Election denier Laura Hobbs at Tuesday’s Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.
As Clint Eastwood said in a “Fistful of Dollars,” a man’s life in these parts often depends on a mere scrap of information. Just as I was sitting down to write a report on Tuesday’s Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting, I received news that completely upended one of the major happenings at the meeting.
Instead of putting a stake in the heart of Shasta County’s election integrity movement, County Counsel Joe Larmour may have inadvertently breathed new life into it. Larmour’s legal bid to avoid composing a title and summary for a ballot measure proposed by five members of the movement was turned down by Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna Wednesday morning.
According to a KRCR Channel 7 report, Lex Rex Institute founder and attorney Alex Haberbush represented election deniers Laura Hobbs, Deidre Holiday, Kari Chilson, Jim Burnett and Rich Gallardo at the hearing.
“We appreciate that the court recognized that this matter is not appropriate for our emergency relief,” Haberbush told the station. “The Court’s laundry list of procedural and substantive defects in the County’s filing was exactly on point. This is a significant victory for the right of voters to be heard in the initiative process and we are confident going forward.”
And just like that, the craziest people in the room snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
The craziest people being our local election deniers and the room being the board chambers, where more than 40 public speakers showed up for open comment, which was officially moved to the front of the meeting Tuesday. The room was buzzing with anticipation over County Counsel Larmour’s lawsuit.
Election deniers unidentified woman, Jim Burnett, Rich Gallardo, Laura Hobbs and an unidentified man plan their next move—across the street at the courthouse.
Election deniers Laura Hobbs, Deidre Holiday, Kari Chilson, Jim Burnett and Rich Gallardo, most of whom were in attendance, filed the notice of intention for their ballot measure, which calls for hand-counted, same-day paper ballots, no mail-in ballots with few exceptions, and voter ID, on Feb. 19.
County Counsel Larmour, noting that the language of the measure violated federal and state election laws, filed his complaint for declaratory relief March 12. In it, he argued that giving the flawed and unconstitutional measure his official imprimatur by providing a title and summary would amount to “misleading the public.”
News of Larmour’s lawsuit, which names Hobbs, Holiday, Chilson, Burnett and Gallardo as defendants and requires them to pay the county’s legal fees, spread after Gallardo posted a copy of the complaint online last week.
Appearing on Jon Knight’s Mountain Top Media podcast with Shasta County District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, Gallardo cornered the supervisor about Larmour’s lawsuit, and Kelstrom pushed back hard. Kelstrom was still simmering when he gave his board report Tuesday.
District 5 Supervisor Chris Kelstrom thinking pleasant thoughts.
“So I did a podcast and had a bit of a debate yesterday,” Kelstrom said. “So I think people in here are probably going to hear about 20 different people come up here and say that our county counsel is suing them. So I want to clarify what exactly is going on, if I can. So we had a group of citizens that wrote an amendment to our charter. The amendment basically overrode state laws, federal laws, all sorts of stuff. Our county council is duty-bound to write a summary of this and to get it onto a ballot.”
“He cannot ethically write that summary because it would be misleading the public into thinking that somehow we can put something on our charter and ignore state and federal laws,” the suddenly loquacious supervisor continued. “Now, I’ll be the first to say, I would love the stuff in the charter. I would love to see voter ID. I would love to see same-day voting. I would love to see hand tabulation. It has all become illegal by the state of California. So the lawsuit basically is seeking relief to not have to write that summary and that’s all it is.”
All of which sounds reasonable and true, unusual for Kelstrom. When they came up to bat during open public comment, the election deniers were having none of it, pummeling Kelstrom, Larmour and District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye and promising to sic Elon Musk’s DOGE on Shasta County.
District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye caught off guard.
“We are not a communist, fascist country yet, and we the people will continue to fight despite your lawfare against us,” said a woman named Casey.
“It is disgusting what you have done to these citizens,” said Antonia, naming Crye and Kelstrom. “You have brought division and turned your backs on your own people, the people that believed in you and voted for you. Board of Supervisors, drop the lawsuit. Larmour needs to write the title and summary. Things can be changed in the paperwork and he can do it.”
Like several speakers, Laura Hobbs cast herself as a revolutionary warrior and accused the county of playing lawfare.
“Local governance is what our founding fathers had in mind when they founded this country, when they wrote our constitution,” Hobbs said. “Could you imagine if the colonist had said, we cannot do this, we cannot fight because it’s actually against the laws of the King of England?”
No speaker from the election denier side of the gallery was more incensed than Kim Moore.
Election denier Kim Moore has something to say to the board.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Moore said, shaking her head. “So I can understand both sides, the way the laws are written, but here’s the problem. We haven’t seen you do enough to fight. You guys haven’t done shit since Patrick left this board. And now you want to go after our citizens?”
Moore urged the audience to dox all five supervisors, Larmour and CEO David Rickert and run their information through datarepublican.com, which apparently tracks charitable donations to nongovernmental organizations. She also promised to sic Elon Musk’s DOGE on Shasta County.
“We’re done,” Moore said. “It’s time to take off the gloves. And we’re going to come for you. And we’re going to do it with datarepublican.com. And if you don’t know, she’s very professional. She’s well skilled. And she is directly tied in with Elon Musk. It’s on.”
Rich Gallardo lays down the law according to Gallardo.
Gallardo seemed on the verge of replicating his October 2020 COVID-era stunt in which he placed the entire board of supervisors under citizen’s arrest for following state and federal public health mandates.
“I want this board to calendar a special meeting this week!” Gallardo barked. “Immediately, special meeting. We need you to vote, which you may do. You can vote to bring things out of closed session in part or in full. We need to know which of you board by roll call voted for the lawsuit initiated last Wednesday. We need names. We demand accountability, public open session accountability.”
Frequent public speaker Dawn Duckett placed the blame for the county’s never-ending elections crisis in the board’s lap.
“In terms of all of this elections stuff, this is created by the board,” Duckett said. “These people have been coming for two years, voicing their concerns at every single meeting. Some of their concerns are legitimate. Some are far-fetched, but many of them are legitimate. And instead of addressing those legitimate concerns and trying to fix them on a local level, this board hired an inexperienced ROV. They made grand gestures of creating an elections commission, which this board has taken no recommendations from. And you have effectively led these people on. You have wasted their time, their money.”
“This lies on you, Kevin Crye, and you, Chris Kelstrom,” concluded Duckett, who also criticized District 3 Supervisor Corkey Harmon and District 4 Supervisor Matt Plummer for not taking a stand on election issues. “The only board member sitting up there that has taken a stand is Allen Long.”
Shasta County Counsel Joe Larmour and CEO David Rickert.
“You screwed the pooch big time!” was how State of Jefferson secessionist Terry Rapoza put it to the board.
For this observer, who has been skeptical of deniers since the beginning, public speaker Larry S. said it best. He was there to ask the board to take a hard look at the environmental impact report for former supervisor Patrick Jones’ proposed gun range when comes back around within the next year or so. The distraught deniers definitely caught his attention.
“Morning, board,” he said. “Before I talk about what I want to talk about, I want to just say that my day is made when I see MAGA form a circular firing squad.”
That’s how I felt after the meeting. It seemed like the end of the election denial movement in Shasta County, maybe even the end of the MAGA board majority.
But this morning, after learning from a trusted source that Judge Hanna had denied Larmour’s request, I wasn’t so sure. Larmour was given 24 hours to compose the summary and title for the proposed election initiative.
If he fails to do so, Lex Rex attorney Haberbush is reportedly waiting in the wings to represent Hobbs, Holiday, Chilson, Burnett and Gallardo in the lawsuit. Haberbush previously represented Hobbs in her failed lawsuit against the county.
In other words, expect our never-ending elections crisis to continue.
County Counsel Larmour did not return my request for comment.
