Anyone who’s lived in Humboldt County for long knows that our political divide doesn’t align very neatly into the standard camps of Republican/Democrat, conservative/liberal, O’Reilly/Maddow. We might identify with one tribe or another when we’re voting for state and national representatives, but local government tends to revolve around land use: Can I build a house on my property if it’s zoned for timber production? Will a big box retailer be allowed on the waterfront? Should trails be built on our railroad rights-of-way?
Which isn’t to say party affiliation doesn’t matter. Quite the contrary. “In this county you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t have the ‘D’ after your name,” Eureka resident Pam Service recently told the Journal. She and her husband Bob are two of the 23 members of Humboldt County’s Democratic Central Committee. An official arm of the statewide Democratic establishment, the committee promotes the party platform and supports Democratic candidates.
Well, most of the time.
Earlier this month, former KMUD news director Estelle Fennell failed to earn an endorsement from the committee despite being the only Democratic candidate running for the 2nd District seat on the county Board of Supervisors. (Incumbent Clif Clendenen has no party affiliation.) This happened for a simple and predictable reason: Fennell, who is not only a lifelong Democrat but also a member of the central committee, is nonetheless perceived to be on one side of the county’s political divide while most of the current committee members stand on the other.
Fair or not, this perception can be traced directly back to Fennell’s 2 ½-year tenure as executive director of the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights (HumCPR), a consortium of developers and property owners that advocates for either individual liberty or unbridled development, depending on whom you ask.
The Fennell endorsement battle was bitterly fought, but in the end she fell far short of the 60 percent support required. Sid Berg, a retired plumber and former union rep, was among the committee members advocating endorsement, and he was so outraged by the result that he promptly announced his resignation and stormed out of the meeting.
“She’s a model Democrat,” Berg said of Fennell. “She’s a sitting member, voted into office by her constituents of the 2nd District. To vote against an endorsement for her, as far as I’m concerned, was inexcusable.”
Fennell was actually appointed to the committee in lieu of election in 2010, since the number of candidates equaled the number of available seats. Regardless, Berg believes the committee has become dominated by those on “the extreme left” of the political spectrum. “They don’t want economic development here locally because they’ve already come here and they’ve got theirs,” he said bitterly. “Their idea of job growth is bicycle trails and tourism. … We need real jobs that people can sustain families on.”
In many ways, this is a replay of previous tests of loyalty faced by the Democratic Central Committee. Former Eureka City Councilmember Mary Beth Wolford failed to earn its endorsement in 2002, when her only opponent had no party affiliation, and again in 2006, when fellow Democrat Larry Glass got the nod. Recalling those events on Monday, Wolford said she was “quite disappointed” about being twice denied. She suspects it was ideologically motivated. (Wolford described herself as “very pro-business development.”)
Former pulp mill worker and union organizer Richard Marks, a lifelong Dem and current harbor commissioner, said he still holds a grudge from the 2006 supervisorial race, when the committee again showed its willingness to disregard party labels by denying him an endorsement against then-Republican Bonnie Neely. “That’s kind of what started my war against the central committee,” Marks said last week.
He retaliated in 2010 by supporting a slate of more conservative candidates, endorsing Virginia Bass over Bonnie Neely for county supervisor, and backing Marian Brady and Mike Newman over Larry Glass and Ron Kuhnel for Eureka City Council. Both Glass and Kuhnel were (and remain) associate members of the Democratic Central Committee. Marks himself was a full-fledged committee member at the time, and his colleagues considered him a traitor. They accused him of violating organizational bylaws, and he resigned in a huff. (He remains an associate member.)
Nearly two years later, Marks is executing a new plan of attack: He has recruited some unlikely bedfellows to run for seats on the Democratic Central Committee. In doing so he hopes to shift the ideological balance of the county’s dominant political party. “I just think that they’re going too far to the left,” Marks said of the committee. “I’m going to bring in people I feel are like-minded with myself.”
These include Eureka resident Chuck Ellsworth, Eureka Councilwoman Marian Brady and Supervisor Virginia Bass (whose husband, Matthew Owen, has been working behind the scenes toward the same goal). They, along with Marks, are among the eight candidates seeking four available seats to represent Humboldt County’s 4th District on the committee.
They consider themselves moderates. Level-headed centrists. Their opponents, including Eureka Councilmember Linda Atkins, Bob and Pam Service and Charlene Ploss, think of them more as wolves in sheep’s clothing. A flier written by Atkins and the Services and distributed to local Democrats sounded the alarm: “Our local Party is in danger of being taken over by pseudo-Democrats,” it reads. “They support the privileged over the people and endorse and work for Republican-like candidates over Democrats in local elections.”
Reached via phone last week, Bob Service said the county’s two political camps are best defined by their top priorities. For one side, it’s jobs; for the other, it’s the environment. Granted, plenty of Democrats (including Sid Berg, the retired plumber and Fennell supporter) put jobs at No. 1. But as far as Bob Service is concerned, those folks are at odds with the party.
“The Democratic Party in Humboldt County recognizes that the most important issue that we’re facing as a society is the rapid climate change that is occurring,” he said. His wife, who was sharing the phone line, agreed. She said that their political opponents — Fennell included — support “unrestrained development.” “The side that Estelle comes down on is not, I would say, one that represents the mainstream of the Democratic party in Humboldt County, and that’s why she did not get the endorsement.”
Not surprisingly, Fennell doesn’t accept that premise. She characterized her involvement with HumCPR as a reflection of her ability to work with people from disparate backgrounds. “I believe there can be a balance that protects both our private property rights and our environment,” she said last week. She declined to comment on being lumped in with the “pseudo-Democrats.”
Brady, however, took umbrage with the term — “like if you’re for business you must be anti-poor people,” she said. “Democrats are a continuum.” She’s also offended that the committee denied Fennell an endorsement. “What’s that about? That’s because she has some concern for rural land use and stuff like that? … What is wrong with these people?”
Bass took less offense, at least on her own behalf. She can understand why some Democrats are wary of her. After all, she just changed her party affiliation three years ago, and when she sought the central committee’s endorsement in 2010 she identified Ronald Reagan as one of her heroes. (“It’s because he was a great communicator,” she explained. Then she added, “I think Obama is very good at that” too.)
Her personal migration to the Democratic party was the result of a long push-pull, she said. “Democrats have been the more welcoming party,” she said. “[And] the Republican party moved so far to the right. More of us in this community feel like we’re more moderate than both sides.”
The ideological tug-of-war in the Democratic Central Committee doesn’t much worry the group’s chair, Milt Boyd, who said the in-fighting is a valuable part of political discourse. The Democratic party, he said, represents a broad range of views: “We all exist under a big tent.”
Currently, the struggle for political power in Humboldt County is contained within.
This article appears in Flash Fiction 2012.
In just a few weeks after this edition of the NCJ, over half the electorate might have voted….and not one word, not one investigation of contributions, not one biography or interview of the supervisor candidates vying to lead Humboldt County.
There should have been MANY by now, including the Times standard, in order to inform most voters.
Unbelievable.
When you look at your ballot you’ll notice that the elections of county supervisors and city council members are labeled as nonpartisan. That means that party politics should not be involved. Why can’t these people understand that? The parties have no bussiness endorsing anyone for these local offices. They have done so much damage at the state and federal level, they should butt out of local elections!
Butt out? Nonpartisan? Somehow I doubt the non-partisan part of the post above this one. When used to describe a political office as “non-partisan”, the term refers to the fact that candidates do not run in party primarie as in federal and state elections. It does not mean people who belong to a political party are barred from expressing their preference, whether individually or collectively.
Don’t make Richard Salzman mad.
The (D) locally has been hijacked by far leaning progressives who would be better suited and dressed in brown shirts for their lack of incorporation and free flow debate of ideas. Need proof, I say askSyd.
What confuses me is these moderate democrats are all for new development, yet the only development we’ve publicly seen them promote was the Marina Center big box shopping mall. And this was during their campaigns, before being elected. Since elected, I haven’t seen anything, just rhetoric.
What else is happening behind closed doors?
The last thing we need are more Sid Berg’s, Bohn’s and Bass’, fighting to continue an unsustainable mall/sprawl model of growth that is failing everywhere.
Labor’s hero FDR understood that a nation’s prosperity required raising ALL ships.
Saturating U.S. communities in poverty-wages and the homes they cannot afford has tanked this economy and pulled-down much of the world economy with it.
If the newspapers did their jobs and investigated who’s behind folks like Berg, Bass and Bohn, the other half of the eligible voters might register and reject those trapped in self-defeating, small-town, “No Alternative” group-think.
Generations of pyramid-builders, engineers, and bureaucrats knew they were not working for a better future for their families…but they kept blessing Pharaoh until the empire collapsed….and every empire since.
Full-steam ahead to the 3rd housing bubble since the 1980’s…while welcoming more jobs that qualify for food stamps!!!
“To those inside the mental hospital, everything appears normal”. One Flew Over The Coo-coos Nest.
This is a legitimate story that could have been reported many months ago, (but only by the NCJ!).
This close to the election there will be many fools crying conspiracy because they couldn’t find Virgina Bass on their June 5th ballot.
HCDCC has been hijacked by a clique of “I got mine, fuck you” no growthers. For all their rhetoric about living wage jobs, we’ve seen nothing from them to stop the decline in living wage jobs in Humboldt, or fostering an environment that is favorable to creating living wage jobs. Their model of an economy driven by cottage businesses, government grants and pot is a formula for further decline.
HCDCC is being threatened by the “fuck-you if you don’t want more malls and sprawl….or else you’re a no-growther!” clique.
You folks REALLY need to get out more.
Believe it not, more sustainable development alternatives are everywhere and as close as Arcata. Manufacturing incubators, industrial parks, in-fill affordable housing, and walkable communities that attract capital investment.
Oh, that’s right, you were born here, inherited granddaddy’s land, or bought a brownfield on the cheap, and want to continue harvesting the community’s over-capacity infrastructure for fast-profit big homes and big boxes.
Then what??
Go to Hell.
Thirdeye, are you speaking of houses in the hills? Or are you speaking about big box type part time jobs?
What exactly are you referring to with, “I got mine, fuck you?”
One of the biggest problems with blogs is all that everyone is “anonymous”. Please have some courage and use your real names and use something constructive to promote your argument.
In my opinion, politicians put themselves into a box by putting a D or R in front of their name. People who are truly objective don’t have a party line to tow.
“In this county you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t have the ‘D’ after your name,” Eureka resident Pam Service recently told the Journal.
It seems to me that citizens of the north coast pride themselves in being open minded, objective people. How objective can you be if only a ‘D’ can win an election?
Fennell is trying to pull a Virginia Bass. Democrat? NOT! Neither of them. Virginia Bass should be shamed out of office for pulling the party affiliation switcheroo she did. Her explanation is capital “B” Bullshit, she switched from Republican to Democrat to fool voters, same as Fennell is trying to do. Neither of them are naive or stupid to what they’re doing either. It’s calculated bullshit. They don’t deserve to be governing us.
“Virginia Bass should be shamed out of office for pulling the party affiliation switcheroo she did. Her explanation is capital “B” Bullshit, she switched from Republican to Democrat to fool voters”
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Cry me a freaking river fool, who made you the arbiter of who can or cannot change party affiliations? I believe the first to start this trend was Bonnie Neely. Where is your outrage on that switcharoo fool?
No tears here! People switch party affiliation all the time, but usually that includes party-values as well!
Neeley’s voting record is far more in-line with democratic principles than Bass…. which is why the county’s democratic organization continually refuses to endorse Bass for anything.
For Bass, it was pure opportunism and deceit.
LMAO, 109. What it comes down to is that Bass doesn’t fit YOUR idea of what a Dem should be.
Bonnie stuck her finger in the air and saw the wind was blowing in a far left direction and did a 180 with her voting record to ensure reelection, and its fine with you.
Bass does the same thing and its all about “opportunism and deceit”.
Cant have it both ways.
They both did the politically expedient thing, but as VB isnt as far left as BN went, as far as “party values” go, you might as well give the Bonnie Neely/Linda Atkins/Pam Service faction of the local democratic party a GREEN Party tag.
@Me Wantee….
You might want to look into the track record of small manufacturing enterprises in Arcata before you hold Arcata up as an example of the direction to take. There’s a lot of churn, but very little growth. The “incubator” businesses have been subsidized, in one instance to the tune of $200,000, by government money. This area does not hold on to such businesses because the infrastructure and business environment are very poor. Those are the same things that led to the decline of the forest products industry over the past 30 years. When there is initiative to improve the infrastructure, for even such a modest step as the realignment of one curve on Highway 101 through Richardson Grove, there’s all sorts of disruption an hooting from the no-growthers. Most of the “success” of Arcata is due to HSU drawing in money from the State and the money earned elsewhere but spent in Arcata by students. HSU also creates a local glut of skilled workers that are very exploitable. The economy of Arcata is not conducive to living wage jobs. That is not a good economic model.
FYI, I was not born here and I have inherited nothing.
@You’ve Been Fooled
You nailed it. Mainstream Democrats have a broader view than the HCDCC of who can be a Democrat. What has happened locally is that the Greens became disaffected with the third party electoral path and decided instead to make the local Democratic Party their party, They are hostile towards those who in other places would be considered mainstream Democrats.
Please name the HCDCC members who changed their affiliation from Green to take over the county democratic party!?
(Enter sounds of crickets here).
There are literally hundreds of communities with documented sales tax revenue increases resulting from planning their communities to exclude big boxes and instead, build walkable, livable, infill down-towns….with no university! (Most HSU students are very well housed, fed and employed on campus).
Unfortunately, those still advocating for a failed mall/sprawl development model are the short-term financial beneficiaries, speculators, and their political lap-dogs like Virginia Bass and Rex Bohn.
All the research in the world is contrary to their interests, and hence…
….”No Growth”.
Neely repeatedly won when she had the development community’s support too.
The timber industry killed itself through poor practices, over-cutting and the devastation of watersheds to pay off junk bonds, corporate mergers and hostile takeovers. There were a couple of towns that got slammed with mud and many areas that were flooded and suffered extensive damage because of the timber industry’s
The Democratic party needs to be an alternative to The Greedy Old Parasites, NOT Greedy Old Parasites Lite.
LBJ defended his selection of Hubert Humphrey as Vice President by saying “i’d rather have him inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in”.
Richard marks pretty well kills the effectiveness of THAT big tent philosophy.
Due to his bruised terminally adolescent ego, he’s now intent on on crapping inside the tent, knocking it over and setting it on fire before he pisses on the ashes.
THANKS RICHARD.
This is EXACTLY the attitude and behavior that prevented people from supporting your bid for Supervisor.
Between you and Rex Bohn, there should be an investigation to ascertain just why local softball leagues produce such narcissistic morons and mediocre intellects.
Wow, literally hundreds? Name one. :0
We can be sure Emeryville isn’t hurting for sales tax revenue. And how much sales tax revenue does Humboldt get when people buy on line or go to Crescent City or Redding because they can’t get what they want locally? Zero.
Most HSU students are fed on campus, huh? Naaah, money imported by students has nothing to do with the Arcata economy.
What part of Arcata generates the most sales tax revenue? Valley West!
Nothing like good ol’ politics to bring out the best in Humboldt’s residents. As far as I’m concerned they are the same crap, but different piles. Not to say there hasn’t been some decent ones on either side of the divide, but for the most part they are self-serving egoists with little in the way of long-term big picture thinking.
It’s much more than “self-serving egoists”!
It’s self-interested fast money that stops folks from acknowledging any research, watch any documentaries, or read any books that they perceive interferes with their potential goldmine.
If you want to know how hundreds of communities are thriving outside the myopic mall/sprawl agenda you can start with these books; “Short circuit” “Superbia” and “The Small Mart Revolution”.
However, if you want to continue the “right” to harvest you’re goldmine from the public’s infrastructure beyond capacity, until your community is saturated in poverty wages and the homes they can’t afford….support Bohn, Bass, and Berg and their speculator friends.
The high minded path, of course, is followed by those who would stifle competition, obstruct everyone outside of certain cliques, subsidize marginal businesses run by the politically connected, create a legal environment favorable to a for-profit pot industry, and prevent infrastructure development that would improve the environment for mainstream businesses.
It’s clear you’re not the reading type.
What good is a that thirdeye?
I know Patty Berg and she is no Sid Berg/
Isn it what you stand for–not what you are
labeled. Don’t become a victim of Divide
and conquer..
I know Patty Berg and she is no Sid Berg/
Isn it what you stand for–not what you are
labeled. Don’t become a victim of Divide
and conquer..
Moderate Democrats!!!??? These people are right-wingers trying to destroy the local Democratic Party. I know these people and they are NOT Democrats. They ARE lying, deceptive scoundrels who would hand the county over to Arkley and his ilk.