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KQMS Releases Statement Re Tainted Election Ad, Confirms Ad Invoice Sent to Supervisor Patrick Jones

Patrick Jones taking a lie detector test in the RWB docuseries. He passed.

Monday during the KQMS Morning Show with program hosts Steve Gibson and Kelly Frost Jr., the men issued a statement provided by the station regarding a controversial election ad that had aired but has since been pulled. Frost and Gibson each read the statement different times during their show.

Here’s the official statement posted on the station’s website by Frost:

“Efforts by Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones to discredit the Elections Department have apparently backfired on him.

Last year, Jones prompted the formation of the Citizens Elections Advisory Commission, an unpaid oversight panel with no real power except to make recommendations to the board. Jones appointee to the commission was Bev Gray.

A couple of weeks ago Jones accompanied Gray to record a commercial claiming that ballots were being sent to the wrong people and other irregularities. There’s no indication it was true, but the spot urged people to report errors to a phone number, which turned out to be a private number.

The staff member who produced the commercial thought Gray was on official business issuing a public service announcement, thus the record was not placed in the company’s publicly accessible online political file.

Finding it to be misleading, county administrators issued a terse press release about the spot, which had already been taken off the air.

KQMS News reported Jones’ involvement, but he denied any connection, even though the invoice shows it was billed to Jones Fort, a business owned by the Jones family.

Then during an election day interview on KRCR Jones played the commercial from his laptop computer. That caught the attention of the California Secretary of State’s Office and an investigation is now underway.

On Saturday Jones’ wife called KQMS and said on the air that her husband had received death threats.

Any questions by voters should actually be directed to 225-5730 or emailed to elections@co.shasta.ca.us.

There has been no evidence presented that indicates any questionable conduct whatsoever involving the Elections Department.”

Gibson and Frost referred to Lori Jones’ Saturday call to the station, during which she defended her husband of any wrongdoing regarding the ad.

As reported by ANC, Jones has repeatedly denied affiliation with the ad, other than to accompany Bev Gray to the recording studio, so she’d feel more comfortable, since she’s unaccustomed to recording radio ads.

One of the most damning portions of that statement — the smoking gun, if you will — is the fact that the invoice for the ad that Jones claimed no affiliation with – that invoice for that ad was mailed to Jones Fort, Supervisor Jones’ family gun store.

What’s more, it appears that Gray, appointed by Jones to the toothless Elections Commission, was protecting Jones. On election night, when ANC asked Gray who paid for the ad, and who wrote it, she replied, “No comment.”

If the ad was on the up and up, there’d be nothing to hide. But because the ad may be guilty of election interference, Jones and Gray have remained silent about it.

Here’s an audio clip of the ad, recorded by Gray, with help from Jones, billed to Jones.

Jones’ denials prove false

Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones.

The radio ad narrated by Bev Gray appeals to listeners who may have received errant ballots, such as those mailed to the wrong address, or multiple ballots to the same address, or ballots mailed to deceased people.

However, rather than instruct the public to take questionable ballots to the Shasta County Registrar of Voters office, Gray provided a phone number that was linked to a business number associated with the life partner of Jon Knight, election-denier, Red, White and Blueprint producer and member of the Shasta County Mosquito and Vector Control Board, a position bestowed upon him by Jones and the other board majority members.

Early calls to the number were directed to a recording affilitated with Knight’s partner’s phone. Subsequent attempts to call that number result in a busy signal.

Jon Knight protests a February Yes Recall Kevin Crye rally before a supervisors meeting. Photo by Doni Chamberlain.

The truth regarding Jones’ affiliation with the tainted election ad was easy to uncover, as Jones himself disclosed on several interviews self-incriminating pieces of information that tied him to the ad and activities to collect ballots, as instucted in the ad.

Case in point was this conversation about election fraud between Jones and Mark Kent of Soverign Minds radio.

At the 4:09 mark Jones says they’re collecting ballots. “They’re being collected.”

District 4 Supervisor Jones: Unfit for office

The list is long of Jones’ infractions and violations, beginning literally from Jones’ first week in office. Since then, he’s been the poster child for official conduct unbecoming on a regular basis.

The short list of offenses includes multiple times when he breached closed board chambers during the pandemic to hold unauthorized meetings with his supporters.

Red, White and Blueprint film crew captures Jones preciding over a breached board chambers.

One event, directed and filmed by the Red, White and Blueprint cast, showed how, by flashlight, Jones unscrewed plexiglass safety partitions there to protect the public during a COVID outbreak.

When he and former Supervisor Les Baugh were censured for breaching board chambers, Jones mocked the censure, and welcomed it as a badge of honor.

Supervisors Patrick Jones and Les Baugh enjoy their breached, unauthorized board chambers.

He lied about former Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty when he made false claims about details regarding Moty’s tenure as a Redding Police Chief, statements that were soundly refutted by several high-ranking city staff and council members. When confronted with multiple credible officials and elected leaders who contradicted Jones, Jones pulled a dramatic stunt of hiring his own technician to administer a polygraph test.

Jones passed, but according to many polygraph experts, that’s not necessarily an indication of someone being truthful.

“It’s not uncommon for psychopaths and sociopaths to pass a lie detector test, which means that their examination can easily lead to a false negative outcome,” writes polygraph expert Peter Henderson.

“That’s because not only can they tell a good lie — they can also believe the lie they tell. As a result of this, their stress levels remain constant whether being truthful or being deceitful.”

Since Jones won his 2020 District 4 Supervisor seat election thanks to a $100,000 campaign donation by Reverge Anselmo — the largest single donation in Shasta County history — Jones has treated his supervisor seat like a cross between his personal ATM and a way to punish those he displikes, or has grudges against.

During one of his first board meetings Jones proclaimed that he would never vote for anything affilitated with the McConnell Foundation, even water, which was exactly what some of his constituents needed during a drought.

Likewise, because of personal beef with the archictecture company Nichols Melburg and Rossetto, he ensured that a jail-related contract that was well underway with NMR was granted to another firm.

He blackmailed a Shasta County CEO into quitting. He masterminded the demise of Shasta County’s Dominion Voting System. He brought national election-deniers to Shasta County.

He’s openly voted for projects that benefit him personally, such as promoting his dream shooting range, or even placing on the agenda a zoning change to allow cargo containers, sometimes used as shelter in pig hunts, which would have come in handy had Jones continued pig hunting on his property, something universally abhored by his neighbors.

Jones blantantly pushes for any agenda item or any resolution related to guns; convenient since he manages his family’s gun store.

Dist. 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones.

Conversely, it’s difficult to pinpoint examples of when Jones has gone to bat for his constituents, even the 84-year-old woman in his district whose pleas for help getting water Jones ignored.

Jones mocks and ridicules speakers and media he doesn’t like. He famously emailed a Bay Area reporter “drop dead” rather than provide a comment.

And during the height of the pandemic he ordered this reporter to “go home” several times during a raucous party-atmostphere meeting.

Jones’ event included a massive sound system and giant TV screen.

It was held outside the County Administration Center. He hosted the gathering in defiance of joining his colleagues and other county leaders in the virtual meeting .

While Jones was still chair, he did nothing when a speaker used the n-word during public comment period, but threw out community activist Nathan Pinkney for his outburst that protested the use of the word being allowed during a public meeting.

This speaker used the n-word during public comment, and not only was allowed to remain in the meeting, but he was allowed to speak again later in the day. Photo for A News Cafe by Mike Chapman.

Several times Jones lost complete control of board meetings that erupted into sheer pandamonium.

Once, when the audience failed to obey Jones’ pounded gavel and shouts to maintain order, Jones left the dais and screeched at the public.

During his decades as an elected official, Jones seems to have skated by without a single meaningful consequence for any of his abominable behavior.

However, now, when it comes to allegations of election interference and tampering, this time, he’s gone too far.

As was stated in this morning’s KQMS statement, “Efforts by Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones to discredit the Elections Department have apparently backfired on him.”

Shasta County is days away from learning whether District 4 Supervisor candidate Matt Plummer will win Jones’ seat, or whether Jones will prevail.

Either way, election or no election, the time has come for Jones to be removed as a Shasta County Supervisor. Even if Plummer wins, Jones should not be allowed the usual transistional winter exit as departing supervisors leave and new supervisors are sworn in.

Instead, Jones should be removed from his post immediately. He is unfit for office, undeserving of public trust and unworthy of completing his term.

He’s lied. He’s abused his power. He’s used his elected position to benefit himself and his friends.

Jones needs to go. He needs to go now, before he can do any further damage to Shasta County.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to former District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty’s previous employment title. It has been corrected to reflect his tenure as Redding Police Chief. 

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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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