news story / By North Coast Journal Staff

Notes from the Hustings

(April 15, 2010) Follow the Money

Twenty-five people or so came out for a rally at the Humboldt County Courthouse Thursday at noon for a campaign finance reform rally. Their signs were sharply worded: “For The People or For The Money?” “Had Enough Humboldt County?” “The 4th District Deserves Better.” “Bonnie’s Bought & Paid For.” “Neely and the Political Machine.”

Protest at Humboldt County Courthouse Thursday. Photo by Hank Sims

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If there had been any doubt, these messages made it plain enough that this wasn’t your standard-issue reform rally. It had a particular target: Supervisor Bonnie Neely, the Fourth District incumbent currently defending her office against challenges from Eureka Mayor Virginia Bass and Eureka City Councilmember Jeff Leonard. The protesters had been summoned by Eureka businessman Chris Crawford, a Bass supporter, to stand up against the large sums of cash that Neely has collected from outside the county to fund her reelection bid. Their gathering was less about asserting high-falutin’ moral principles than opening up a new campaign front in the Fourth District race. But they did have a point to make.

When the time came, Crawford — a Bass supporter — talked about a pricey shindig that Neely had held in Sacramento the day previous. (Tickets ranged from $250 to $2,000). This, he said, was a betrayal of leftish Neely supporters who voted overwhelmingly for the stricken-down local campaign finance reform law known as Measure T in 2006. Back then, the mantra was “local control” — and now Neely, a Measure T supporter, was betraying that idea.

“Those who lined up to pass Measure T and cried all those crocodile tears over undue influences on local elections are now getting in a car and driving 200 miles away to peddle influence to Sacramento lobbyists in order to fund local campaigns for reelection to the county Board of Supervisors. That person is county Supervisor Bonnie Neely,” Crawford said, to a round of boos. He called for a new campaign finance reform initiative that would place overall caps on the amount that individuals or organizations could donate to local candidates and issues.

Since Neely serves as the chair of the California Coastal Commission, the Fourth District race essentially a statewide election fought out on local turf. In addition to the Sacramento fundraiser, Neely has garnered large donations from fellow Coastal Commissioners and from a Southern California developer who has had business before the commission. Meanwhile, Bass has raised much more money that Neely, much of it in chunks of $1,000 or over. But since these donations came from local developers and business interests, one might paint them as cleaner than Neely’s non-Humboldt developers and business interests.

Neely’s campaign sent the Journal an e-mail response to Crawford’s charges Tuesday. “As for keeping the faith with voters — whether they supported Measure T or not — the voters support sustainable jobs, put a clean and safe environment over the interests of developers, and want more seniors and children to have healthcare,” Neely wrote, adding that she “abhors” raising money and also supports a Crawford-style cap on individual donations. “For them, this is an important election because they don’t have confidence other candidates will focus on these priorities. They understand that in order to defend our shared beliefs in this election, I need help from friendships I’ve developed throughout the state.”

— Hank Sims

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