BOS contests set up for 4th and 5th Districts

4th District – which is basically Eureka and a few surrounding areas will have three candidates vying for Virginia Bass’s seat. Natalie Arroyo, Kim Walford-Bergel, and former Eureka City Council member Mike Newman are the candidates.

In the 5th we have incumbent Steve Madrone facing a challenge from Larry Doss, previously the Harbor Commissioner for the First District.

I’ve been told that the people backing the “conservatives” Newman and Doss are going to drop boocoo bucks into their campaigns, much like the 30g “money bombs” of the BOS races of 2012 and 2014. But I’m not sure money has the same impact on elections anymore, now that social media has such an impact. And progressives have been winning all of the Eureka municipal elections since 2014 by the Kerrigan method – walking the neighborhoods and getting into living rooms.

Conservatives have also lost by seriously misreading Eureka’s electorate and running as if the city was the Panhandle of Florida or some other region of Trumpistan. The city has its problems, but it’s just not that bleak. In fact, for most of us, it’s a pretty pleasant place to live. And we’re hopeful about the future between the internet cable coming across the ocean, the potential wind farm, the university upgrade (if that pans out), etc. From what I remember about Newman, I don’t think he will take the Trumpian path. If he’s planning to, then he’s already lost. I expect he’s going to push the ” line.

There is also, I’m told, some institutional resentment that Steve Madrone is even in there. It represents a cultural change in local government, and if he holds on and Kim or Natalie win in November, the cultural change might translate into policy change.

Lastly, I’m hearing grumbling in the progressive community about the fact that the two women in the Fourth District race might “split the vote.” Well, they will in June. But unless Newman collects more than 50 percent (in which case it doesn’t matter what they split), there will be a runoff in November where the voting demographics tend to favor progressives just a little more anyway. It means there are two progressive voices in the campaign and at the debates. Progressive activists always love to find something to stress over. People being engaged and running for office is a good thing. Democracy is a good thing. And Eureka loves on both Kim and Natalie. Hell, Natalie ran in the most conservative ward the last time around and still came up with more than half the vote against two conservative opponents, while Kim crushed her opponent in a more progressive ward.

I think the signs go up in March, but I expect that the campaigns will kick in over the next few weeks.

When you indulge the stupidity of the anti-CRT narrative

The result is a vote to ban an award-winning Holocaust account graphic novel from teenage curriculum because nudity and swear words.

And you do this on the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day – commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s liberation of Auschwitz.

Meanwhile:

48% of Americans under 40 cannot name one concentration camp.

63% don’t know that millions were killed in the Holocaust

11% think the Jews carried out the Holocaust

You can read more on that depressing study through this link.

Who will replace Justice Breyer?

We are fairly certain that it will be a black woman, because President Biden kind of made that promise during the campaign. If he holds to that, these are the four most likely candidates.

Our own California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger. Appointed by Brown. Clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens. Argued a bunch of cases in front of SCOTUS on behalf of the Obama administration. I have mixed feelings about her from a civil libertarian point of view. But she is definitely qualified. Relatively young – in her mid 50s I think.

DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her recent Circuit Court appointment means that she’s already vetted and could be passed through in a hurry. She signed off on the recent decision to allow the Jan. 6 Committee access to Trump’s records with the National Archives – the one SCOTUS voted 8-1 to uphold. She has public defender experience when the vast majority of judges with criminal law experience were prosecutors. But she is Harvard undergrad, and Harvard law, and that’s why I don’t think she will be the choice. More on that in a moment.

Second Circuit Judge Eunice Lee. Former New York Public Defender appointed as of last August – the longest serving public defender to ever be appointed a federal appellate court judge. You have to keep her on the short list judge because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer loves her, but…. her law degree is from Yale. I think that’s a detriment this time around.

And the winner is, imo…..

South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs. First of all, she’s being pushed by House Majority Whip and Civil Rights Movement veteran James Clyburn, who pretty much won the primary nomination for Biden when the South Carolina primary came up. Biden has already nominated her to the DC Court of Appeals, which is still pending. She spent a decade in private practice, then served as a trial judge. She served as Deputy Director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, and as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers Compensation Commission.

But most important of all – she is not Ivy League! Before the midterms, the Democrats desperately need to fight off the impression of cultural elitism, particularly as they are being hammered with the critical race theory issue. She obtained her law degree at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and would be one of two of the nine Justice without an Ivy League pedigree, and the only one to have attended a public law school.

When Libertarians turn on Hayek

This is just one of the funniest Internet occurrences I’ve seen. The quote is, of course, a fairly famous one from the late F.A. Hayek who was a free market extremist economist most often cited by the Ayn Rand crowd. You would think they would recognize the quote, or at least understand its meaning. Friedrich bore almost no resemblance to Salma and was probably not very closely related. Borowski is herself in the libertarian milieu but probably got tired of the misogyny on her own forum and so pulled the prank and some of the men went for it hook, line, and sinker. Blocking out their names was a nice gesture of mercy, but would they have done the same for her? I guess that’s not the point.

Roe the Vote Rally this Saturday

Please join the Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund for the Roe the Vote Rally at the Humboldt County Courthouse on January 22, 2022, from 1-3 p.m. This rally will honor the 49th anniversary of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade and will feature a program with the Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund, Clergy for Choice, and local officials. Attendees are encouraged to bring signs and dress warmly. Masks are required. Local Covid-19 protocols will be followed. This will be a free, outdoor, family-friendly event.

Roe the Vote Rally
Saturday, January 22, 2022
1 PM – 3 PM
Humboldt County Courthouse, Eureka

On December 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, wherein the state of Mississippi explicitly urged the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Sadly, the Court’s conservative majority appears poised to roll back abortion rights. This leaves people of reproductive age at risk of losing access to safe, legal abortions in their home state. On January 22, 2022, make your voice heard at the Roe the Vote Rally in Humboldt County and take a stand for reproductive justice. Contact Public Affairs officer Marisa Formosa at (707) 502-3008 or mformosa@ppnorcal.org for more information or to get involved.

In solidarity,

Gilda Gonzales
President
Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund

The Interview

I finally got to listen to it, or this portion of it.

If you haven’t been interviewed by a real reporter in decades and decide that you are desperate enough for attention that you’ll give it a try, you probably shouldn’t start with NPR. They will fact-check you. This is about 7 minutes of the 9 minutes of interview before Trump hung up on Inskeep. He had agreed to 15 minutes. My guess is that he will stick to Fox, Newsmax, and OAN from now on.

There are in fact Republicans who put principles before partisanship

The Ohio gerrymander of Congressional districts was that bad!

Addendum: As I said before, Republicans had pretty much tapped out most of what they could gain through gerrymandering the last time around. You can only draw so many “snake,” “duck” and “octopus” districts. Democrats had only gerrymandered in Maryland. Now they’ve done it in Illinois. Open question as to whether they will do it in New York. There are multiple lawsuits in each of the 15 or so gerrymandered states, including the 2 Democratically gerrymandered – some based on state law and some federal. There are even lawsuits being filed in places with independent commissions, including Arizona where Latino groups believe that their communities were harmed by the approved map.

So far no California lawsuits about the statewide maps, though there was a lawsuit about the process which was rejected by the state Supreme Court in December.

For those who think omicron is no big deal

Omicron isn’t “mild” for hospitals. In fact, we have a serious problem.

If Fox News covered the insurrection the way it covered BLM protests

Thanks to the Daily Show

Fourth District Supervisor seat will be occupied by a progressive next year

The Supervisor will either be Kim Bergel or Natalie Arroyo. Virginia Bass will not be running for reelection (her statement is very interesting and worth a read) and another conservative candidate Thomas Koors dropped out two days after he announced.

Maybe the Republicans will find somebody to run, but the way the elections have gone in Eureka over the past few cycles, I really don’t think it’s going to go well for them. Koors himself admitted he wasn’t getting the feedback he was hoping for about vaccine mandates and homeless issues.

This means that the Board will have it’s first solid progressive majority – probably ever – unless Larry Doss accomplishes a miracle upset in his carpetbag challenge to Steve Madrone in the Fifth District. Maybe we can revisit the General Plan and actually move the local economy forward by embracing the present let alone the future? Maybe we don’t look to big cannabis to replace big logging? Maybe we can be proactive and encourage investment around the fiber-optic line that’s supposed to reach us within the next couple of years? Seems like there might be tech companies who would like to open shop in a pretty place like ours. Is anybody making phone calls?

Anyway.