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Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel will go head-to-head with challenger Anil Dwivedi in the League of Women Voters Humboldt County‘s latest candidate forum, broadcast live by KEET-TV. There could have been a third “head” in that equation, but candidate Casey Dresser declined the invitation to participate, a KEET employee informed us this afternoon.

Dwivedi, a local landlord, reached a settlement last week in the class action lawsuit filed on behalf of tenants, who accused him of illegally jacking up their rent beyond the 8.8% max allowed under the California Tenant Protection Act. Per the terms of the deal, Dwivedi will pay $102,750 into a settlement fund, with the vast majority of that amount going to attorneys’ fees. The settlement does not include any admission of fault by Dwivedi.

On the campaign trail and on social media, Dwivedi has sought to paint Bergel as a complacent representative of the status quo while pointing to the city’s issues with homelessness, drug addiction and a struggling economy. In contrast, Dwivedi’s A.I.-crafted campaign materials present him as a bold change agent who will focus on “action, accountability and measurable results” as Eureka’s next mayor.

Bergel, meanwhile, has defended the track record of city leadership (herself included) in addressing homelessness, mental health issues and economic hardship, pointing to programs such as the Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), the Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE) team and Uplift. She has also noted her “limited control over policy decisions” as a non-voting member of the Eureka City Council (except in the rare cases when a tie vote must be broken). 

Dresser’s campaign has consisted almost entirely of finding, documenting and condemning public littering that he attributes, on Facebook, to unhoused drug addicts. Last month, Dresser denied responsibility for three separate Twitter/X accounts that bear his name, year of birth or both and that published a steady stream of overtly racists posts dating back years. 

We reached out to Dresser via email to ask why he declined to participate in tonight’s candidate forum but had not heard back by the time this post was published. He also didn’t participate in a candidate forum earlier this month hosted by the Humboldt Association of Realtors.

All three candidates have participated in our own ongoing LoCO Elections forum, where readers can ask questions directly of the candidates, though Dresser hasn’t answered any questions since early last month.

As noted above, tonight’s candidate forum will be broadcast live on KEET-TV from 7-8 p.m., with recordings available afterward on both Access Humboldt and YouTube.