recalled he’ll be seated for at least another 28 days before his departure. And we know how much damage Crye is capable of doing in a short amount of time.

After that, assuming Crye is recalled, it will be a series of mainly 2-2 votes — Kelstrom and Jones vs. Garman and Rickert — until January 2025, when the new candidates are sworn in.

Yes, that seems a very long time from now. But good things are worth the wait.

Election Day is upon us. Shasta County voters have two choices. We can decide in this election whether we will allow Shasta County to continue its dramatic decline to certain destruction, or we can overwhelmingly vote to turn this sinking ship around to a place of restoration and reclamation.

Otherwise, count on more of the same county insanity, instability, chaos, uncertainty and destruction. Count on Shasta County becoming damaged beyond repair. Count on Shasta County being known as a once-wonderful place, turned laughing stock of the world.

In that event, all would not be completely lost. After all, Shasta County could win the consolation prize. It could serve as the cautionary tale for other communities across the country, a tale of how badly things can go when citizens fail to wake up, stand up and stand against extremism.

Vote, for Shasta County’s sake, before it’s too late.

Vote Yes to Recall Kevin Crye.
Reelect District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert.
Vote for District 4 Supervisor candidate Matt Plummer.
Vote for District 2 Supervisor candidates Allen Long or Susanne Baremore.

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Doni Chamberlain

Independent online journalist Doni Chamberlain founded A News Cafe in 2007 with her son, Joe Domke. Chamberlain holds a Bachelor's Degree in journalism from CSU, Chico. She's an award-winning newspaper opinion columnist, feature and food writer recognized by the Associated Press, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and E.W. Scripps. She's been featured and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, L.A. Times, Slate, Bloomberg News and on CNN, KQED and KPFA. She lives in Redding, California.

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