Local Races

Just the ones I can vote in, anyway:

4th District Supervisor- I still haven't decided whether to stand aside, or vote for Virginia Bass. Stand aside seems like the best choice right now. I don't know that there will be all that much difference in what happens on the Board of Supes if Virgina were to win and I don't have much of a beef with Bon- Bon, really.

But Bon- Bon's supporters actually gave me two reasons to vote for Virginia:

My next door neighbor- a Neely supporter and San Francisco transplant- told me that just keeping Bon- Bon's seat on the Coastal Commission was enough reason to vote for her. That made me wonder if it might be a good reason to vote for Bass?

And, her supporters. After listening to Bon- Bon's supporters for months on end on other blogs, I can't help but throw Bon- Bon in with them and vote against all of them by voting for Virginia.

I know. Sounds petty, but I've said before I can vote for just as frivolous reasons as the next guy. Bottom line is, I still don't think it's going to make all that much difference in the larger scheme of things who gets the 4th District seat so I might well just avoid the issue and stand aside.

Assessor- I don't think there's any bad choices in this race. I'll be voting for Mari Wilson if for no other reason than she's worked there for so long and knows the job. I also like the idea of someone being able to work their way up in an organization and finally reach the top.

That goes back to my days in the National Guard as I moved up through the ranks. I never really coveted higher rank or authority. It did get a bit frustrating, though, when I'd be next in line for a Squad Leader position and some new guy with higher rank than I would enlist and jump into the position I was ready to take and that happened fairly often, as I recall.

If Mari proves incompetent for the position, we can always vote her out next time around. Until then, she should get the chance to prove she's capable of the job.

District Attorney- Allison Jackson is the most qualified and has the experience.

I think Paul Gallegos' heart is in the right place, but he just doesn't seem capable of much to me. Quite frankly, I feel embarrassed having him as our District Attorney, especially when the local pot growers hold a fund raiser for him.

Time to give Allison a chance.

Mayor, City of Eureka- Frank Jager. No explanation needed.

Ward 1, Eureka City Council- Marian Brady. No explanation needed, although I will say I'm surprised at how many signs of hers I've seen around town.

Ward 3, Eureka City Council- Mike Newman. No explanation needed.

Local Measures:

Measure N- Yes. No explanation needed.

Measure O- No. Believe it or not, I make that decision with a bit of a heavy heart. I do think the city needs the money. Of course, the city can always can use more money. I'm just not going to voluntarily accept another tax.

If this was the only tax increase we were facing, I'd be a little more inclined to vote for it, but it isn't. We're facing up to a 50% increase in our water bills in Eureka. Should Prop 23 fail, our utility bills might go up as high as 60%. Taxes are going to have to be raised, eventually, at the local, state and federal level to pay of all the debt we've acquired.

Things don't look good, and I'm going to try and protect my finances as best I can.

GO, Downey!

YESSS!!! Mike Downey wins the race for Sheriff with 66% of the vote, according to the latest figures at Heraldo's. Looks like I was pretty close with my prediction of a landslide for Downey. I figured it would be closer to 70%, earlier on, though.

Then all the Hislop signs started showing up and I'll admit they had me worried. After all, we do have an awful lot of flakes living up here and their numbers seem to be increasing every day. Heck, Hislop got over 40% of the vote. Just goes to show how many flakes do live up here.

But not to worry. It's over now and the good guys won, at least in the Sheriff's race.

VOTE LOCAL CONTROL!

I thought this might be someone pulling off a spoof when I first saw and read of it over at Humbug's place, but it's true. Bonnie Neely is actually holding a fundraiser for her re- election campaign in Sacramento. That certainly deserves a copycat post from me.

Unbelievable. This has to be a first in a county Board of Supes race. I'm not sure what words describe it best: Balsy? Arrogant? Well, shameless certainly applies, if only because Bonnie was one of the proponents of Measure T. You know; the old Vote Local Control folks that wanted to prohibit campaign contributions in local races from "non- local" businesses.

I'm sure we won't hear any criticism of this fundraiser from the local lefties, though. After all, they aren't really concerned about outside money or influence in local elections, as long as it's for their candidate.

I would think most local folks would at least see it as tacky, though, if nothing else. After all, wouldn't it be a bit tacky for a candidate for Eureka City Council to hold a campaign fundraiser in Fortuna? Seems to me it's pretty much the same sort of thing.

Addendum: The North Coast Journal's Blogthing picked up the issue and there's been some discussion.

The Eye Does Jackson

District Attorney candidate, Allison Jackson, got a nice write up in this week's Arcata Eye. At least I thought it was a nice write up.

Hislop At The Garberville Rotary

Not sure just how revealing this speech Mike Hislop recently gave at the Fortuna Rotary is. It doesn't seem he's that good of a public speaker so it's hard to understand some of what he's saying. I can't pick on him for that since I'm a horrific public speaker myself, but some of the stuff he says just seems odd to me.

For instance, remarking on the billion dollar state deficit and how it might get worse yet he brings in more money from elsewhere to hire more people. Just seems kind of weird to me.

Or buying Harley Davidson motorcycles for Eureka P.D. because "...they're a great P.R. tool".

Again, kind of tough to understand what he was trying to say at times, but at least more understandable than Paul Gallegos' past My Word columns.

The Journal: Downey vs. Hislop

The North Coast Journal's cover story this week looks at the race for Humboldt County Sheriff. I kind of got the impression the writer was favoring Hislop, but that might just be because Downey is a rather humble guy, from my limited experience. It's not in his nature to go around telling people how great he is.

Seems to me Hislop is doing everything he can to make a case for himself, and not doing very well at it. There just aren't that many widespread complaints about the Sheriff's Office, aside from those we've been hearing over the last 35 years I've lived up here. The primary complaint being lack of deputies in the field.

I think Hislop's making another bad move in bringing up money being shuffled around within the Sheriff's Office budget. Truth be told, most agencies (and households) move money around within their budgets to cover shortfalls, as needed. It wouldn't surprise me if the District Attorney's Office has done the same thing a time or two.

Hislop is certainly the underdog in the race and I was surprised to see that brought up on the Humboldt Herald. Wasn't he supposed to have had a fundraiser at Babetta's, in Eureka a couple weeks ago? I see no mention of that on his Facebook page as there was with the earlier "standing room only" event at Big Louie's. Might it have been a flop?

It seems to me Hislop's pretty much spinning his wheels with this campaign. I'm wondering if he should cut his losses and just give it up?

Straw Poll For D.A.'s Race

For those that don't frequent Eric's blog, he's set up a straw poll for the D.A.'s race. I actually voted NOTA this time, if only because it's still a bit early and I think I might have at least some issues with all the candidates. Whether or not I choose one candidate by election time remains to be seen.

Hislop's Supporters

I feel so special. Really.

Mike Downey, Undersheriff of Humboldt County, stopped by the Matteoli's yesterday. He actually came across the street and chatted with me before going to the Matteoli's. How cool! What a guy.

I found out from Mike that his opponent, Mike Hislop, has a Facebook page. I've been dying to see who Hislop's supporters are so I went to his page to see if I could get any names. I was almost disappointed that, of the 76 "Friends" he has listed, I only recognized two names: Wayne Cox and Bill Honsal.

I was hoping for some surprises, but found none. Then again, it's still early.

Standing Room Only

Reading the Election Roundup section in today's Times- Standard, I'll give Mike Hislop's campaign some credit. They did something I never would of thought of:

When you have a campaign event, be sure and hold it in a venue small enough that you can claim you had a standing room only crowd no matter how many people show up. Big Louie's Pizza not being a very big place from what I've seen, it wouldn't take many people to fill that place up.

As an aside, they say people from all over the county, including Southern Humboldt, attended the event. I'm wondering if Eric Kirk was there? Nah, he probably would of mentioned it on his blog.

I'm dying to see who Hislop's supporters are.

DOWNEY WINS!

The race to get up the first campaign web page, anyway.

Hislop's Supporters

Did anyone attend Mike Hislop's official announcement for his candidacy in the Sheriff's race yesterday? The Times- Standard story mentions "several dozen supporters", but I'm wondering if there were really several dozen people there?

The only picture shown is that of Hislop and Gallegos. Don't the media usually take pictures of the candidate with a bunch of supporters behind him like they did with Virginia Bass? I'm dying to know if there are any names I know amongst his supporters. Anybody know?

I also wonder why he used the Best Western for his announcement instead of the courthouse as so many other candidates do?

Board of Supes Election: Libertarian Reasoning

I receive a letter from Virginia Bass a few days ago. Actually, not directly from her. It was one of those exploratory letters asking for support and donations for her upcoming campaign for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. So, I guess it's not too early to bring up next year's election.

I've said here and elsewhere I might well stand aside in this race as I don't see any compelling reason from a libertarian standpoint to support any of the candidates that have already announced their intentions to run.

I'll admit to Virginia Bass being my favorite if only because I've met her and I can't imagine anyone meeting Virginia and not loving the gal. But, as I've mentioned before, bad things have happened in Eureka during her and fellow candidate Jeff Leonard's terms on the city council- mandatory garbage service and outdoor smoking bans being two that come to mind. As a libertarian, would I want that sort of stuff to expand to the entire county?

Then there's incumbent Bonnie Neely. I'm sure I've had issues with her over the years. I suspect most of it just involves what appears to be pandering to the county's Left. Not sure that I can come up with anything to hold against her right now, at least from a libertarian standpoint.

So, we can use this thread for you out there to point out libertarian reasons for supporting any or all of the announced candidates for Humboldt County Board of Supervisors next year. This might be difficult for some of you as I know we have at least a few authoritarian types that visit this blog.

To further confuse the issue, I'm not sure just where land use policy falls within my reasoning from a libertarian standpoint. In other words, I wouldn't necessarily hold Neely's support of Citizen's for Real Economic Growth against her simply for that support alone, although pandering to the efforts of those opposed to the Marina Center I might well.

So, here's your chance to convince me to support your favorite candidate, but you have to at least come close to making a libertarian argument to do so. Ok. Let's hear it.