Some After Election Commentary Part 4 – the AD01 Race And It’s Consqeuences, My Closing Thoughts and Lessons That Can Be Learned

 2024 Elections  39 Responses »
Nov 092024
 

I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve learned a few things – many the hard way unfortunately. I wish people I cared about would stop making the mistakes I did.

There are some truths about being effective in politics, and this post is as much about AD-01 as it is about politics in general. So many people wrongly think being effective means you have to squish out. Heather Hadwick got a ton of institutional donor support from people that knew she is an Evangelical Christian, Pro-Life, Pro-Gun and is a conservative on pretty much all issues.

1. Tell the truth to would-be supporters. Period.

When Tenessa visited with various groups she would change her presentation to fit the group. While some of this is perfectly fine and normal like selling product to different groups – what I am referring to is running to the right of your opponent in the district while attempting to get to her left in meetings with Sacramento types. People talk. Inconsistincies get vetted quickly. You will always be better off telling people stuff you think they may not want to hear, you will earn respect. Just be consistent.

If you get caught in inconsistencies by influential people especially, it is fatal to your campaign.

2. Make endorsement decisions based on fact, not feeling.

I have lampooned several people on this blog, but have never once voted for a democrat over a Republican. But, in a primary – an endorsement should be based on viability as much as it is on conservative bona-fides. If an endorsement is an emotional decision, it can be embarassing when vetted. I don’t think a lot of people would be happy knowing they aligned themselves with Mike Madrid!

3. Rumors are bad. Just don’t engage.

There were several things that were said during this campaign by LaMalfa’s Staff, former LaMalfa Staff and other aligned electeds that were untrue. While this is commonplace in a campaign, why lower yourself and ruin your own reputation doing what others do? The 4H club lie that was started in Modoc County, the Pro-Choice Lie and others are examples of people’s bad behavior. A Campaign is not worth your integrity, or in the words of JD Vance, “Not worth losing family and friends over”.

Whisper campaigns only hurt you, they don’t help you. The taint will stick with you for years if you get mired in it.

4. As a candidate or supporter, make wise spending decisions.

Sometimes, you don’t have a whole lot of money to run your campaign with. It sucks and happens to a lot of candidates. A couple of the mistakes I saw in this campaign were classic. You don’t send scattershot advertising, you make your resources count by focusing on one or two mediums if that is all you can afford. 93 points of TV or a thin radio buy for 3 weeks on one station is not an effective use of money. (You need 300 points or more if you do TV) I also saw mailers to single counties in addition to the very small media buys.

There is no way Dave Gilliard was involved in the decisions I saw being made. He is a professional and is effective for his candidates.

On the same note, the El Dorado GOP sent a slew of text messages. Text messages by themselves are ineffective. I was told by an insider in El Dorado County that their county party was unable to afford a slate mailer. The Nevada GOP got $5,000 from the Yuba GOP to backfill their spending on AD-01. What other races in those counties could have been more directly and positively impacted with that money? In Placer, the Teacher’s Union took out a few incumbents. While the committee there did a better job IMO with their money, how distracted were they with AD-01?

5. Don’t forget – life goes on after the election is over.

I’ve written many times on this blog, that I made a lot of mistakes early in my career. In politics you rarely get a chance to make ammends. Screwing up really bad and making a campaign a personal mission or vendetta will have lasting conseqences. Don’t forget that sometimes, you may find yourself on the same side later on as some people you think are the spawn of satan in the current campaign you are working on.

There have been many times in my career when I have worked with people that had been on my blog in the recent past. Be careful, words matter a lot.

6. Don’t forget your purpose.

Why are you involved in politics? What are you trying to accomplish? Heather Hadiwck is going to take a significant pay cut to be a member of the legislature. She had a specific set of reasons that caused her to run. She articulated those several times in several places. Water, Fire, Crime, Economy. What I never saw from her was a self-aggrendizing agenda.

This is an excellent litmus test of a candidate. Investigate why they are running and test the depth of their knowledge of the issues they are campaigning on. I will submit that one of the overriding issues in the AD-01 Race is that you saw specific communication on specific issues versus an endorsement list. For the same substance reasons President Trump won re-election over a way better funded candidate with a slew of celebrity endorsements is similar to Hadwick’s victory over an opponent who seemingly had the whole political world in AD-01 on her side.

If a candidate speaks in terms that make you feel good, versus talking about issues that make you feel like you need to ask follow-up questions, that should set off alarm bells. Familiar is not good, being challenged or learning new stuff from a candidate is what you should look for.

Why are you involved in politics? What are you trying to accomplish? You should vet every candidate with those two questions first and foremost.

I need to finish up with some comments about Bethel Church and the American Council.

The American Council seems to be an effective group, but sometimes they make reactionary, quick decisions. They did so in this race as vetting would have shown that there was more than one Conservative Evangelical Christian running. I sincerely hope that group learned a few things from this cycle and their process. My opinion was they should have stayed out of AD01 due to their being multiple choices.

As I worked on this campaign, I continually heard from people in the community about their resentment over Bethel Church attempting to wield a lot of influence in local politics. Opinions were rife about why they were doing what they were. What I know for a fact is that some, not all of Bethel’s leadership are all about the New Apostolic Reformation Movement. The biggest problem I have seen when Churches get overtly involved in local politics is that they often make bad candidate decisions that taint the reputation of the church.

It pains me as an Evangelical Christian to have to take on Churches and Christian Groups on this blog. But, it boils down to one key thing – where was God in the decisions? Did they pray for wisdom? Did they seek God’s will before entering the fray? I did not like hearing what I heard about that large Church in Redding. It was sadder still to talk to good people driven further away from potential faith by what they saw happening.

Heather Hadwick Won. I hope there will be some way forward with the people that went all out for her opponent. I also hope that Heather’s opponent seeks God’s will in her own life, prays for wisdom and is able to move on well from this experience and will not repeat the mistakes that were made.

God’s will is what’s best for you – I hope all of you reading will seek that out.

The end.

Some After Election Commentary Part 3 – the AD01 Race And It’s Consqeuences, Who Spent What, Where? Follow Some of the Sub-Plots Too!

 2024 Elections  6 Responses »
Nov 082024
 

Did you know there is a tribe in Redding and a tribe nearby in Tehama County as well?

Yep – the Tehama Tribe is known as the Paskenta Band on Nomlaki Indians. You see their outfit on I5 a few miles south of Red Bluff. I am going to write a separate post later about all of their coordinated “Independent” Expenditures on behalf of Dave Gilliard’s clients. (I think they are coordinated, which, if I could prove my opinion true… would be illegal) Audette used Gilliard off and on in her ill-fated run for Assembly. (See Part 4 of this series coming shortly)

Then there is the Win-River folks in Shasta County. They want to move their Casino to a nice spot with frontage on I5 in the South End of Redding. Just two problems, Paskenta (aka Rolling Hills Casino) does not want the competition and the proposed Win River Site borders the land of one Red Emmerson of Sierra Pacific Industries. (Wait, you mean there is ANOTHER multi-millionaire NIMBY in the North State? I thought they were limited to Granite Bay!?)

While Ms. Audette’s supporters decry the Sacramento people that spent money on Heather Hadwick, they aligned themselves with some fascinating people! Here is the 6-30-2024 filing from the Paskenta Tribe. You will see payments to a Grassroots Lab Sacramento, CA 95815. Now just who is this Grassroots Lab:

Wait what? The Trump-Hating Co-Founder of the Lincoln Project??? That’s right! Boy do bad endorsements boomerang! The rag-tag band of Trump-Loving-Beyond-Everything-Else patriots that endorsed David Fennell (well some of them) and Tenessa Audette found themselves on the same side as Team Kevin McCarthy / Doug LaMalfa and now the Lincoln Project!?

The thought of Mike Madrid looking at election returns makes me laugh out loud and I am not even a huge Trump Fan. But the thought of all my friends in the North State aligning themselves with the crew that has been screwing them for years in party politics and an outfit that hired the worst-of-the-worst nominally GOP consultants is absurd. Madrid is probably needing therapy as he holds himself out as an expert in Latino outreach whilst watching the object of his rage (and paycheck) win a record level of support with Latino voters in 2024… as a bonus he is also watching the object of his IE work in AD-01 go down in flames as well.

The Paskenta Crew spent about $70K on Tenessa Audette through their own PAC.

But Wait! There’s more!

Paskenta dropped another $25K in to some radio ads for Tenessa! They used a firm run by Jason Scalese. Scalese is a good dude, and a conservative. He is part of the Scott Winn, Corey Uhden crew that run proxy drills for the CAGOP. (There’s that nexus again) I woof on Winn and Scalese sometimes, but on a personal level they are good guys. Their problem from where I sit is their allegiance to the McCarthy/LaMalfa establishment that kept Jessica Patterson and crew in power over the CAGOP. It is what it is, they have a right to a paycheck and nothing they did was unethical at all – I just am sitting here in amazement that their sworn enemies in CAGOP politics found themselves in the same trenches in the AD-01 Race. While Scalese was opposed by these folks for CAGOP Platform Committee, he was perfectly fine to align with against Heather Hadwick.

It is really hard to complain about the GOP-Leaning California Alliance for Progress and Education PAC pouring $151,000 in to Heather Hadwick knowing that nearly $100K was put in by a tribe on the other side that had a clear agenda for an Assembly District their facility is not in. Bonus, the CAPE PAC lit up Tenessa Audette to the tune of $34K+ as well. (More on that in a bit)

One of the many lies spread in the campaign was that CAPE PAC’s money came from Insurance Carriers.

Number 1, they spent money on 5 different races of which AD-01 was one.

Number 2, their main donors were pretty easy to see: Keeping California Working (A Coalition of Insurance Agents (like me), Technology, Energy and Health Care Providers), The Realtors, the Police Chiefs, The New Car Dealers, Anheiser Busch, Peace Officers (aka PORAC), a couple of Health Care Companies like Atria and Davita, but my favorite of all was the Committee to Support the Alliance of California’s Farmers and Ranchers.

Not a bad group to have helping you. I guess the nearly 80,000 miles Heather Hadwick put on her car was actually to be out there meeting people and showing up to stuff after all. Instead of attending events with the same 300 people outside of AD-01, Hadwick was out meeting with stakeholder groups like the Cattlemen’s Association, Fire Protection Groups and the like.

Audette, when she went to Sacramento did not do well (more on that soon). No wonder their crew ended up needing the support of a Tribe with an ulterior motivie in a vain attempt to counter-balance the law enforcement groups and business groups that were helping Heather Hadwick… who is pro-life, pro-family and pro-gun. Wait, you mean these Sacramento Swamp people aided a Conservative?!

The best attack line used against Heather Hadwick was a mistake on a candidate questionnaire in Modoc County that listed her as Pro-Choice. I was asked about it 9 months ago by a party insider and confirmed to them that it was a mistake. Nothing in Hadwick’s history indicates that she is anything but pro-life, but this mistake was ceased upon and spread like wildfire. (Yes, it was also spread by Erin Ryan, Brenda Haynes and others in team LaMalfa as well)

The County Parties also chipped in to help Audette. While I will not have the full scope of it until the year-end reports, it appears that several committees aggregated $20-30K+ worth of “member communications” on her behalf as well. They mostly sent blast text messages touting her long endorsement list, some posted a lot on social media as well. I saw three county parties put out slate mailers which are common, but most are too busy to have meaningful impact.

Most noteworthy was seeing Nevada County empty their treasury to Audette with a $4500 check. A couple of days later the Yuba GOP (which is in AD03, not AD01) that had also endorsed Audette, sent the Nevada GOP $5,000. This backfilling of money allowed Nevada County to produce their slate mailer for October.

The questions I have about the County Party Endorsements are simple: Why so much focus on AD-01? El Dorado County sent at least 10 unique text messages in to the district, where did the money come from? Did the County Parties sacrifice supporting local Republicans (many who were getting targeted by unions) in favor of AD-01? The bottom line is over $700,000 was spent on AD-01 in the aggregate, imagine what could have been done with that money elsewhere?

What impact do these decisions by the County Parties have on their ability to be effective or taken seriously in the future?

Your intrepid blogger is rightly concerned about the decision making and the ability of these folks to advance the party going forward – even more so as there is going to be a near complete turnover of CAGOP leadership and staff one way or another in March.

Part 4 is coming next where I wrap up this commentary on the AD-01 Race.

Some After Election Commentary Part 2 – the AD01 Race And It’s Consqeuences, What in the HELL Were the County Parties and CAGOP Doing?

 2024 Elections, California Republican Party  7 Responses »
Nov 072024
 

The Placer GOP, and the Nevada County GOP endorsed David Fennell. This is something even the Doug LaMalfa-controlled Shasta GOP could not bring themselves to do (Read on though, they tried).

This is the political equivalent of saying, “I don’t like you Megan Dahle so I am going to step on a landmine now. That will show you!”

You see, the canard that was used against Megan Dahle is that she never shows up to stuff, so they endorsed David Fennell who owes the CAGOP $150,000. The irritation turned in to an irrational rage with many of them in Placer and Nevada County. This is sad, because I have a lot of friends on both committees and there are good people there but they really embarrassed themselves.

I guess Placer held it to a 27.8 point win vs 50.6 Districtwide for Dahle?

Placer County led the way in November 2023, endorsing David Fennell and Tenessa Audette. The Audette endorsement was a transferrence of the irrational hatred of Megan / Brian Dahle onto Heather Hadwick. None of these people knew, and in my opinion wanted to know Hadwick. Now that Hadwick has bascially decimated Audette, perhaps these people will show some sort of self-awareness and give Hadwick the chance they never gave her before the election cycle started.

Hint: Hadwick is solid on every issue these people care about. Including Abortion (more on that later).

Nevada and El Dorado County endorsed Audette contemporaneously with Placer. CAGOP By-Laws indicate that you need 80% of the underlying counties to endorse in order to even be eligible for the endorsement. Those three accounted for around 33%. Shasta was the big prize at 40+% by itself. There is no path to 80 without it, which is why Team LaMalfa engaged in the tactics they did to hold an unprecedented 6 attempts including Brenda Haynes sleight of hand in the late September meeting.

Further, members of the Shasta GOP called for a division of the house versus a secret ballot and Haynes refused to do it. This is a violation of Robert’s Rules and someone with deep pockets could have sued her (and should) and the Shasta GOP over the violation. A division of the house (ask Tom Hudson) is automatic and is the privilege of any member of a body to request. A division of the house would have forced several people out in to the open and likely would have scuttled the endorsement of Audette in September by the Shasta GOP. Haynes knew it and her dishonest actions (by removing no endorsement as an option in addition) proved that Audette could not get party endorsements without personal anger, defective notice or game playing.

While Tenessa Audette was lining up party organizations benefitting from the above tactics, Heather Hadwick was lining up donors.

In April 2024, the Siskiyou GOP endorsed Tenessa Audette without noticing Hadwick of their meeting. (8.8% of the population) Once the LaMalfa crew had pulled their stunt in Shasta County in September, Audette applied for a CAGOP endorsement. I lodged a complaint to the CAGOP’s board that the Siskiyou GOP and Shasta GOP endorsement were defective. You see, the Shasta GOP violated the 5-day notice requirement in addition to everything else they did.

About that Siskiyou GOP Endorsement.

In 2022, When Kevin Kiley was running against Scott Jones for Congress, the Mono GOP screwed up their notice of Jones. David Stafford Reade, the longtime control agent in the North State was working for Jones as a consultant (while still on Doug LaMalfa’s payroll as Congressional Staff). Reade went to Danielle Cullum (her name at the time) who used to work for him many years prior. She is now a senior staffer for the CAGOP and based on what I know got the Kiley endorsement by the CAGOP held up at the behest of Reade over the Mono GOP issues.

Mono was made to re-do their endorsement twice more before Reade was vanquished. The CAGOP’s staff did not extend the same intervention to Team Hadwick. Perhaps this is because of the McCarthy / Doug LaMalfa connection of many of their staff. I guarantee if I was Mark Spannagel or David Reade, the CAGOP endorsement of Audette would have never happened given the circumstances. I erronously believed that they would handle AD01 the way they handled CA-03. I will be glad when the leadership of the party changes as their one-sided approach to things has been a hallmark of everything wrong with the establishment. It never occurred to me to hire an insider to run a drill on the CAGOP board, that was a mistake.

Further at the CAGOP board meeting where the endorsement was rendered, a member of the CAGOP’s board told the assembly that Hadwick was noticed in August for a meeting of the Siskiyou GOP. This was deceptive and confusing but gave the CAGOP’s board a way to avoid conflict.

When I complained about the defective notice of the Shasta GOP endorsement, I did not make mention of what Erin Ryan and Brenda Haynes had been doing as I knew there was a relationship between them and some of the CAGOP’s staff. At least two current CAGOP staff were on the list of fake CRA delegates from the infamous 2012 CRA Convention where 4 David Reade Controlled CRA units delivered delegates to endorse Mitt Romney for President.

But in 2024, the Audette supporters found themselves aligned with these people that had been controlling fake county parties and fake CRA units for years to churn out fake endorsements. Funny how politics works – especially when endorsements are made because of personal picadillos versus facts.

After Siskiyou endorsed in April, several months passed with no activity until the sudden re-emergence of the Shasta County making attempt 5 and then attempt 6 to endorse Audette.

However, the Nevada GOP endorsed David Fennell during that time. Both the Placer and Nevada GOP would send out member communication advocating for people to support David Fennell. Because Fennell owes the CAGOP $150,000+ over a failed lawsuit did the board of the CAGOP refused to consider him. (Note: The CAGOP’s Staff emailed Brenda Haynes some info about Fennell because it appears Haynes and crew were talking about endorsing him and indicated Fennell sued the CAGOP again in 2024 and the lawsuit was dismissed)

In October of 2024, the Amador GOP endorsed Tenessa Audette and like Siskiyou months before did not give Hadwick notice. In addition, the Sheriff of Amador County, a friend of Tex from Modoc endorsed Audette as well.

About that Amador GOP endorsement?

These County Party endorsements did nothing and may well have hurt their intended beneficiaries.

This whole post is actually pretty sad as you break down the nexus of each county party’s actions and the acquiensence of the CAGOP’s board to all of this stuff. The new CAGOP Chair is going to have her work cut out for her.

As I move in to part 3 of this series, you are probably realizing that the AD-01, SD-01 Race was a refiner’s fire.

So far we’ve learned that Doug LaMalfa is waning in influence and the ethics of his staff are becoming more widely known.

We’ve learned that County Party Endorsements Don’t Matter.

We’ve learned that the State Party Endorsement matters little.

But when I get in to the money and the players in the next post, the story gets even worse. To be continued.

Some After Election Commentary Part 1 – the AD01 Race And It’s Consqeuences The Humiliation of Congressman Doug LaMalfa (And Crew)

 2024 Elections, Aaron the Boogie Man, AD-01 Race, Heather Hadwick  3 Responses »
Nov 062024
 

It was the classic battle. The establishment against the activists. The Sacramento Crowd against the rag-tag coalition of the resistance. Or so they would have you believe.

The AD-01 Race violated so many conventional boundaries that one post simply is not enough space to fit it into one blog.

As of the date I am typing this blog – Heather Hadwick is Annihilating Tenessa Audette by 24.8%. The AD01 race ended up as an R vs R runoff because only 4 Republicans filed in the Spring Election, two of them were from the Redding City Council. Redding is the largest city in AD01 and its’ Mayor is Tenessa Audette whose appointment as Mayor is the subject of Brown Act issues. (as documented on this blog)

Mark Mezzano the third place finisher, endorsed Heather Hadwick in the fall. Mezzano had his own re-election to Redding Council to worry about, but was aggressively promoting Hadwick. He may have cost himself his own city council election in the process of helping Heather. Time will tell as 1/3 of the vote is still out in Shasta County.

The AD01 runoff was as nasty as a “major” campaign gets, but in a different way. There was not big money spent in AD-01, at least not until the last three weeks. I am going to set up this series of blogs by laying out the battle lines as they do not fit any convention of any campaign I have ever seen.

Team Tenessa:

A ton of endorsements at the local level – few came with money, including Ted Gaines who endorsed and did not donate.

Congressman Doug LaMalfa who engaged in a major way on her behalf (something he has never done before on this scale)

County Party and the State Party endorsements and structure (this will be it’s own separate blog)

The Paskenta Band of Nomilaki Indians

Some Elements of Bethel Church

Team Hadwick:

Brian Dahle / Megan Dahle / Mark Mezzano and a few others

Nadine Bailey / Your Intrepid Blogger – the two most prominent anti-LaMalfa people in the North State (and associated allies)

A bunch of “Third House” donors and stuff

On Paper, It sure looks like a wipe-out for Tenessa.

What it did was wipe out any pretense Tenessa could have of being the Anti-Establishment candidate as she had all those endorsements. (You know, the establishment)

I had lambasted Audette in a previous post for having $92.66 in the bank. This is what she had when the CAGOP endorsed her, more on the CAGOP endorsement later, but suffice to say if the state party leaders will endorse a broke candidate perhaps they need to adopt a formal set of standards.

It Got worse, at the Mid-October Break, Audette was $15,000 in the hole. I mean for realz. She had $9K in the bank and $24K in debt. Why in the hell did Doug LaMalfa go berzerk and co-sponsor a mailer with her, send 6 different emails from his campaign account with her name in lights (as FEC rules forbid him singling her out), had her voice a spot for him (LaMalfa never needs to advertise unless dealing with a serious challenger), and was otherwise out campaigning openly for her after coming out of the closet for her in late September?

He knew she was broke ($92.66 net as of mid sept) when he did all of this!

One of the reasons your intrepid blogger did not write much about the AD-01 race while it was burning is that we (Team Hadwick) did not want to get in the same mud as LaMalfa’s crew. Having dealt with LaMalfa’s crew for 25 years, I know their tactics.

Brenda Haynes and Erin Ryan were part of the David Reade Crew from way back, but they may well have tought Mr. Stafford Reade a few tricks of their own. (Hayes and Ryan still infest LaMalfa’s congressional office)

Haynes and Ryan were trying their best to screw over Hadwick from the very first weeks of her campaign for assembly over a year ago. The LaMalfa crew has never forgiven Brian Dahle for beating their stooge Rick Bosetti (and gobs of cash from Charles T. Munger Jr.) years ago for AD01. Both of them are barely civil to me when they see me and will be less so after reading this blog about their bad behavior.

Wanna know where the 4H Club lie originated? With Tex Dowdy most likely. Tex is the bitter Sheriff of Modoc County that refused to give Hadwick time off to care for an ailing relative. Hadwick had no choice but to resign and go to a different department in Modoc County, and Tex veiwed this as disloyalty. Mix in Former LaMalfa Staffer Shane Starr, long time LaMalfa acolytes Geri Byrne and Ned Coe (All three Modoc Supervisors) and a smear/rumor was born. With delivery vehicles like the Brenda Haynes and Erin Ryan, it spread amongst insider circles and was also used by Ms. Audette.

You’d think with the Sheriff of Modoc and three of Modoc’s Supervisors in her Corner, that Audette would have beaten Hadwick in Modoc? Think again, Hadwick is sitting on 70% of the vote in Modoc County! Whoops, Team LaMalfa, that was not smart.

I am not sure where the New Apostolic Reformation Movement condones use of rumors to advance the cause of the church in politics, but my guess is the Bethel Church of What’s Happening Now has a chapter in their course that is all about it. (Sign up online now!)

As recently as the morning of election day, team Hadwick was fielding calls from people. They went along the lines of calling Doug LaMalfa’s office asking why he was supporting Audette for Assembly and having Brenda Haynes say flat out, “Because Heather Hadwick is a thief!” Note: Hadwick has had to pass backgorund checks for her current job and the director of that local 4H club is a strong supporter of hers.

This is your congressman. You know, he’s one of us. This is the same dude whose people created 4 fake CRA units in the north state to rig conventions and CRA endorsements.

Yes, the same people that had counties like Tehama, Yuba and Glenn with garbage central committees that did not meet yet churned delegates out to team McCarthy/Jessica Patterson for years. Somehow, the same party leaders that had fought with Team LaMalfa/McCarthy to wrest control of county parties away jumped in with them in the ill-fated AD-01 massacre of 2024? If you are confused by this, this is why it is going to take a few posts to unravel this mess.

That is correct, the Central Committees team LaMalfa / David Stafford Reade had been screwing found themselves on the same side as Team LaMalfa because of a seething irrational hatred of two people they don’t even know. But the rage was transfered onto Heather Hadwick and was of course used by team LaMalfa because that’s how they have rolled for years.

Why did LaMalfa do what he did? Your intrepid blogger waits for evidence or corroboration before writing stuff, unlike LaMalfa’s staff who will say whatever is convenient in order to achieve a short term goal. The reason I bring this up again is that the same insider community where the 4h rumors were aired, also espoused several theories as to the relationship between Audette and LaMalfa. Be it money, power, political or otherwise, I had no proof so I wrote nothing.

One theory I had, I put in writing a month ago:

Lest you think the LaMalfa endorsement is a big deal, Haynes and Ryan have had his stuff in a lockbox for years and we all knew the endorsement was coming eventually. (More on Ryan and Haynes later)

With regard to the Shasta GOP endorsement, Haynes is the “chair” of the Shasta GOP. Her tenure has been marked by the same kind of in-fighting as many of her predecessors. After telling the Dahle’s in August that the AD-01 / SD-01 Endorsement was not coming up again, she did indeed reneg on that word (consistent with her long established pattern) and agendized it once again in Late September.

This time, she abused her authority as Chair of the Shasta GOP and gave Hadwick defective notice (more on why the CAGOP Board ignored that issue in a future post) and changed the rules of engagement without telling anyone until the meeting itself. She changed the ballots to have no “No endorsement” option. This converted 3 “No Endorsement” votes to abstentions thus allowing the endorsement that had failed 14-9 in August to Carry in September 14-6 with 3 abstentions.

Lies and dishonest tactics are the standard operating procedure for Team LaMalfa and they pulled out all of the stops in the AD-01 Race and they ate the whole thing when the results of the election came in.

I had another theory. The personal Hatred of Team LaMalfa for Nadine and myself. As LaMalfa’s crew had began the personal smear campaign early (say September 2023) when it was barely known that Nadine was a volunteer campaign leader and I was on the payroll, I had always wondered if that was a part of their nexus.

Perhaps LaMalfa engaged after being publicly challenged not just on this blog, but by others in this district and went on an ego-feuled rampage to show everyone who was boss?

Doug LaMalfa and his crew were held accountable by the voters of AD-01 for their slime, and Mr. LaMalfa hurt himself politically as a result of what he and his team did.

But, what about the County Parties and the State Party? Why did they get ensnared in the AD-01 Mess? What about that dammed Tribe that dumped money in to Tenessa? Bethel Church? To Be Continued…

Pictured, Assemblywoman-Elect Heather Hadwick with State Senator Brian Dahle