Editor:
Thank you for your enlightening cover story on “HumCPR Rising” (March 28) and publisher Judy Hodgson’s subsequent follow up on Lee Ulansey. I never knew Mr. Ulansey was such a successful community organizer who was able to bring so many diverse groups together for a common cause. It almost reminds me of that man from Chicago who got his start as a community organizer before his foray into politics.
Matthew Owen, Eureka
Editor:
Not sure what the intent of Ryan Burns’ “HumCPR Rising” and Publisher Judy Hodgson’s “Political Reality 2013” was; instead of vilifying Lee Ulansey, it made him out to be a shrewd community organizer.
In her “My Bully Pulpit” article (May 17, 2012) Ms. Hodgson made some endorsements for the June 2012 elections. Regarding Estelle Fennell, she said, “I’m very leery of this kind of lobbyist being elected to the board.” Yet, she endorsed Mark Lovelace for supervisor, a former lobbyist for Healthy Humboldt. Ms. Hodgson never endorsed a candidate for the 1st District race, and when questioned, avoided answering. Her reasons are OK, yet Mr. Ulansey’s declining to being interviewed is not.
Where was NCJ‘s investigative reporting when Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a founding member of Local Solutions and Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County was elected to a county seat?
Or the article on Blue Lake Casino or Bill Pierson, the largest political contributors in Humboldt County, between 2002 and 2010? Could this be due to the fact they are one of NCJ‘s largest advertisers and Ms. Hodgson doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds her?
Ms. Hodgson claims HumCPR spent “an enormous amount of money that now influences the daily and weekly politics of Humboldt.” The campaign 460s show that HumCPR has never given any political candidate a single check, and unlike NCJ, has never made any endorsements in local elections.
Lee Ulansey and HumCPR did not win the “super majority” on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors or the Eureka City Council. All the winning candidates and their dedicated team of volunteers presenting a positive message resonated with the voters.
Having a different political view is one thing, writing “hit pieces” and calling it news is another. Perhaps the NCJ should change its name to “Judy’s Journal.”
John Chiv, Eureka
Editor:
Charley Custer was very concise in describing the Journal‘s “high-piled righteousness” in Ryan Burns initial piece on HumCPR. It was further expounded on when your publisher followed up with her droning on about Mr. Ulansey declining to provide her an interview. Who was it that said, “silence is the only thing that can’t be misquoted”?
I’m not affiliated with HumCPR, but if they helped elect some candidates that are not in lock step with the no-growth, big-government, anti-business agenda that has prevailed here for a long time, good for them. The voters obviously had their own reasons to vote the way they did, based on the information the candidates provided them, in spite of the Journal‘s endorsement of alternate candidates.
After all, President Obama never fails to remind us that elections have consequences? Perhaps, just maybe, your editorial board is out of touch with a larger percentage of your readers and advertisers than you realize on this issue?
Kenneth Daer, Kneeland
This article appears in On The Waterfront Now.
I know that spam sweeping is a huge chore, but could someone take a moment to delete the 3:00 and 3:19 comments, please?
Uh, not the legitimate comments, hello!.
Thanks, NCJ. My original comment has been deleted, and only my (now) non sequitur complaints are left. Awesome thread.
John Chiv is a hired editorial front man. Estellllleeee Feeennneeelll is/was a HumCPR employee. John Chiv knows that.
Therein lies a genuine problem of community communication.
John Chiv is paid to write editorials. I did not refer to him as a hack, however the online editor, definitely not a representative of the NCJ, would like it to seem that the NCJ is playing favorites. Judy should genuinely fire the guy/gal. If she posts a classified looking to hire a new online copy editor, I will respond and the problem will be nevermore.
“….. she endorsed Mark Lovelace, she (failed) to criticize Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, the Blue Lake Casino and Bill Pierson, she failed to answer (somebody’s) questions once”…
Clearly, Mr. Chiv is a very poor sophist.
The issue is the handful of local plutocrats and their political lap-dogs that have always dominated elected and appointed offices in Humboldt County.
In this case, the development community’s “pro-growth, pro-business, anti-government” ideologues that did their part in building our cities and county into moratoriums, culminating in a worldwide economic collapse that continues today.
It was not the professional and political activities of Mark, Kaitlin, Bill, and a local Casino that contributed to that!
It would be easier to cure a pedophile or Heroin-junky than the greedheads eager to harvesting the public’s infrastructure on the third housing bubble since the 1980’s….. the unreported quid-pro-quo from their political dominance.
How dare a single media source elude to well-known political corruption once a year?
With 70% of eligible voters either unregistered or abstaining, perhaps an informed electorate is the real threat to Mr. Chiv’s speculator friends?