Mendocino County Today: May 27, 2012

CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS were due last week. Few surprises. Congressman Mike Thompson has raised $1.2 million dollars in his campaign to defeat nobody for his new seat to the south of us. Jared Huffman still leads the dash for cash in the race to succeed Thompson for this area, having raised a million bucks. Stacey Lawson is still writing checks to herself from her personal fortune; she's raised about $900,000. Norman Solomon, who lacks Lawson's personal wealth and Huffman's corporate and pac connections, is in third place with about $600,000, much of it raised from national progressives, including show biz and music people. (Every time I see one of these groupie-like lists of musicians and actors I'm sorely tempted not to vote for their candidate. But Solomon has been a good guy for a long time, sooooo…) If he weren't in the race I'd go for Adams; at a mere $200,000 raised, she can't keep up with Big Slut, the corporate, pac and show biz money, but she's very good on the issues and, as an RN, you know she's worked hard at a hard job and she's a reality-based, sensible person. (Hmmm. I may just have talked myself into voting for her.) The remaining eight candidates sleep on friend's couches when they go on the road.

ASSEMBLY MEMBER WES CHESBRO, who has seemingly represented this area since he emerged from the womb, has upwards of $100,000 cash on hand while his main challenger, Tom Lynch of Guerneville, has raised less than $4,000. If Chesbro is re-elected he will be able to retire in place since he will be termed out from further service in the Assembly or the Senate.

IN THE ONLY LOCAL RACE OF INTEREST, Supervisor John McCowen, running for a second term as Ukiah-area rep, has raised a modest $6,000 and spent $4,000, mostly for a campaign mailer. Aside from the mailer, McCowen's main message is carried by his homemade signs which blanket Ukiah. By contrast, Andrea Longoria, the disgruntled County employee running against McCowen, has raised nearly $17,000 and spent $15,000. Both candidates say they support the local economy, but McCowen spent his campaign money here at home while Longoria spent $8,875 for campaign literature and mailings with a company (probably selected for her by SEIU) based in South Pasadena. McCowen employed Willits Printing and a mailing service in Ukiah. When candidates go outside the local area for their mailers it is a reliable indicator that someone else is calling the shots for them, in this case SEIU and that local political mastermind, Joe Louis Wildman.

SEIU AND AFFILIATED LABOR UNIONS have given Longoria $14,000. Longoria is the Chief Steward and Negotiator for the SEIU bargaining unit which represents the County employees who work in social services and a few smaller offices. Longoria is also the Mendocino County Area Representative on the Oakland SEIU Executive Board, which makes the decisions on how much money to hand out to their endorsed candidates. Longoria's SEIU connections, and her single issue focus on getting the recent pay cut overturned, raise serious questions about conflict of interest. Will Longoria, an SEIU negotiator, be allowed to sit in on Supervisors’ strategy sessions during SEIU labor negotiations?

LONGORIA IS ALSO BACKED by the Pinoleville Pomo Nation (PPN) which kicked in $1,312. PPN has big plans for an Indian casino just north of Ukiah, next to Ackerman Creek, on the former site of Ken Fowler Motors. Reliable sources say the tribe, supported by outside gambling interests, has been paying $30,000 monthly for an option on the property, with only $5,000 going as a credit against the eventual sale of the property. Leona Williams took over as tribal chair of PPN about 20 years ago and has succeeded in disenrolling everyone except members of her extended family. If the casino goes forward, PPN will need to negotiate an agreement with the County to mitigate impacts to traffic and for increased law enforcement. PPN no doubt thinks it would be useful to have a personal vote on the Board of Supes, but the donation to Longoria presents an obvious conflict of interest.

THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S POLITICAL CAUCUS has also donated $1,000. to Longoria, apparently on the theory that any woman is better than any man. The debauched Mendo chapter of an otherwise honorable entity long ago became a tool of a few ethically challenged Democratic Party hackettes and one deballed hack, the aformentioned Wildman. The Mendo NWPC is three persons — Wildman, Val Muchowski and Mary Anne Villwock.

TWO YEARS AGO the NWPC failed to support Wendy Roberts for Fifth District Supervisor against Dan Hamburg. because Joe Louis Wildman, who controls the NWPC endorsement process, was for Hamburg and against Roberts. This time, Wildman, who opposes McCowen solely on the basis of his vote for contracting out, or “privatizing,” operation of six small solid waste transfer stations, has swung NWPC behind the marginally qualified Longoria. $16,412 of the $16,767 raised by Longoria comes from NWPC and the union and tribal interests that are backing her. Only $355 comes from real people with real names. You never hear from the Mendo NWPC except at election time when it suddenly activates itself.

MCCOWEN & LONGORIA were on the Access Show with Norman deVall last Friday. Longoria kept saying the County is “hemorrhaging” money, but when contracting out operation of the transfer stations came up, she said she was 100% opposed to “privatization.” McCowen pointed out that contracting out the operation of the transfer stations saved the County $500,000 a year and improved service. It also contracted out these trash operations to a reputable and long-time local businessman, Jerry Ward of Willits. LONGORIA WENT ON to say the County should have continued the operation to bring in revenue for the County. McCowen pointed out that Fort Bragg, which jointly owns the Caspar transfer station on the Coast, considered taking over operation of Caspar but concluded it would cost Fort Bragg $100,000 a year to operate even if the rates were increased. The other five transfer stations combined, scattered widely around the County, have only half the total volume of the transfer stations and are even less economical to operate than Caspar.

WHEN UNION REPS talk about “privatization” locally you would think Halliburton and Blackwater were lurking in the wings. Solid Waste of Willits (SWOW), run by local Willits guy Jerry Ward, was portrayed as an evil corporate outsider. In fact, since SWOW took over operation of the transfer stations, they are cleaner and better maintained, and service and hours of operation have been increased. And the County is no longer paying $500,000 a year to subsidize the operation.

MCCOWEN & LONGORIA agreed that Costco would be good for Ukiah. Longoria went on to say that she was totally opposed to Wal-Mart, but her campaign statement, filed the day before showed that she spent several hundred dollars at the local Wal-Mart for so-called campaign paraphernalia. Longoria also claimed $342.70 spent for gas at the Quick Stop on Airport Park Boulevard was “campaign paraphernalia.” According to the Fair Political Practices Commission, campaign paraphernalia is supposed to include such things as lawn signs, buttons and bumper stickers. No mention of gasoline. And how do you spend $342.70 on gas to drive around Ukiah? When it comes to travel reimbursements, Kendall Smith may have met her match.

DAN GJERDE & REX GRESSETT were also on the Access Show. Gjerde is running to replace Kendall Smith, who is retiring in disgrace following her forced re-imbursement of a portion of the travel funds she illegally diverted to herself. Gjerde was unopposed until a couple of weeks ago when Gressett qualified as a write in candidate. Sounding rather scattered, Gressett accused Gjerde of being a shill for Georgia Pacific's development plans for the old GP mill site. Gjerde patiently explained that the future of the mill site would be determined by a community process and it would undoubtedly go through changes as it went through hearings at the Planning Commission, City Council and Coastal Commission.

WHEN A CALLER ASKED about MCOG and LAFCO, Gressett said he could take the question and then veered off deep into gibberish, making it clear he'd never heard of them. When deVall tried to reel him back in Gressett admitted he didn't know anything about MCOG. When Gjerde had his chance he succinctly described MCOG and LAFCO, a couple of joint powers agencies, and their roles in local government. (Alert opposition to Gjerde, who is on the MCOG Board, might question the existence of these undemocratic entities, especially the way they obligate taxpayers to expenditures without taxpayer approval.)

WHEN DE VALL encouraged the candidates to question each other, Gjerde asked if it was true that Gressett had recently pled guilty to hitting someone in the mouth, and had he ever been arrested previously. Gressett, with refreshing candor, responded with alacrity that he had indeed pled guilty to punching a signature gatherer in the mouth, allegedly for pestering a child, and he also said that he had been arrested a few other times for punching someone in the face. If nothing else, if Gressett is elected, the BOS meetings should get more interesting.