Virginia Bass
Humboldt County supervisorial candidate Virginia Bass wants to court business — any business — to Eureka.
From the looks of her recent interview with the North Coast Journal, all value judgment and legitimate public concern goes out the window in sacrifice to the great mythology of “jobs.” The Journal called her comments “almost philosophical.”
Bass says Humboldt County has a bad rep among businesses due of community rejection of a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant, which would have stored and transported a highly explosive material near the county’s largest population center. Prior to that, we had the gall to stand up to SoCal interests who wish to take our most precious and abundant resource — water — to feed the development monster in San Diego. Shame on us.
But perhaps more disturbing is her admitted ignorance of the county’s most contentious issue over the last three years.
While Bass is quick to criticize incumbent Bonnie Neely for the long process to update the Humboldt County General Plan, Bass admits she hasn’t taken any of this objectionable time to study even the most controversial aspect — land use for Ag and Timber land.
“I haven’t really thought in detail about that,” she told the Journal. And why should she? The developer interests who have padded her campaign war chest will tell her how to vote. No sense reading and attending meetings with so many willing string-pullers at your side. At last report HumCPR chairman Lee Ulansey had donated $1,500 to her campaign for supervisor.
As noted earlier by the Humboldt Herald, Ulansey also donated office space for Bass’ 2006 Mayoral campaign worth $4,500. She thanked him by attempting to appoint him to the Eureka Planning Commission.
The Journal correctly points out that the next Board of Supervisors will hold more power than usual due to the adoption of the General Plan Update.* You can be sure this is why the developers are lining up behind Bass (and Ryan Sundberg in the 5th District). To hell with the resource lands. Their supporters want to build, baby, build.
And because of the value judgment thingy noted above, Bass will vote the way of her supporters because of the yobs, yobs, yobs. Never mind the hits to future ag and timber production in Humboldt County, which she hasn’t “really thought about.”
______________
*Unless an expedited timeline wraps up the process in 2010.
Hooked on chocolate, I can understand. Hooked on drugs, sure. Hooked on a feeling, sometimes.
Hooked on Bass? No.
Using the candidate responses to Humboldt CPR questions in the pricey 20 page insert tucked into the current NCJ as a guide, you could also add Johanna Rodoni and Allison Jackson to the list of candidates that developers are lining up behind.
Asked about 4 “key” property rights premises, the candidates responded roughly as follows:
Assessor Race
Rodoni – Agrees with HCPR on each premise.
Brooks – Assessor is non-partisan. Let me explain what assessors do.
Wilson – Let me explain what assessors do. Assessor not involved in these issues.
D.A. Race
Jackson – These questions have nothing to do with DA office, but I know what you want to hear, so here is my take on them – which agrees with yours.
Hagen – I know about land law but commenting would be inapposite to duties of a DA. (Yes, he actually used a word that would send most of us scrambling for a Websters.)
Gallegos – These are important issues but would be inappropriate for your DA to respond.
The insert also provides a handy quide to businesses who would benefit directly and indirectly from the most build-happy general plan alternative. At least now I know which local innkeepers I should steer visitors away from patronizing.
You forgot hooked on phonics.
So let’s review the NCJ article, to get some further insight into how the local press operates:
First the story: “Mr X, a 25 year old worker with the Bass campaign, seen tabling with them on May 1st, apparently left a threatening voice message at the Neely campaign, after having driven behind Neely heckling her while she walked in the district. The daily and weekly never reported word one, until this week’s NCJ.
Paragraphs 1-3: Threatening sounding message left on Neely campaign voice mail. Leaked to Herald. Neely also “verbally thrashed” while campaigning.
Paragraph 4,5: EPD to Neely, “Yawn, sounds like too much work. Nothing to see.”
Paragraph 6,7: Here’s the person who did the “verbal thrashing,” here’s the person who did the phone message. But the person has no comment.
Paragraphs 8,9,10,11: The Bass campaign gets to thrash Neely for complaining about two stalking incidents. The nerve.
Paragraph 12, 13: The Neely campaign gets to respond solely to the Bass campaign’s complaint about them not being polite victims.
Paragraph 14, 15: The nerve of anyone to tell the public!
Actually, I thought the HumCPR newsletter was pretty good. Even if you don’t agree with all their positions they did ask pretty straight forward questions. The responses ranged from a truthful position statement, spin, or the middle finger. All pretty telling for voters. It’s no secret who HumCPR would be happiest to see elected but the lack of bias is refreshing. Even Ulansey’s rant had good advice. All in all, well done.
How would a supervisor Bass as opposed to council member Bass changed the outcome of the LNG issue?
I wonder if anyone actually thinks any campaign in Humboldt County will receive objective coverage. What difference does it make whether a candidate has opinions you agree or disagree with, if no media outlet actually tells you the truth about the candidates’ opinions, without spinning them on behalf of the county’s good ol’ boys.
Thank heavens for Heraldo. The “award winning” paper’s behavior shows exactly how much the awards are worth.
Uh, let me guess. You don’t like Virginia Bass either, do you, Heraldo?
What’s not to like? She’s clueless about the General Plan Update and openly dismissive of citizens who don’t share her viewpoint.
The only job Virginia really cares about is the one she wants for herself. When you’re unemployed and the word is out that there isn’t much upstairs it sure beats going back to being a waitress.
HumCPR “did ask pretty straight forward questions”.
Loaded in every way.
The nerve of HumCPR, interviewing candidates about what’s important to their members!
Where are the insults to intelligence, where’s the crotch-talk and personal slurs? What’s all that intelligent discussion of real issues for, anyway? They’re trying to confuse us with facts!
8:06, there is a difference between loaded and pointed. What they did was ask pointed questions. You just don’t like either the questions being asked or the answers that were given.
Doesn’t matter what the questions are or how they are asked! A capable candidate should be able to frame thoughtful, intelligent responses.
8:23, You are absolutely correct. The paper was definately pointed, like the Econews isn’t, but well done and posed questions that candidates really should be providing clear answers to.
Something else to consider with Bass, you get a package deal. What comes out of her mouth may have first been in her spouse’s head. Reminds me of the Hillary/Bill package deal voters couldn’t get behind a coupla years ago.
Go Bass Go!!!!
Bass doesn’t “think about it much” so it was nice of Ulancy to write the HumCPR anwsers for her.
There was also a word count total for the answers so that length of answers was limited.
Questions: like last nights KEET debate, as a candidate, it was obvious that a few questions were intentionally tailored and constructed for a specific candidate based on the campaign’s directive.
It would have been nice to know the names of the community folks who asked the questions so that any connections politically could have been transparent; and, whether or not the questions ORIGINATED from a 5th District citizen.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
what is up with Patty Clary, the so-called token enviro on Sundberg’s supporter list? I always knew she was a little off, but her letter to the Journal is pretty whacked. “Another glaring inaccuracy was that “Sundberg places more emphasis on individual property rights than infill.” I don’t know what this means, but Ryan has expressed publicly his concern about the proposal to rely on population infill primarily in McKinleyville, something its residents rightfully worry may impact their still semi-rural lifestyle.”
OK, Patty, you don’t know what it means, but it’s inaccurate. And McK’s semi-rural lifestyle? Been to McKinleyville lately? Lots of vacant strip malls, a 4-lane road with about 10 stoplights…semi-rural? Hardly.
Using the candidate responses to Humboldt CPR questions in the pricey 20 page insert tucked into the current NCJ as a guide, you could also add Johanna Rodoni and Allison Jackson to the list of candidates that developers are lining up behind.
Haven’t seen it yet, but did they interview the Supervisor candidates? Seems like those races would be a bit more relevant to their issues.
Oh, those EVIL developers. How dare they build shit for us to live in, to shop in, to educate and hospitalize. Perhaps in a 100 years it will be the “Evil Bloggers”…
Her ideas seem to be generated from those that back her. When it comes to the general plan and she hasn’t even read it, say volumes of her lack of interest in the nuts and bolts of county issues. Easy to criticize others but LIGHT on her knowledge. A critical thinker, she is not.
Virginia seems like a nice person, she just happens to be totally uninformed and underqualified for the job she wants us to elect her to do. But real nice.
When Satan took Jesus up on the mountain to tempt him, he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would worship him. How could Satan offer something that wasn’t his?
Satan works his evil through government, anyone who partakes in government is doing evil.
Resistance to tyrants is service to God.
Eureka is ready for a nice and regular person to represent them on the Board. After 24 years, Bonnie is in trouble. I find it interesting that this blog has posted two stories about two leading candidates that they do not support. Fortunately, the voters do not make their decisions based on the stuff on this blog.
I’d vote for Virginia!!!!
Bonnie is working hard. She has earned another term.
Virginia IS A GREAT HARD WORKER!!!She WILL work for you and me.
“Eureka is ready for a nice and regular person to represent them on the Board.”
That’s how I pick my professionals, who is the most average. Maybe we should have a lottery instead of an election.
Great idea, 12:06. I’d rather take my chances with a lottery winner than a charismatic puppet chosen for their lack of intellect and willingness to follow the orders of their sponsors. Reagan, Bush 2, Palin, Bass and Rodoni all have that in common.
Something smells fishy when the developer interests put tens of thousands into Bass’s campaign and Bass claims she hasn’t been following the general plan update and doesn’t understand it.
Either (i)Bass is lying or (ii) she really is uninformed but developer’s know she will do their bidding. I think it is safe to assume that the developer interests who have pumped so much money into Bass’s campaign have had direct conversations with Bass on this issue and they have been assured she will open upon our ag and timberlands for subdivision just like the developers want.
I would support a lottery as well. Better chance of randomly drawing an honest person than we do from a basket of professional politicians.
“Lots of vacant strip malls, a 4-lane road with about 10 stoplights…semi-rural? Hardly.”
look it up dummy. urban, according to the census is an incorporated area with 50,000 people or more. urban fringe is where there is a population density of 1,000 or more per square mile. since mckinleyville has a density of around 650 people per square mile, semi-rural is a good characterization.
increasing the density of the developed areas will do nothing positive for the quality of life for those of us who live here. if we wanted to live in an apartment in eureka, we would be there. i like my house and backyard and would not trade it for an upstairs balcony over the town square ever.
So, apparently an “economic development opportunity” that was opposed by thousands of citizens who stood up to a fly-by-night energy outfit (that soon went belly up) are irrelevant to the “bad reputation” we have among those who would gift us with mega-industrial terrorist targets that had the potential to incinerate a significant portion of Eureka (or maybe just Humboldt Hill and King Salmon depending which way the wind blew). I loved the fancy engineering lingo they tried to blow in our ears: “low probability / high consequence”.
Of course the proposed give away of our water rights to some other big talking company of dubious credibility instead of the careful home grown planning the HBMWMD has been doing would be much better for the reputation of the area…as a bunch of rubes who will fall for anything.
C’mon– Ms Bass is personable enough but for goodness sake, she is our own local version of Sarah Pailin– not hard to look at but not overly bright and in no way qualified to do a lot of hard thinkin’ or decisionin’.
The jobs of the future that will best support the local economy as a whole are the jobs that sustainably tap into our rich natural capital of a healthy natural environment producing products from organic agriculture and high value, tight-grained, canopy-grown redwood timber. Then, maximize the multipliers by producing the finished products.
Selling ourselves, (and all that implies) for more colonial-style exploitation of our lands, waters and peoples to any and every sweet talking, scamming, corporate huckster that makes pretty promises is not an economic development opportunity. It’s just dumb!
HBMWD great planning bill every excess bill to Pulp Mill it goes out of business what now great foresight and planning.
Plain Jane @ 12:19,
This is why special interests and candidates/politicians is a futile relationship for the majority of the citizens – half of whom are disenfranchised already.
Then, the endorsements and contributions being accepted – why accept $65k if a candidate does not think one can win without out the money. It is simple mathematics through logic and common sense.
On the other hand, If the candidate KNOWS that he or she will win, AND STILL then is accepting the money, this conduct and behavior “is to live a lifestyle NOT RELATIVE or near in like kind to a majority of the people that make up the electorate”. This to me is wrong and poor behavior. It is like rubbing people’s faces in mud diminishing their value in society. Popularisms at the county supervisor level is too much prevalent. Re-focus priorities.
Also, with Rodoni, he did nail it often, and truthfully for that matter whether you liked him or not based on his alliances. I did catch him a few times SKEWING an issue, as I have with EVERY familiarized supervisor. Sometimes its subtle and caught only by the alert. Other times, its openly blatant to create division within any given community to further some alterior political scheme (manipulated process).
As an example, Rodoni nailed it with respect to process and time and how obfuscation occurs. This happens to both the general public and, in all fairnesses, to public officials form time to time. The key is the information trail and who did what and when. This is why propblems and mis-understanding exist when parts of a process (like retention of documents) have been destroyed. When any person jumps into some issue not having been involved since its inception, they will NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH UNLESS THEY DEVOTE 100% EFFORT TO GOING THROUGH THE DOCUMENTATIONS.
With that said, this is another area where blogs can kick the crud out of newspapers – technical data and support, using the abilities to download draft documents and other data to clearly prove the points made. Now, the real effort is to get people to report facts only leaving out their personal biases and very partial ideological philosophies.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Heraldo wrote: “Bass says Humboldt County has a bad rep among businesses due of community rejection of a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant, which would have stored and transported a highly explosive material near the county’s largest population center.”
Thank you very, very much for alerting the voters that Virginia Bass supported building that dangerous and potentially-disastrous LNG plant!
Does everyone remember that shortly after we local folks caused Cal-Pine to change its mind about building the LNG plant here, a huge and deadly explosion destroyed an LNG plant and it surroundings in Morocco? It could have been Eureka.
I’d gladly choose our next supervisor from among the “average citizens” who helped stop the LNG plant than from among any group of people who supported building that plant.
When a politician tells you he or she loves Eureka, ask if he or she supported or opposed the LNG plant.
Exactly 12:39 pm,
another great example to show why subsidized housing (or project housing) is called affordable housing – to mask through a bait and switch ad mentality the type of lifestyle most people don’t want, but are forced into.
CalPERS decided to change their rules on investments with regard to redevelopment agencies because they were profiting off of investments that were evicting low-income tenants and displacing them to some thing that was promissed but never fruitioned. So, maybe if people just finally admit that land is way over-valued as are the materials that were used to buid the structures, then things will change for the better overall. The system sucked society in through their homes, their security. Now, more people will be educated through financial loss when compared to that of the public education system or that of their own parents even having the ability to understand and explain reality through the eyes of money mongors. Lest not forget personal responsibility to educate oneself.
THE MONEY HAS BEEN SIPHONED INTO A FEW POCKETS, it did not merely disappear.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Algeria. I guess you don’t remember so well.
Morocco was in the news for LNG when they built their own $1 billion LNG terminal three years later. You might have confused the two.
There is a slight difference between the hazards associated with LNG receiving terminals and LNG production plants.
In the case of the Algerian LNG production plant, a steam boiler blew up due to pressure which ignited LNG. A terminal would not have a faulty, old, third-world steam boiler anywhere near it to cause such an explosion.
I’ve read about 25 different accidents involving LNG in the last 60 years. Most of these involve spilled LNG damaging equipment due to freezing temperatures of spilled LNG which is similar to any other spill of pressurized, freezing chemicals. Only a handful involve actual LNG explosions and none of them are particularly gruesome as far as chemical accidents.
Keep in mind this is 25 major accidents in the world during the entire history of LNG.
Let’s contrast this to another petrochemical… gasoline, for example. In the last 60 years, thousands of gasoline storage and refinery-related accidents have occurred resulting in numerous fatalities and unknown health consequences due to resulting poisonous clouds. These accidents are so frequent that in 1999, a California Chevron refinery caught fire twice in the same month. In 2004, a Texas City BP refinery blew up not as a result of a huge steam pressure buildup or a ruptured pipeline, but from an idling pickup truck igniting vapors. Anyone with any knowledge about hazardous materials knows that gasoline vapors are far more dangerous than reinforced canisters of frozen natural gas.
I don’t mean to insinuate that Humboldt folks tend to embrace speculative bullshit while ignoring the inconveniently obvious… but if y’all want to feel safe, fight the proliferation of gas stations, not natural gas terminals. To say that one is terribly dangerous while completely ignoring the other is illogical.
Luckily, the natural gas market is so flooded with product right now that y’all did stop a big mistake from being made. That LNG terminal would have been like investing in CIT or some shit.
So now Mr. Nice would like to sell us on the relative safety of LNG. Of course BP is still trying to sell us on the safety of deep water oil drilling.
The thing is, it’s not just about how likely an accident is, but what will happen in the event of one.
Mr. Nice, I suspect there are a LOT more gasoline handling facilities of various types than LNG. Thus, more accidents with gas. The other, often neglected, fly in the CalPine ointment was that their proposal would have had to re-engineer the bay, dredging a huge hole down near the old Simpson dock. Thiswould have had terrible consequences for the bay ecosystem and ultimately been unsustainable.
Snake oil salesmen sell snake oil. Apparently Virginia thinks snake oil is some kind of hair lotion.
Does anyone else notice how many words Henchman use to say virtually ‘nothing’?
I saw in the same NCJ article that Jeff was channeling Rex Bohn with his, “enough with all the planning, just build something” philosophy.
Then you have the description of Bonnie as the most competent and skilled politician one could ask for. The funny thing is that the Tea Party types think it’s a bad thing to be skilled at the job.
Could that be because poorly run government better fits their frame that all government is bad?
Once LNG gasifies due to an accident and meets a spark, the resulting fireball is capable of killing people and burning structures such as the tinder-dry Redwood frame houses of which Eureka is so proud. Depending on prevailing winds, nothing might happen to Eureka or Eureka might become a City of Ashes.
Now if Mr. Nice is correct and I am wrong, why didn’t Cal-Pine address these concerns during the public debate? Mr. Nice, I imagine you can explain what was on the minds of the Cal-Pine Board of Directors.
windy days pushing particulate matter creates sparks too!
Anyhow, think green – it will do us all the best in the long run and the short term too! Fossil fuel freaks need de-fragging. So, consumers better stop spending money that benefits fossil fuel productions. Greed CAN also be how a consumer spends money.
If people start to barter more, the IRS will try to tax you for trading something of equal value, especially when it was already paid for and taxed (yard sale type schemeries). Not to mention other entrapments and frauds by elected oficials and their subordinate cast of pocket bandits.
Over-population and greed based economics – the origin of mankind’s problems.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Making money.
When Satan took Jesus up on the mountain to tempt him, he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would worship him. How could Satan offer something that wasn’t his?
Satan works his evil through government, anyone who partakes in government is doing evil.
Resistance to tyrants is service to God.
God’s an anarchist then?
“How could Satan offer something that wasn’t his?”
Okay, my actual belief is that this Satan-tempting-Jesus thing was just one more fable in a particularly convoluted and inscrutable book of fables. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that there really is a Satan, and there really is a God, and this God did actually send his son, Jesus Christ, down to earth and that the trip to the mountaintop with Satan really did occur.
Now, according to you, since Satan offered all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, you conclude that Satan must have owned all the kingdoms of the world.
Didn’t it occur to you that Satan might have been lying to Jesus? Making an insincere offer?
If satan were to run for supervisor would he register as a dem?
Where exactly does Santa come into this discussion?
Eric,
God is all knowing who has been and will always be – Father Gary said once.
I could never agree on that.
So, God surely knows that humans are killing themselves through over-population and resource depletion that allows more greed; and, God has always known ahead of time. Therefore, God is merciless and the devil is honestly dishonest with a character to boot! Darn, who would thunk.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Good question on Santa…
lets see – elected officials, economics, fascism for profits, power and control, greed through advertisings, etc….nice set-up for the future consumers of America when money and retailisms infect the analytical reasonings of youth turned child-kid-adults. Maybe a new market for biodegradeable toys will open up – afterall, kids usualyy are done and over that new toy in a matter of weeks, every year like an annual migration of sorts.
Maybe the Tooth Fairy too!
Deceit is effective when started at a young age!
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
Concerning Satan tempting Jesus with all the kingdoms of the earth, they are Satans , given to him by the sin of Adam , we turned the keys over to the evil one. You wonder why this earth is in such turmoil.. Just know Satan is living on borrowed time. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to free us from the clutches of Satans rule. Join him.
If the Lord Jesus Christ were to be on earth today, BELIEVER, he would be working at a homeless shelter, calling most religious establishments frauds, and demanding that pretty much every top corporate executive be placed under arrest.
But no worries, folks, you’d never hear about it in the press.
“The Journal called her comments “almost philosophical.””
I call the Journal “almost” philosophical…
Mitch: Don’t kill the messenger. Just because you may have not gotten what you wanted from the story, may it be a smoking gun or whatever, the story still adds insight into what occurred.
Well, true. You have a message harassing Neely. Said message was leaked to the Herald and posted days after a report with law enforcement was filed, but weeks after the incident occurred. And yes, Neely was apparently also “verbally thrashed” while campaigning.
Quite the opposite. EPD investigated the incident and found that no criminal wrongdoing occurred. That’s about where it ends for law enforcement. Since Fairhaven is outside of EPD jurisdiction, the HCSO gets handed the case and concludes, also, that no crime took place. It doesn’t devalue what happened, it merely takes it out of the criminal category. If you got issue with that, talk to those agencies.
Yup, Holmquist did not want to talk to the media about what happened. I gave him an opportunity to respond and he chose not too.
For one, Neely’s campaign wasn’t complaining about anything, publicly at least. A report was filed with law enforcement just to have a record if any other instances of harassment happened again. If anything, the incidents confused some because Holmquist worked on Larry Glass’ campaign once and worked with some of these people on the Neely camp.
I don’t dictate what position a person wants to take when being indirectly accused of some wrongdoing. Bass’ position on this was that she doesn’t tolerate these kinds of shenanigans by her campaign staff. Holmquist is no longer a part of her campaign as a result.
Also, she chose to turn the issue around on Neely’s campaign and raised a good point, “Why didn’t Neely’s campaign tell her about the conduct of one of her staffers earlier and, instead, finds out about it on an anti-Bass blog. To her it felt politically motivated and she was pissed off to find out about it there. What’s wrong with that? I’d be pissed off too.
If the situation was flipped and Bass staffers leaked a recording to the Mirror, I’m sure Neely would have words about not being contacted about the incidents prior to it being publicized on a blog that does everything to discredit her.
The key quote here is: “We figured the individual was acting on his own accord.” That should put it all in perspective. Neely’s campaign is not making any allegations toward Bass specifically. To them, this was a minor incident, abet a troubling one, involving an individual on Bass’ staff, but ultimately one that didn’t need to be publicized and blown up into the hype that it has become…
And if anything, I don’t think they are playing the “victim” role either.
This is an unfair statement.
Neely’s camp wanted to handle this off the radar because to them it wasn’t as big of a deal as the blogs are making it out to be. Who leaked the info to the blogs is an important issue to comment on as well, specifically because what tends to go on the blogs doesn’t always tend to be investigated by a reporter in the local press and it wasn’t the intention of the campaign to do so, according to them.
Is there more to the story? Probably, but no one wanted to talk about it any more than they did in this piece. If you were expecting some sort of, “Oops, you caught me,” that’s just silly.
John/Reporta,
I’m sure you are sincere in your comments above. To me, the story (a big one) is that a campaign worker stalked a candidate. It’s made somewhat larger by the attitudes of all concerned.
It shouldn’t matter how the campaigns choose to play it.
I might feel differently if your article hadn’t appeared in a paper that acts as though various violations by progressives, trivial in comparison to this set of events, were high treason.
And why, by the way, did EPD determine that no criminal wrongdoing had occurred? If I have the facts correct, it is unchallenged that the campaign worker followed a candidate down an empty Eureka street heckling her and causing her to make a phone call. This was then followed by an arguably threatening and intimidating phone call from the same worker, whether from Eureka or not.
Maybe EPD’s non-response would be part of a story, instead of a reason to state “nothing to see here.”
I thought journalists acted in the interests of the public, not as transcribers for campaign staff and officials.
Think about it for a minute. What do you think EPD’s response would be if a guy in a car harassed [insert wealthy/conservative woman's name here] to the point where, whether out of frustration or fear, she felt obligated to make a phone call? What if the guy then left her an arguably threatening message. What if the guy were [insert race/social status/income here]?
The difference in response sounds like a good story, unless you think EPD would have handled it exactly the same.
Remember, this is a county where law enforcement seizes campaign worker computers to investigate dog-letter crimes.
Well, according to both EPD and HCSO, it wasn’t criminal because there was no threat of violence.
If anything else, because a prominent member of the community was involved, the case, one would assume, would be handled with more urgency and care. So for both agencies to say, as you put it, “nothing to see here,” I think they are being extra careful since it involves politics. That means, if it doesn’t fall neatly into a penal code box, they aren’t touching it.
I see what you’re getting at though, but both agencies made it clear when I talked to them that the criteria for a crime, in this case, was that threat of violence.
Again, if that answer isn’t acceptable, contact those agencies.
Two points. One, it was too bad we had to find out Virginia had ‘severed her ties’ with Holmquist through the article by a third party in the NJC. I’m glad that the NJC, at least, reported it. Two, one campaign rarely talks with another one, especially to point out problems. The result is usually a HUGE spin, calling the first camp ‘whiners’ or worse. Would you expose yourself to that?
Hey Mitch, check out this link: http://da.co.la.ca.us/pdf/stalking.pdf.
Criminal threatening has to involve the threat of violence or a threat to commit a crime.
As for stalking, there’s more of a case for that, unless neither agency were able to link Holmquist to both instances of harassment.
why did the sheriffs and police blow it off as a non issue. Gar is a big Bonnie guy you think this would have rated up there with the what shove Larry. most crimes do not wait 2 weeks to report unless were fixing the spin. Never came up at the debates maybe too much trauma
“unless neither agency were able to link [the former campaign worker] to both instances of harassment.”
Exactly, Reporta. No investigation, so no link.
Isn’t that a standard strategy in corporate suites and spy novels? “If you don’t tell me about it, I don’t know about it. Now go do it.”
Mitch re your comments at 1:37, you don’t appear to know all the facts if you are assuming EPD determined no criminal wrongdoing, or that they had a “non-response.” What the victim wants and is willing to follow through with determines whether EPD wastes their time and resources.
I’m not at all surprised that Holmquist’s behavior probably doesn’t rise to the level of a crime. The phone message was inappropriate, rude, creepy, and arguably “threatening” in the broad sense of the word, but no direct physical threat was made. Hhe bragged about creating “bad publicity,” for her (ironically in doing so he actually created bad publicity for his own preferred candidate,Bass) and he stated that he would “destroy” her campaign, but he did not state or clearly imply that he would attack her personally.
The stalking-type behavior was also inappropriate, rude, creepy and “threatening” in the broad sense, but again it does seem to fall short of a prosecutable crime.
Sadly, while the Bass campaign did eventually issue a statement disavowing Holmquist’s actions and making it clear that he was no longer involved in the campaign, they couldn’t resist attempting to salvage something from the ashes of their embarrassment by trying to spin the story to be about the timing and motivation of the leak, rather than the content of what was leaked (a very common corporate/political damage control tacti.c) So, plus one for disavowing Holmquist’s action, and minus one for trying to spin it for their own political gain.
As far as Holmqist himself, I can understand him not wanting to talk to a reporter about his embarassing misbehavior (and he’s probably been advised not to comment to reporters), but he could at least have given a one-sentence apology. I’d say minus a few points, but he’s already in the red, so what’s the point? Anyway, it’s not too late to do the right thing and apologize, Chris.
The Bass campaign “apology” reminds me of a kid who tells his dad he is sorry for hitting his brother but the brother asked for it. Again, Bass= NO Class
Titan 4:53,
Huh. I’d been making assumptions. Thanks.
It is time to put Chris to bed, He needs some sleep and we need to not hear another word about his misdeeds. However, much verbiage still needs saying on Bass and Owens for motivating the impressionable young guy. There is more than enough poor judgment on their part in this sorry story.
Says you Monitor.
There’s a crane at Indianola Rd with a huge “Hooked on Bass’ sign hanging from it. It looks sort of like a giant fishing pole. I’m just wondering how big a worm they had to use to catch her? Was it a barbless hook?
Is it common practice for candidates to receive free office space from corporations or businesses? Bonnie Neely’s office is at the Freshwater Tissue Co. pulp mill, a gift in kind from Bob Simpson. Don’t these “gifts” break some sort of rule? Too bad, because we had planned to vote for Bonnie.
You’re not going to vote for Bonnie? Lame! You think Jeff or Virginia opposes Freshwater Tissue? Get real! As a non-monetary donation the office space will be reported on Bonnie’s disclosure forms, just as Virginia disclosed office space from HumCPR chief Lee Ulansey.
You are right. I will not vote for Virginia or Jeff. I haven’t decided whether to vote for Bonnie or none of the above.
westeureka,
If voting “none of the above” actually had real world impact, perhaps forcing a new election if that option “won,” I could understand voting “none of the above.”
As it is, you can choose from the list and work for your idea of a better candidate in the future, or you can refuse to vote and eliminate the chance that your vote would matter. Your choice.
No.
I really don’t want to see Virginia Bass continue in
politics. I believe her to be two-faced and a puppet.
That being said, I still wouldn’t have printed that
horrible picture of her.
What’s Nancy Flimingo up to these days? And, what does she think of this race? I am so curious to know.
Responding to Eric from way up yonder in the thread: Yes, the 4th and 5th supe candidates are asked the four questions. In the fourth, Virginia answers in a way that makes developers hearts go pitter-pat, Jeff hacks on the CCC and tries to equate the Eureka GP with the Humboldt GP and Bonnie goes into GP detail to explain her answers.