Right On Daily Blog

Wayne Nader ran for Placer County Supervisor in SUP D5 as a full-portfolio NIMBY, BANANA, etc. He was a champion of trees and wildlife, so he said. But your intrepid blogger found out that he was a developer in a past life and it was party time.

That is correct, Mr. Nader. I am the person responsible for turning your campaign 2200 degrees. I know that Mr. Nader has told people it was Keeeerk Yeeewleeeer who wuz behind the attacks. Unfortunately for Wayne, my artillery was able to reach that part of Placer even easier than other parts, and these mailers literally wrote themselves:

When I designed this mailer, I was pretty surprised that the “Republican” in the race was actually the more liberal of the two. Nader was an original Jim Holmes supporter, and I have always known him to be Pro-Choice and socially liberal. But seeing the rest of the package was unnerving. The above was sent to inform Republicans of who Nader is and the next was all about Nader’s history as an eeeeevil developer.

The problem for Mr. Nader is that he got rich selling land. Land that was used to build tract housing in North Lincoln – everything people in Sup D5 hate. Whoops.

I do not fault the Placer GOP for endorsing Nader – he is a registered Republican, but they should have stayed out of the race as the non-Republican was more conservative by far!

Bad Wayne.

But then there is the curious case of how Mr. Rico Suave Anthony DeMattei beat Mike Murray. Before I break that down – I need to point something out to the election fraud crew. Many are upset that John Duarte and Michelle Steel have both fallen behind in the late ballot counting and are screaming foul play. Allow your intrepid blogger (who has seen actual cheating) to point out the obvious about the legitimacy of the defeat of both of them (should it happen).

In AD 36 – A D+10ish district, Republican Jeff Gonzalez is beating Communist Joey Acuna by 5,000 votes and the margin is changing little either way with additional ballot drops. This is a flip and Gonzalez got limited support in his effort. Update: Gonzalez got $1.36MM from the caucus.

In AD47 – Greg “Landslide” Wallis of the 86 vote win in 2022 was TRAILING TWO WEEKS AGO. But he caught and passed his commie-pinko opponent and now he is leading by 5,500 votes! This is a hold of a gerrymandered to be dem district! YAY GREG!

In AD58 – Clarissa Cervantes, part of a powerful dem family in Riverside County has been defeated by Republican Leticia Castillo. Castillo was not supported by anyone on the R side, and was outspent 15-1. This is also a flip.

In AD74 – which now tilts Dem, Laurie Davies survived $1Million+ of Dem IE Money and is winning by 3,000 votes. (This gives you some flavor for how obscene it was to dump $200,000 in to a Roseville Council Race)

Two other Republicans were heavily supported in attempts to turn dem districts and both got hammered by 8 points.

IN SD37 – Stephen Choi who few gave a chance of winning, hammered his pinko opponent by 5,000 votes.

(PS In AD07, Josh Hoover who won narrowly in 2022 HAMMERED his opponent by 16,000 votes in Sac County)

The three flipped leg seats are the first such wins since the 1980’s for the GOP in California. Note that AD74 and SD37 share territory with Michelle Steel who is losing her seat in Congress.

If there was election fraud these 5 races would not have turned out the way they did.

Perhaps when you are disappointed with the results, take a look at the money, the candidate and what YOU could have done to change the outcome. (Such as run down to San Joaquin or Orange County to cure ballots for Duarte or Steel?) Election Fraud only happens if you let it – such as running laps on McCarran with your Trump Flags while dozens of Dem Operatives are dragging ballots out of people… think it through.

In the case of Jeff Gonzalez, he is a fantastic candidate, fantastic story and he worked his ass off.

In the case of Wallis and Davies – they both knew they were going to get hunted down so they raised a ton of money, dug in and did their respective Jobs.

In the case of Leticia Castillo, a determined woman who was an anti-corruption crusader sold her message in a lopsidedly democrat district. Your intrepid blogger wrote about Clarissa Cervantes several times – including the slap on the hand she got for her second DUI (that we had to out before the local media corrected themselves admitting it was #2). The dem machine asceeded to the Cervantes family and pulled the levers to nominate her. Gallagher and crew should write them a thank you letter.

Stephen Choi? This guy has upset the best political thinkers at least twice that I can recall. Hat tip to him. Well done sir.

Next up, let’s talk Rocklin and SUP D3. Someone Wanna Tell Me What the $#&#% Happened in Placer County? rolls on…

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.