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Election season is back, and that means LoCO Elections is back!

LoCO Elections is the place where you, the Lost Coast Outpost readership, may put questions to the people who seek to represent you in higher office. It’s also where those candidates may answer those questions, and also to communicate with you via their press releases about endorsements and policy positions and stuff.

Right now, here are the races we’re looking at on LoCO Elections:

• Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters
• Eureka City Council Ward 3
• Eureka City Council Ward 5
• Arcata City Council
• Fortuna City Council
• Humboldt Community Services District

Do you have a question for a candidate in one of these races? Cruise on over to LoCO Elections and ask it! Here’s a little rundown on how the system operates. The candidates with the green checks are the ones who already have a LoCO Elections account. They are standing by for your question.

Are you a candidate who doesn’t yet have a green check? That means either: 1) You haven’t answered my email yet, or 2) I couldn’t find your email address. Want to get hooked up with an account? Shoot me a line – hank@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Are you a candidate for some other office on the current ballot, one that is not already listed on LoCO Elections? Would you like to have a LoCO Elections page too, so’s that people in your jurisdiction can ask you things? Again, shoot me a line and we can probably add your race to the site, if you promise to participate.

Happy LoCO Election season, everyone! Let’s figure out who the best candidates are, together!

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On August 28, 2022, at about 6:27 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the county’s jurisdiction of Eureka observed a vehicle parked in the middle of the roadway on the 2900 block of O’Neil Lane. Deputies contacted two women standing in the roadway near the vehicle.

Deputies recognized one of the women from previous law enforcement contacts as 56-year-old Nonie Annette Bishop, who was wanted on outstanding misdemeanor warrants. During a search of Bishop’s vehicle incident to arrest, deputies located approximately 2.42 ounces of crystal methamphetamine, items consistent with the sale of controlled substances, drug paraphernalia and burglary tools.

Bishop was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of a controlled substance for sales (HS 11378) and possession of burglary tools (PC 466), in addition to warrant charges of petty theft (PC 488), possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(a)) and driving with a suspended license (VC 14601.2(a)).

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

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Press release from the unified command of the Six Rivers Lightning Complex:

The Six Rivers Lightning Complex remains in unified command with California Interagency Incident Management Team 14, California Highway Patrol, Trinity County Sheriff, and Humboldt County Sheriff. The Six Rivers Lightning Complex is currently 34,076 acres with 54% containment and 1,922 personnel assigned to the incident.

The containment percentage has been updated to correctly reflect the amount of the fire perimeter that is deemed fully contained. Although this represents a sizeable reduction to the containment percentage, it should be noted that much of the control lines have been completed and are nearing containment classification.

CURRENT SITUATION

Monday, firefighters began their day with an excellent hold on most areas of the fire after several days of highly effective defensive firing operations. This positive position is a direct result of the full suppression strategy and the tireless efforts of the firefighters on the fire line.

Through Monday, the Ammon Fire held within its current footprint. Firefighters remained engaged around the fire, extinguishing hot spots and securing control lines around Madden Creek. In addition, fire suppression repair work has begun on the contingency lines of the Ammon Fire.

Firefighters assigned to the Campbell Fire carried on with their primary objective of completing defensive firing operations along designated control lines. Efforts were concentrated around Horse Linto Campground, Lone Pine Ridge, and Groves Prairie Road. In the areas where firing operations have been completed, there is a large buffer intended to stop the forward progress of the fire.

In the evening hours of Monday, fire activity increased in the southeast portion of the Campbell Fire. Aerial reconnaissance identified a spot fire south of the control line at Zeigler Ridge. Firefighters today will pick up where night operations left off, prioritizing the containment of the spot fire near Zeigler Point. The structure protection task force will remain assigned to the areas of Trinity Village and Hawkins Bar.

Please check this link for air quality resources.

FOREST CLOSURES

Forest order NO. 22-10-06 Six Rivers Lightning Complex is currently in place, which includes river access at Kimtu Park.

To view this closure and map, please visit this link.

ROAD CLOSURES

Due to a large presence of fire personnel and machinery working to build containment lines for the Ammon Fire, residents are asked to limit travel on Titlow Hill Road/Route 1 in zones HUM-E052 and HUM-E062 to essential traffic only. Residents may still use roads to travel out of evacuation order zones:

The following roads into evacuation zones have been closed.

• Forest Route 7n15 at Six Rivers Forest Boundary The following roads are restricted to local traffic only:

• Horse Linto Creek Road at Saddle Lane (Open to residents only)

• 6N06 Sandy Bar (Route 6)

• Titlow Hill Road (Route 1) at Horse Mountain Botanical Area

State Route 299 remains open to through traffic. Residents are encouraged to visit the Caltrans Quickmap to check for state highway closures.

EVACUATION UPDATES

For the latest evacuation information go to Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services (https://humboldtgov.org/2383/) or Trinity County Office of Emergency Services (https://www.trinitycounty.). For an interactive map of evacuation zones visit: https://community.zonehaven. To sign up for alerts: www.humboldtgov.org/alerts.

*Evacuation Warnings have been lifted for zones HUM-E062, HUM-E063, HUM-E076-B, HUM-E077.*

EVACUATION ORDERS remain in effect for zones: HUM-E058 and HUM-E061-A.

EVACUATION WARNINGS remain in effect for zone: HUM-E032, 483 - Fisher Road and all residences off of Fisher Road, Trinity Village, Wallen Ranch Road.

Zone 482 - Suzy Q Road and all roads off of Suzy Q Road

Zone 480 - Ziegler Point Road / Forest Service Road 7N04

An EVACUATION WARNING remains in effect for Campbell Ridge Road from Salyer Heights to Seeley McIntosh Road. Salyer area, including Galaxy Road, and the area of Ziegler Point Road/Forest Service Road 7N04 have been reduced to an Evacuation Warning.

ANIMAL EVACUATION CENTER

Hoopa Rodeo Grounds
1767 Pine Creek Rd., Hoopa, CA 95546
Phone: (707) 492-2851

For more information visit Inciweb.

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The California Legislature sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a first-in-the-nation bill Monday creating a council to regulate wages and working conditions in fast food restaurants.

The bill would give labor advocates a long-elusive bargaining foothold in a low-wage industry that employs more than half a million non-unionized workers statewide.

Pushed by the Service Employees International Union and fiercely opposed by business groups, the FAST Recovery Act barely passed the state Senate with the minimum number of votes. The vote was just as narrow in the Assembly hours later. Several Democrats abstained; after it passed six switched their votes to support it.

If Newsom signs AB 257, a council would be able to set standards across the fast food industry on wages and workplace conditions such as safety measures and even the temperature of a restaurant. Labor advocates say the bill would give workers bargaining power in an industry where union representation is difficult to achieve because of high staff turnover and franchise ownership.

Lawmakers pared back the bill significantly to push it toward final passage after several moderate Democratic Legislators balked at earlier proposals to give the new council sweeping regulatory authority over the industry. Lawmakers added a bevy of amendments last week to address the concerns of business owners.

In one major concession, lawmakers stripped out a provision that would have held fast food corporations jointly responsible for wage and labor violations at franchise locations. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Chris Holden of Pasadena, said that was a “significant piece” in swaying some colleagues.

California in recent years has been extending this kind of labor law liability in other industries — from janitorial and gardening contractors to the building owners and firms that hire them, for example — as part of its efforts to combat wage theft. But fast food franchise corporations have long avoided that responsibility in federal and state labor law.

Even without that provision, labor leaders were calling the bill a victory. SEIU president Mary Kay Henry said at a rally outside the Capitol that the bill was a “watershed moment for working people.”

Of particular significance: including workers on the council alongside industry representatives, said Columbia University labor law expert Kate Andrias.

“Upending our state’s existing lawmaking structure and regulatory platform is no way to help workers.”
— Jot Condie, California Restaurant Association president

The United States and California have used boards for other industries before to set minimum wages, particularly during the first half of the 20th century. But, Andrias said, the fast food bill is “a more expansive and ambitious variation” of those past efforts by having workers sit directly on the council and covering a wider range of working conditions.

Business and restaurant groups, which spent big on TV advertising opposing the bill, released a statement Monday afternoon urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto it. They have said fast food is being unfairly targeted and warned the new regulations would force restaurants to increase prices at a time of record inflation.

The broadcast and digital ads called the bill a “food tax.”

“Upending our state’s existing lawmaking structure and regulatory platform is no way to help workers,” said Jot Condie, California Restaurant Association president, in a statement.

Key compromises

Newsom has not stated a position on the bill, but his Department of Finance opposes it, saying it would create ongoing costs and worsen delays in the state’s labor enforcement system.

Supporters said Monday the bill incorporates their discussions with the Newsom administration.

Aside from the removal of labor liability for fast food chains, the bill’s other changes include provisions preventing the council from requiring any new paid leave benefits for workers, or from regulating how fast food restaurant operators schedule workers’ hours. Also any minimum wage the council sets would be capped at $22 an hour in 2023 and subject to inflationary increases in future years. The bill also includes a six-year expiration date.

Some food businesses would be exempt from the council’s rules, including bakeries, grocery store fast food counters, and chains with fewer than 100 locations nationally — that’s up from a prior threshold of 30 locations or less.

Balancing act

It was not immediately clear how many business or workers would be excluded by raising that threshold. For franchised brands with locations in California, the number of chains fitting the description fell from 149 to 84, according to the International Franchise Association.

The bill would give workers and their advocates an equal number of seats on the council as business representatives. The rest of the council would include two representatives of the governor’s administration – from the Labor & Workforce Development Agency and the Office of Business and Economic Development.

Sen. Dave Min, an Irvine Democrat, said he initially “had some deep concerns” about the legislation but supported the more limited version.

“I feel it’s our duty to protect our business centers from overburdensome state regulations, but we also have to balance that against the rights of the workers that serve us,” he said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

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The land that Jim Scala and his family have been ranching for three generations is parched and brown as far as he can see. The pond where his cattle used to drink is now a puddle, ringed with cracked mud.

In other years, water pumped from the Shasta River would have periodically flooded this land, keeping his pasture alive and pond full. But the state had ordered Scala and other ranchers and farmers in rural Siskiyou County to stop irrigating when the drought-plagued river dipped below a certain level.

With bills mounting from trucking in water and buying hay to replace dead pasture, and facing the prospect of selling half his herd, Scala and others made a decision to defy the state’s order.

“We said, ‘To hell with it,’” Scala said. “We’re starting the pumps.”

In a single day in mid-August, the Shasta River’s flows dropped by more than half and stayed there for a week, which could jeopardize the salmon and other fish that spawn there.

Klamath river tribes were outraged, and California water regulators sounded the alarm. The State Water Resources Control Board ordered the Shasta River Water Association, which serves roughly 110 farms and ranches in central Siskiyou County, to stop pumping. Fines would start at $500 per day but could rise to $10,000 after a 20-day waiting period or a hearing.

“The unlawful diversion sets a terrible precedent that irrigators can egregiously violate state water rights and impact listed and tribal trust species,” said Jim Simondet, Klamath branch chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division.

A week later, on Aug. 24, Scala and the other ranchers and growers turned the water pumps off.

“We accomplished what we set out to do,” said Rick Lemos, a fifth generation rancher who also is a board member of the rural water association. “We got relief for the cattle that were out of water and wading out in the mud and getting stuck.” He said one of his cows had died in the mud.

The weeklong standoff crystallized a warning from California water watchers: The state has limited power to speedily intervene in urgent conflicts over water, which are expected to flare across the state as drought squeezes water supplies for ranches, farms, tribes, cities and fish.

“This is about the Shasta and it’s about Klamath salmon and it’s about tribes in the Klamath. But this is really about: can the state protect its water supplies, or is it just going to be the Wild West? Is it going to be every cowboy for himself?” said Craig Tucker, a natural resources consultant for the Karuk Tribe.

‘Farmers open the floodgates’

Scala is the president and Lemos sits on the board of the Shasta River Water Association, a private, non-profit water distributor that operates in the heart of Siskiyou County in the shadow of Mount Shasta.

In normal years, the water association pumps from the Shasta River from April to October, sending the water through a network of canals to irrigate roughly 3,400 acres.

The county, where locals have long chafed under Sacramento’s authority, was primed for simmering tensions over water to boil over.

“The dictatorial whims of (the) State Water Board has no authority to tell the people of Siskiyou county what to do with their property they own,” U.S. Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a Republican whose district includes the county, said in an emailed statement. “This violates our constitutional guarantee against unlawful seizure. I encourage anyone to stop ‘voluntarily complying’ with government looters.”

This has been the fourth driest year to date in a region where drought has been tightening its grip for years. Even in 2020, the local agricultural commissioner reported an increase in fallowed acres and limited irrigation that reduced yields. Wildfires have burned through rangeland and timber.

But agriculture, too, has taken its toll on water in the region — warming the Shasta River and degrading its water quality, according to the Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District.

These changes impact key spawning and rearing grounds for fall-run Chinook salmon and threatened Coho salmon. Other fish culturally important to tribes in the region, such as steelhead and Pacific lamprey, rely on the river as well.

Salmon runs have been declining for decades and few adult coho return every year, NOAA’s Simondet said. “Fish,” he said, “are not doing fine.”

The Shasta River empties into the larger Klamath — a small source of its flow but an outsized producer of its fish.

“Can the state protect its water supplies, or is it just going to be the Wild West? Is it going to be every cowboy for himself?”
— Craig Tucker, Karuk Tribe Consultant

In Happy Camp along the Klamath River, about 75 miles east from the pumps that the ranchers turned on, Karuk Tribal Council Member Arron “Troy” Hockaday has been watching the river and its salmon populations change over his lifetime.

“(If) those fish are gone, our people suffer. Those fish don’t spawn, our people suffer. We live off that — it’s our culture,” said Hockaday, a fourth generation traditional fisherman.

Hockaday has been dipping handmade nets into the rapids at Somes Bar to catch salmon since he was a child, and worries that his grandson won’t be able to continue the tradition.

“There ain’t going to be no fish for him to fish. He’s never going to learn how to catch fish and be a Karuk Tribal fisherman.”

Seeing the salmon populations decline even as water continues to flow through irrigation canals “hurts. It hurts so bad to see that,” Hockaday said. “And then to put pain into my soul, into our family, into the river — the farmers open the floodgates on the Shasta River.”

From his vantage point, he said, “Nobody gets into trouble for it.”

‘Egregious and blatant disregard’ of emergency order

Last year, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted emergency regulations that allow state regulators to curtail water users in the region when summertime flows in the Shasta River drop below 50 cubic feet per second near Yreka.

The aim is to protect salmon and trout species, including steelhead, fall-run Chinook and threatened Coho salmon. But the limit is fiercely contested by area ranchers, who note that it’s higher than the average historic flows in August since 1933.

The Shasta River Water Association petitioned in early August to continue diverting water to fill stock ponds for approximately 5,000 cattle plus calves and other assorted animals, according to a copy of the petition the water board shared with CalMatters. The water board said the request was still under review.

Lemos said the ranchers couldn’t afford to wait.

“How long do they review it while the cows are dying of thirst?” Lemos said. “We didn’t just fly off the handle and say hey, we’re going to break the law and get into a big mess. We tried the other way first.”

In a letter dated Aug. 17, the water association notified state regulators that they planned to violate the curtailment that day.

“We were in a critical situation. We have cattle out of water… We have nowhere to move them. You can’t just get them in and sell them tomorrow,” Lemos said. “So that’s why we started diverting (water).”

The pumps rapidly sucked away river water, dropping flows by more than half in a day, state officials said.

“It’s an egregious and blatant disregard for the environment and for our regulations…We are really, really interested in taking some swift action because we do take this so seriously,” said Julé Rizzardo, permitting and enforcement branch manager for the water board’s division of water rights.

The board is still investigating and determining whether to seek fines.

“We were in a critical situation. We have cattle out of water…So that’s why we started diverting (water).”
— Rick Lemos, Siskiyou County rancher

It took only a day after flows began dropping for the agency to notify the water association that they had violated their curtailment and could face fines of up to $500 per day. But under state law, the ranchers had 20 days to respond and request a hearing.

Only after the 20 days are up or a hearing has occurred can the water board adopt a final cease and desist order and raise the fines to $10,000 a day. By then, fall-run Chinook salmon would have been migrating through the river.

“It’s really unfortunate that we have those limitations,” Rizzardo said.

Felicia Marcus, a visiting fellow at Stanford’s water in the west program and former chair of the California water board, was more blunt: “In theory the water board has a lot of authority to deal with illegal diversions. In practice, they have to do it blindfolded and with one hand tied behind their back.”

California water law experts have been pushing for the water board to be granted more power to act swiftly.

Jennifer Harder, a law professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law urged California lawmakers to consider granting state water regulators the authority to temporarily pause water diversions and stem the damage in emergencies, while still allowing due process. Similar efforts have failed in the past.

“The bottom line is, we live in a very different world than we lived in 20, 30, 40 years ago in terms of the immediacy of some of these threats,” Harder said.

After receiving the board’s notices, Scala, Lemos and the rest of the Shasta River Water Association kept pumping the river’s water for almost a week.

“Only regret I have is we didn’t start earlier,” Scala said on Aug. 24, with irrigation water running across his land. “We’re going to lose the crop anyway. We’re going to have to pay a fine, probably.”

But later that day, Lemos said they shut off the pumps; they had accomplished what they’d set out to do, he said.

“We were going to fill our stock ponds and get some stock water and get things where we could survive, and shut off,” Lemos said. “And that’s what we basically did.”

The 20-day period before fines escalate had also factored into their discussions, Lemos said. Considering the costs of hay, replanting desiccated pasture and selling off cows, he said, “at $500 a day, it would probably be worth it, I’ll be quite honest. It’d probably be more than affordable. At $10,000 a day, it wouldn’t be.”

Lemos estimates he’s bought around $50,000 worth of hay so far this year, with more on the way; Scala counts over $100,000 in hay costs between this year and last. Both are bracing to sell off large proportions of their herds to make it through the coming year – for Scala, it could be as much as half. And he doesn’t think the water even made it a third of the way across his field.

“I’ve been pretty depressed the last couple of days,” Scala said. “There’s no future. We don’t have water. Without water, we’re done. And we can’t sell the place. Who’s going to buy a place without water?”

Pumps turned off, but will the damage remain?

Hockaday of the Karuk tribe was relieved to see flows returning to the Shasta River, but hopes to see the ranchers and growers held accountable for diversions that the state water board says are illegal.

“It’s great that they turned off the pumps. But they knew they weren’t supposed to turn them on in the first place,” Hockaday said.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is still evaluating the damage that the pumping may have caused, Tina Bartlett, the department’s northern regional manager, said in a letter to the water board Friday.

But the department expects that the rapid reduction in flows could have put young salmon and trout species at risk by shrinking their habitat, increasing temperatures downstream and interfering with critical food production.

“It is likely that some perished,” wrote Bartlett, who added that the rapid dewatering also “does not bode well” for adult Chinook salmon migrating from the Pacific to their spawning grounds.

“(If) those fish are gone, our people suffer. Those fish don’t spawn, our people suffer. We live off that — it’s our culture.”
— Arron “Troy” Hoc, Karuk Tribal Council Member

Lemos said he doubts that fish were harmed by the diversions. He expects warm summertime temperatures kept salmon species out of the lower reaches of the Shasta. “I wish you’d go down the canyon and look for some dead fish because you won’t find them,” Lemos said. “There was nothing harmed by our diversion at all.”

But Mike Belchik, a senior water policy analyst for the Yurok tribe, said the damage goes beyond salmon.

Fish species like lamprey that also are culturally important to the Yurok people are vulnerable to being stranded by a rapidly retreating water line, Belchik said. And reducing the river’s flows can cause long-term harm to the food web that can affect production for in the years to come.

“If you interrupt the food production in the summer, you don’t just get it back. It’s like removing the oxygen from a room for 20 minutes,” he said. “It’s lethal.”

Hockaday said land can be replanted and economies rebuilt; if a species of fish disappears from the river, it’s gone forever.

The ranchers who pumped the water “need to take care of his family. I understand that,” Hockaday said. But he wants to know when it’ll be the tribes’ turn to stop sacrificing so much.

“We gave up everything since the colonist people came here,” Hockaday said. “We’ve given our land, we’ve given our water, we’ve given our homeland. We gave everything up.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Paul Bradshaw Windes (Brad) was born on May 17, 1968 in Columbia, Missouri and died on August 19, 2022 in Eureka, the town he grew up in. He was born to Janet Lafferty Windes (April 28, 1942) and William E Windes (Feb. 2, 1942-Oct.25, 2017). He left behind his wife, Janet, and six adult children — Craig, Patrick, Michael, Tabatha, Tesha and Jennifer — along with many grandchildren.

In trying to capture his essence with words, I am struck by how inadequate language is, but I have so many images of him that run through my mind, particularly Brad in a skirt (kilt) because he loved his Celtic heritage.

Brad was such a big man — big stature, big laugh, big heart, big integrity. He was, at his core, a family man. Family was the most important thing in his life. For Brad, family was a term used to encompass all the people he loved and cared for. Only a portion were related by blood or marriage, but all of us were gathered to his heart along the way, and there in his heart, we knew ourselves to be a family.

Brad never met a stranger. He could (and did) talk to anyone about anything and made people feel heard and important. No matter how different our beliefs and opinions were, Brad effectively communicated respect and curiosity about those differences, never judgment or disregard.

Brad was a kid magnet. He was like his father that way. Brad came into any kid occupied space and was immediately the center of their attention. All children, not just his own, felt important, safe, and treasured when basking in his attention.

His absence has blown a hole through our hearts and our community. I will not say all the people he was survived by. I’d worry I would miss a name. Brad loved us all.

He was a son, a husband, a father and grandfather, a brother, a nephew, an uncle and a friend. He was a role model, a shoulder to cry on, a joke when you needed one, a source of advice you could take or leave. He was such a big part of our lives and we are bumbling along trying to find our way without him.

Brad was a blessing that we all deeply honor receiving. Knowing him changed us, and in all the ways that we are changed by our time with him, we will keep him in our hearts forever.

Goodbye …

Please join us if you are missing him too. We will be gathering to remember him together on September 10, 2022 at 2 p.m. at Humboldt Municipal Water District Pavilion, 7270 West End Road, Arcata, 95521.

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The obituary above was submitted by Brad Windes’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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Is it possible to talk smack about someone without even mentioning them? According to an order issued this morning by Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning, the answer is “yes.”

Canning found that a short sentence in the official candidate statement submitted by Tiffany Hunt Nielsen violated the state’s elections code by indirectly throwing shade at Juan Pablo Cervantes, her challenger in the November runoff election to become Humboldt County’s next clerk, recorder and registrar of voters. This despite the fact that the sentence in question doesn’t even mention Cervantes’ name or existence. 

Here’s the deal: Among the many rules laid out in California Elections Code there’s one — Code Section 13308 — that says candidates for office can’t belittle their opponents in their official ballot statements. In fact, the code says candidate statements:

shall be limited to a recitation of the candidate’s own personal background and qualifications, and shall not in any way make reference to other candidates for that office or to another candidate’s qualifications, character, or activities.

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after submitting her official candidate statement for the November ballot, Hunt Nielsen received a notice from Kelly Sanders, the current county clerk, recorder and register of voters, informing her that an unidentified someone had lodged an objection to this sentence:

“I am the only candidate with experience working in both offices.”

Hunt Nielsen works as a senior documents examiner at the county recorder’s office, way up on the fifth floor of the county courthouse, while Cervantes works as an elections specialist the elections manager in the county’s elections office, located in a former shopping center at the north end of town. Each candidate’s relative lack of experience in the other’s office has been a source of contention on the campaign trail.

In her notice to Hunt Nielsen, Sanders said that she had reviewed California Election Code Section 13308 and concluded that the objection had merit. The sentence may not reference Pablo Cervantes directly, but Sanders concluded that it comments on his qualifications by way of inference.

“I agree that the sentence in question makes reference beyond your own personal background and qualifications,” Sanders wrote. She added that if Hunt Nielsen had instead simply written, “I have experience in both offices,” there wouldn’t have been a problem.

After conferring with the county’s legal counsel, Sanders decided to delete the offending sentence from Hunt Nielsen’s candidate statement prior to printing it in the official voter information guide.

But Hunt Nielsen wasn’t satisfied with this proposed fix. She didn’t dispute Sanders’ conclusion about the sentence, though she may have had a good argument.  A quick google search reveals that this particular formulation — “I am the only candidate … ” — has appeared on dozens of California ballots in recent years, in statements from candidates for everything from school boards to judge to the mayor of Los Angeles. The phrase will even appear on this year’s statewide ballot, in a statement from Board of Equalization candidate Sally J. Lieber, meaning the phrase must have been approved by the Secretary of State. 

Regardless, Hunt Nielsen didn’t fight that part of Sanders’ actions. She just wanted to be given a chance to submit an amended statement of her own, rather than leaving her original statement with one sentence erased.

Hunt Nielsen retained attorney Dustin E. Owens from the Eureka firm of Owens & Ross, who petitioned the court for a writ of mandate that would allow her to replace the contested sentence with one saying, “I have experience working in both offices.” 

When the Outpost asked Hunt Nielsen about the matter on Aug. 20, while she was campaigning at the Humboldt County Fair, she downplayed the significance of the whole affair, saying she didn’t want anyone to get the impression that she was suing her boss.

In an email, Sanders said she was unable to comment and referred us to the court documents. 

In response to an inquiry, Cervantes replied via email, “In my capacity as Elections Manager I’ve stayed removed from Tiffany Hunt Nielsen’s actions. Kelly [Sanders] has been directly handling everything that has to do with the Clerk, Recorder & Registrar contest.”

This morning, Judge Canning issued an order granting the peremptory writ.

“Having considered the evidence and heard the argument of counsel, the Court finds by clear and convincing proof that the original candidate statement of Tiffany Hunt Nielsen contains a sentence that is inconsistent with Elections Code § 13308,” the order says

It also directs Sanders to replace Hunt Nielsen’s original candidate statement with her amended one, which is identical except for that one sentence.