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Need more proof Republicans are dopes? Look at our district 1 supervisors race for proof-positive. Three of the GOP‚s finest are going after pretend liberal Democrat Ed Robey, who‚s resume of official blundering is almost legendary. Ed was behind the Snows Lake vineyard debacle, a disaster that could have been avoided if even the most minimal amounts of attention had been given to it at an early stage. Ed is right in the middle of the DA‚s investigation of the BOS and the alleged violations of the Brown act, which resulted in Farrington getting the shaft when the chairman of the BOS was chosen. Ed put his pal and former campaign manager in charge of the Agricultural Conservation Easement program, which gulped down $15,000 of general fund cash a couple of years ago and STILL hasn‚t saved a single millimeter of dirt in Lake County. Every state and federal grant that comes before the BOS gets the „thumbs up‰ from Ed, who‚s only requirement for spending tax money without thought is that it come from someplace other than the county‚s general fund, and even that precious resource is frequently squandered by Mr. Robey. Ed has a pipedream of building a new general aviation airport in the south county, but won‚t consider changing one word in the use permit of Crazy Creek gliders that would give the county a new airport for free. A true politician, Ed always keeps one finger to the wind, and always does his best work with an angry mob to pander to. Zero accountability, behind-the-scenes back-stabbing, and generally clueless-ness are the Robey claim to fame. Ed Robey is a poorly-informed, untrustworthy incompetent, which puts him considerably ahead of his competitors, none of whom should even consider applying for the position.

First off is Bill Wink, an angry and confused Middletown resident who like his two Republican brothers is a clown without a circus. Bill is mad about several unimportant south county issues that he knows little about, and the only thing that he‚s on about that rings true is the way the Magoons unloaded a big white elephant on the taxpayers in the guise of a gift. He doesn‚t come to BOS meetings, rarely speaks out on important local issues, and is in general a bad-tempered crackpot who knows virtually nothing about the workings of county government-and that‚s what fellow Republicans say about him. Any moron could tie Robey in knots at a debate, but Wink has been a no-show for several, and since he didn‚t do his homework his rants don‚t do much to hurt the extremely vulnerable Ed. Want an ignorant and unpleasant reactionary on the board? Vote for Wink.

Next we have another Bill, Lewis to be exact. Nearly everything that could be said about Wink applies to Lewis, who‚s agenda consists of „I don‚t like Ed‰ , and little else. At least Lewis has some control over his emotions, though age seems to have taken it‚s toll on Bill‚s mental faculties, he sometimes seems to be rowing with one oar. To show how little Lewis knows about the local community he lives in, one of his biggest complaints about Ed is that he didn‚t work closely enough with the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, the center of all that is evil on that side of the lake. Issues? Lewis makes-up his agenda as he goes along, which he has to because he doesn‚t know squat about what the county government is up to, let alone what to do about it. A nice enough guy who doesn‚t have enough sense to know when he‚s in WAY over his head, Lewis is another non-starter.

Last we have Don Dornbush, who has much in common with Wink. Doesn‚t know anything about anything, but has figured-out he doesn‚t like Ed, which seems to be everyone‚s reason for running this year. At least Dornbush made it up to Lakeport for the debate, where he did a fine job of showing the assembled crowd and TV viewers that A: he‚s not too bright, B: he‚s extremely poorly informed about local matters, and C: he‚s a nasty prick. In other words, he‚ll probably go far in the Republican party, in fact, he meets all their basic criteria for running for elected office. Cheap shots, dirty tricks and smear tactics are this family man‚s stock in trade, another example of the self righteous being the least principled.

So as unbelievable as it is, the Republicans have made Ed Robey look like a sane and sober choice for supervisor, in spite of the fact that Ed has handed them the rope to hang himself with on a silver platter many times. Republicans will have to ask themselves after this election how they could have muffed the chance to send this liberal packing, and if their attack ads are the right way to go about dislodging the firmly entrenched Robey.

This year‚s field of contestants for the district four supervisor position consists of three Republicans running against our current situational Republican incumbent, Tony Farrrington. Challengers Buzz Bruns, Janel Chapman and Cecil Brown are all long-time Lake County residents (Chapman is a native), but only Lakeport‚s mayor (Bruns) is well known to local residents. This is what Farrington is up against:

Janel Chapman: Forty-four year old Janel is currently employed as Lakeport‚s city clerk and also as the owner of a local small business. Janel is working with a very small war chest, and few apparent endorsers, Leslie Rumfelt being her main cash contributor ($200) at the last filing. Chapman is against the expansion of the Snow Mountain and Cache Creek wilderness areas, is against the geothermal setback from the lake, and is probably the most pro-ag to urban conversion supporter of the four candidates. Janel Œs plan for trimming the bloated county budget consists of leaning on Wes Chesbro and Patty Berg for state help, and reducing paperwork by using more computerized files, measures that will certainly be far less than the major overhaul the current crisis calls for. Janel‚s candidate‚s statement in the sample ballot is basically a resume, since it describes past experiences rather than giving a hint of what her agenda would be if elected, though that possibility seems highly unlikely at this point.

Sixty-six year old Buzz Bruns is another business person, but unlike Janel he has virtually the whole local business community backing him, including many out of the district heavy hitters in local commerce. People like former supe Karen Mackey, chamber of commerce president Tom Lincoln, and Bill Brunetti have endorsed Buzz. When asked what votes made by the incumbent over the last four years he objected to, Bruns was only able to come up with a seriously flawed recollection of Farrington‚s vote on the supe‚s pay raise, which makes one wonder why he thinks Tony needs to be replaced. Bruns also has no significant budget reduction plan, is against wilderness area expansion and the geothermal setback. Buzz also backs at least some ag-to-urban conversion and the possibility (pipe dream, actually) of a Scott‚s Valley dam. Bruns is another candidate who doesn‚t seem to have a visible agenda, or any new proposals to champion, though residents can count on the tourism and commerce industries to be the big winners if he‚s elected.

Fifty-two year old Cecil Brown is the law enforcement candidate, not surprising since he‚s worked for the CHP, Sheriff‚s department and DA‚s office. Cecil has basically no experience in anything but police work, and hasn‚t been visibly active in any local political issues. Brown (no relation to supervisor Rob Brown, but endorsed by him), is also predictably against the wild and scenic designation for Cache Creek, but gives a "maybe" when asked about the expansion of the Snow Mountain wilderness area. Brown is perhaps the least receptive of the four to rezoning ag lands to residential or commercial, and like the other challengers is against the geothermal setback from the lake. Cecil is certainly the best informed of Farrington‚s rivals, and claims to have read the minutes from every weekly BOS meeting for the last four years. Brown gives little cue as to what his agenda will be in office, but one can safely assume the Sheriff will have a blank check and free hand, even more so than he already has.

Thirty-three year old Tony Farrington is the incumbent and has amassed a warchest of nearly $26,000, giving him roughly double the contributions of all his competitors combined. Heavy hitters like Tom Lincoln, Bill Brunetti and Dennis Pluth have all backed Bruns but have given Tony large cash contributions to hedge their bets, a telling example of how flexible the ethics of these three well known and respected Republican businessmen are. After four years with almost no results Tony is still beating the drum for getting back the water rights to Clearlake, but like everyone else is against the expansion of the wilderness areas. Tony casts himself as the outsider working against the "Good old boys", an odd take on the situation given the vast sums of money he‚s taken from the real estate and resort industries, including $1,000 from the California real estate PAC. Farrington has also milked large contributions from two of the three largest packing sheds, Adobe Creek and Skully. Tony has also tapped into mining, vineyard and construction money, including $1,000 from Epindendio construction. Farrington supported county cooperation with planned parenthood, local nullification of the Patriot Act, and a pay raise for all county supervisors and department heads, all things his challengers would likely be against. Tony‚s campaign fliers are chock full of questionable claims, like their being more deputies on the beat since he took office, and the claim he helped Finley water system users when in fact he voted to raise their rates by over 200%. Tony also gripes in his campaign materials that he‚ll be the target of personal attacks and smear tactics during the race, another example of his over sensitivity to criticism and general paranoia.

Janel Chapman is unlikely to even make the run-off, which is no loss since she is just another knee-jerk, visionless Republican drone. Bruns seems to be applying for the job because the Lakeport Chamber of Commerce had to field a candidate, and the lax work schedule and plush benefits doubtlessly appeal to this senior citizen. Buzz has few clues as to what is going on in county government and an agenda that seems to be made-up as he goes along, and like Janel shouldn‚t be given serious consideration as a candidate. Cecil is obviously a notch above Janel and Buzz on the competency scale, and there is no question that he‚s an very intelligent guy, but it‚s also clear that he is a rubber stamp for law enforcement. Cecil has also kept any plans for his choice of budget reduction options under wraps, which makes you wonder why a guy so schooled in the county‚s financial matters doesn‚t talk about the subject in other than non-specific terms, is he idea-less or got something to hide? Farrington has been a truly mixed blessing as supervisor, getting things right perhaps half the time while being very inconsistent with his on-the-job inputs, sometimes being very well informed on certain subjects, and clueless on others. Unable to get along with his fellow board members, Farrington was snubbed by his peers when selection of the board chairman was made, and further snubbed when his only occasional ally on the board (Rob Brown) backed his rival Cecil Brown. In Short, as bad as Farrington is his rivals are almost certainly a bit worse, so we‚re in the least of two evils situation again.

 Challenger Harry De Lope is up against incumbent Rob Brown for the district five supervisor seat in a race that unlike the contests for control of districts one and four will be decided on March 2nd. Actually, the district one and four races could be over in March if someone pulls over 50% of the votes, but in a four-way race that possibility is a long shot.

 Harry De Lope is a relative newcomer to both Lake County and politics, and unlike a lot of people running for supervisor this year, Harry does seem to have an agenda. Harry believes the county should be more pro-active when dealing with issues, instead of the current system where disasters are dealt with long after the formative stage. De Lope is claiming that unlike most other people in local elected offices, he‚ll not only listen to the good old boys, but will also give fair representation to those without a long history of Lake County residence. While Harry is clearly a thoughtful, intelligent man, his rather lackluster campaign hasn‚t taken advantage of the glaring weak points of his rival, and has relied mostly on some lame print ads that suggest that supervisor Brown isn‚t devoting his full attention to his duties as an elected official. While it‚s true that Rob is guilty of constant non-job related multi-tasking, the charge doesn‚t stick well since Brown still manages to be better informed than his fellow board members in most cases, not that the bar is set very high in that regard. Like the last contest for this seat, both candidates are middle-aged white Republicans, which means that the next BOS will almost certainly be comprised entirely of white male Republicans, except for lone liberal Democrat Ed Robey in district one-assuming Ed holds on to his job.

 Harry gives the impression that he‚s a notch to the left of Brown on most issues, and probably more sensitive to environmental concerns, one of Brown‚s weakest points. Another area where De Lope may be better than Brown is the subject of law enforcement, where Rob‚s close ties to that community and the Sheriff are readily apparent, and are seemingly inseparable. Harry‚s approach to reducing crime is to enlist the help of citizens to be the eyes and ears of the police, and while signing-up a legion of snitches isn‚t much of a master plan, it is more than what Brown has offered to do to combat our rampant crime problem. Harry says he‚ll consider raising the county sales tax by ½ % in order to close the county‚s multi-million dollar budget gap, something his rival has ruled out, though that option would certainly be a hard sell with voters. Both candidates want to use more state grant funding to fix our failing county roads, with Brown wanting better use of STIP funding while De Lope says we should look into community development block-grant money as a funding source-a virtual non-starter from a legal aspect.

 De Lope has waffled on whether or not more "box stores" should be allowed in Lake County, whereas Brown has given an unequivocal "no" when asked about the subject, not too surprising since De Lope has spent much of his life building commercial developments of that type. De Lope also seems to be more supportive of the type of residential development currently proposed for the south county, while Brown has been very cautious about that particular issue, and may come down against it. Harry wants to see IHSS workers paid more and unionized, unlike Brown who has been unusually intransigent and unrealistic on the issue, and who whines constantly about the unfairness of the state mandated (but under-funded) program and the number of criminal types it employs. Surprisingly, Harry is probably a bit less receptive than Brown to the idea of rezoning ag lands to residential, and champions the "city center" concept to limit urban sprawl. De Lope is also in favor of adding to the Snow Mountain and Cache Creek wilderness areas, something his rival has come down firmly against. Harry is also pushing for highway 29 to be made four lanes from Lower Lake to Kelseyville, a good idea that hasn‚t got a hope in hell of happening anytime soon due to the state‚s current financial condition. Unlike Brown, De Lope is in favor of the geothermal setback from the lake, and Harry has also said he thinks water availability should be taken into consideration when a new grading ordinance is adopted.

 Both men in this race are honest, well intentioned people, but in spite of some glaring faults Brown is likely the best choice. Nobody on the current board has been nearly as effective as Brown at rooting out waste and incompetence in county government, and he‚s also the most open and honest member of the board as well. With little knowledge of the details of the workings of county government, De Lope is at a distinct disadvantage when dealing with the entrenched fiefdoms operating as county departments, and is very unlikely to take the aggressive tack Brown has employed with generally good results

 

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