With profound sadness, we announce the passing of Karen Anne Fredrickson (née Moore), age 79, who left us peacefully at her home in Iaqua on August 6, 2025, surrounded by her loving family.

Karen was born on April 13, 1946, in Eureka at St. Joseph Hospital to Charles and Edra Moore. She grew up in Freshwater, attending Freshwater Elementary School, and spent her summers at the family ranch in Iaqua — a place central to the rest of her life. The ranch shaped her love of ranching, animals, community, and the land itself.

She graduated from Eureka Senior High School in 1964 and went on to earn her Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1968. Her experience in college would continue to influence Karen’s life, blending community and agriculture.

Karen began her professional journey with the Department of Food and Agriculture in Lebanon County, Oregon, and broke new ground as Oregon’s first female Brand Inspector. From there she worked for Oregon State University Agricultural Extension, serving as the 4-H Director for Benton County, Oregon. In 1982, she returned to Humboldt County, serving the community with Redwood Community Action Agency and later the Area 1 Agency on Aging.

Continuing her path of community service Karen was a key member of the Humboldt County Probation Office. From 1988 to 2003, Karen served as a probation officer, supervisor and director. Karen made a lasting impact in the department serving as founding supervisor for the Humboldt County Drug Court, leading the Intensive Supervision Unit, and ultimately serving as Division Director of Adult Probation. Compassion and commitment defined her professional career. Her dedication earned her the Pat Mitchell Award from the Eureka Police Officers Association along with the admiration and respect of the law enforcement community.

Karen married her beloved husband, Duane Fredrickson, and together they built a life of love, hard work, and shared passions. She was the proud mother of Shaun and Kylie Brenneman, Adrienne and Thomas Ross, Melissa Grace, and Jason and Emily Fredrickson. She adored her grandchildren — Meghann and Michael Weldon, Kaitlin and Kevin Marshall, McKenna and Andrew Miyashiro, Samuel Ross, Austin Grace, and Wyatt Grace — and her great-grandchildren, Elias and Agatha Miyashiro.

Karen is survived by her sister and brother-in-law, Kathleen and Roddy Gordon, and her brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Dina Moore. She also leaves behind a large extended family of nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews, all of whom she cherished deeply. She was predeceased by her parents, Charles and Edra Moore. Her dear friends remained an important part of her life through the years.

Karen was a lifelong athlete competing in many endurance related sports from marathons to ride and ties, ultimately culminating in equine endurance rides. Karen was a lifelong member of Redwood Empire Endurance Riders and the American Endurance Ride Conference. Blending her love of horses and distance racing, she found her passion in endurance riding. Her endurance riding career was nothing short of remarkable. She completed the legendary 2,000-mile Pony Express Trail XP Ride three times in full and once in part (1,250 miles), riding from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Virginia City, Nevada. She logged countless 250-mile, multi-day rides across the western United States, amassing an extraordinary 18,155 sanctioned AERC miles between 2000 and 2018. During her two-decade racing career she gathered more than just miles, she collected a vast group of life-long friends.

Astride her beloved horse, Murphy (MRR Pyro), Karen achieved the coveted “Perfect 10” Award in 2011 — ten years, 10,000 miles, 10 first-place finishes, and 10 best condition awards — an honor held by only a select few in the sport’s history. That same year, they received the rare Pard’ners Award, recognizing the deep partnership between horse and rider. In 2014, Murphy was inducted into the American Endurance Riders Hall of Fame, and by 2015, they had completed 15,000 race miles together.

Karen’s passions extended far beyond endurance riding. She was a gifted gardener who inspired many to grow and nurture the land. Together with Duane, she owned and operated a successful cattle ranch in Iaqua. Their work together went beyond raising a thriving cattle herd, they strove to restore and improve the land. Working closely with Natural Resources Conservation Service, Karen and Duane endeavored to promote stewardship and conservation of the land they loved. Their shared efforts earned them the Buckeye Conservancy Stewardship Award.

In keeping with her trend of community service, she was a lifelong member of the Humboldt ranching community. Karen served as Secretary of the Humboldt/Del Norte Cattlemen’s Association from 1999–2000, was a member of the Farm Bureau, and the Buckeye Conservancy. At home, she was surrounded by the dogs she loved, her constant companions over the years.

Karen had a generous heart, a strong will, and an easy smile that made everyone feel welcome. She taught by example — showing others the value of hard work, loyalty, and living life of courage and joy.

A celebration of Karen’s life will be held at 1:00 PM, Sunday, September 21, 2025 at The Wharfinger Building, 1 Marina Way, Eureka, CA 95501. Friends and family are welcome. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Humboldt and the Humboldt/Del Norte Cattlemen Scholarship Fund in her memory.

• Hospice of Humboldt, 3327 Timber Fall Ct., Eureka, CA 95503
• Humboldt/Del Norte Cattlemen Scholarship Fund, 5630 S Broadway, Eureka, CA 95503

Karen will be remembered as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, great-aunt, and friend. We imagine her now riding through the mountains she loved so much, wind in her hair, astride Murphy, with Cat at her side.

The family would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Hospice of Humboldt County and the University of San Francisco Cancer Center for their compassionate care during her final days.

Joan Ellen Hirschfeld
July 18, 1955 – April 22, 2025

It is with great sadness I must relay that my good friend Joan Hirschfeld has died.

She was born in Los Angeles to Irving and Shirley Hirschfeld.

Joan was a very talented artist working largely in lithography. She had a number of shows locally in the late 1970s. She loved to sing and play guitar with a group of friends. She was also a voracious reader. I was lucky to have her share many books with me that she had enjoyed.

Joan graduated early at 16, from El Camino High School. She moved to Oakland and attended California College of Arts and Crafts.

She then moved to Quincy, California where she worked for the Forest Service.

From there, she moved to Humboldt County and began studying for her bachelor’s degree in Art at Humboldt State University (as it was then called). It was at this point she and I met and became friends. She worked for Matthews Picture Framing while studying for her degree in Art. That was a very good fit for an aspiring artist.

She moved to Altadena and worked for a catalog company there doing layout and design.

Joan returned to Humboldt County. She met Jay Dottle and they married. She was a stepmother to his two children, Jason and Heidi. Joan worked with Jay on building his construction business, doing design work, bookkeeping and management.

When that marriage dissolved, Joan created Abacus, a business helping others set up their businesses. She possessed great organizational skills. She would also help with designing logos and forms for these businesses. Eventually she decided to return to school.

She moved to Santa Barbara and attended Antioch College, completing her bachelor’s degree in both Art and Psychology, then went on to become a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

She returned to Humboldt County and worked for Humboldt County Juvenile Hall and Making Headway, before opening her own private practice.

When first diagnosed with cancer in 2009, she regrettably had to close her private practice.

She was diagnosed with a second cancer in August of 2024. She spent many months in treatment at UCSF and passed away at Serenity House hospice in Santa Barbara with her family by her side.

She is survived by her sisters Meila and Lisa, and her niece Jessie.

###

###

You never quite know who or what you’ll meet on local wildlife trails, as local resident Lore Bazemore experienced firsthand on Monday. 

This morning she posted the above video to social media along with the following description of what happened:

Yesterday, in the Arcata Community Forest at the junction of Trail #6 and the upper part of the Jane’s Creek trail l met a young college student who [showed] me this footage unedited.

She had been sitting on the green bench, reading [when] out of the corner of her eye she saw what she thought was a dog approaching.

She had the presence of mind to turn on her camera and seconds later to stand up and fully reveal how big she could be and as you can see the lion trundled off down the trail toward West End Rd.

She was shaken and so was I but she did the right thing and I reassured her that it wasn’t likely to happen again in this afternoon!

Unlike the more elusive Gigantopithecus canadensis (Bigfoot), mountain lions fairly regularly get spotted (and filmed) in this region, according to Steve Gonzalez, a spokesperson for California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The young student in the above-described encounter did the exact right thing by standing up to reveal her full size.

“If you encounter a mountain lion, make yourself look large, wave your arms, and yell loudly to scare it away,” Gonzalez said via email. “When hiking in mountain lion territory, travel in groups and be especially cautious during dawn and dusk, when mountain lions are most active.”

Many commenters on social media note that this young-looking feline appears rather skinny and is thus probably hungry. While fatal cougar attacks do happen, they’re rare. 

“Mountain lions mainly hunt deer and generally do not seek out interactions with humans,” Gonzalez said.

Still, stay alert and be careful out there!

###

At a virtual town hall meeting last night, Pacific Gas & Electric Company officials went over the painstaking federal regulatory process that lies ahead as the utility prepares to decommission and dismantle the defunct Potter Valley Project — a two-dam hydroelectric system that has delivered flows from the Eel River basin to communities in the Russian River watershed for more than 100 years. 

PG&E recently submitted a Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan for the defunct hydropower project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), kicking off a years-long governmental and public review process. 

If the proposal moves forward as planned, PG&E will demolish much of the power station, which has been offline since 2021, and tear down both Scott and Cape Horn dams, draining Lake Pillsbury in Lake County and Van Arsdale Reservoir in Mendocino County. Once demolition is complete, the Eel-Russian Project Authority (ERPA) will assume responsibility for the diversion tunnel and construct the New Eel-Russian Facility (NERF) at the Cape Horn Dam site to ensure the continued transfer of flows to the Russian River. The whole process is expected to take at least 10 years to complete.

While last night’s meeting largely focused on the tedious FERC regulatory process and timeline for decommissioning, one simple question from the public stood out from the rest: “What is the benefit of removing the dams? I’m not understanding why this needs to be done.”

In short, the project is economically unsustainable, said PG&E Senior License Project Manager Tony Gigliotti.

“It’s a very small project, and it’s very costly to operate for us,” he said. “It has not generated at that capacity for quite some time, and ultimately, it’s in our customers’ best interest for the project to be surrendered and decommissioned because we could purchase the generating capability on the open market for less than what it was costing us to generate. It wasn’t an easy decision for us.

“We understand the importance of the project to the area … and it took a lot of thought for us to come to that determination.”

In 2019, PG&E informed FERC that it would not renew its license for the Potter Valley Project, which initiated the so-called “orphan” process to find other entities interested in relicensing the project. However, no one went through the process, and FERC “cannot require a licensee to keep and operate a project,” Gigliotti said.

“In 2022, when nobody completed those steps, FERC requested that PG&E provide a plan and schedule for the surrender and decommissioning of the project,” he continued. “We provided the plan and schedule, made two drafts of our Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan available to the public, and then filed [the final document] last month on July 25.”

After its initial review, FERC and PG&E will move on to federal permitting, environmental review through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as depicted in the timeline below.

“Next, FERC will issue a surrender order … which will contain a list of conditions that need to be implemented by PG&E,” Gigliotti said. “The issuance of that order from FERC doesn’t mean that construction starts right away. It means you may start implementing the following conditions. … There could be a one- to two-year gap between the issuance of the order and when PG&E is out in the field performing construction activities.”

The decommissioning process is expected to wrap up by 2030, but construction of the NERF could take another five years.

The proposal to demolish the upper Eel River dams has drawn both praise and criticism from Northern California communities that have long been at odds over ownership and control of water diverted from the Eel River. Still, a great many of them have been able to set aside their differences to join ERPA — a joint powers authority representing Sonoma Water, Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the California Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Last month, each of the aforementioned parties, as well as the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, approved water diversion agreements in support of dam removal. 

“Partners came together in what’s termed the ‘two-basin partnership’ to try to achieve two co-equal goals,” said ERPA Executive Director David Manning. “One is to improve fish migration habitat on the Eel River with the objective of achieving naturally reproducing, self-sustaining anadromous fish populations, and the second is to continue diversion from the Eel to the Russian through the existing tunnel that’s a part of the existing Potter Valley project, in a way that supports all the beneficial uses of water in the Russian River Basin.”

What’s next, you ask? FERC will inform the parties that the surrender application has “officially” been accepted and issue a 30-day public comment period, though there’s no telling when it will be announced. In the meantime, you can read the massive 2,324-page document at this link. 

###

PREVIOUSLY:

• PG&E Asks for Delay in Eel River Dam Decommissioning
• TODAY in SUPES: Board OKs Agreement on Potter Valley Project Decommissioning and New Eel-Russian Diversion Facility
• Lake County May Try to Derail Eel River Dam Deal With Direct Appeal to President Trump
• Farm Bureaus in Russian River Counties Issue Plea to President Trump to Keep the Potter Valley Dams in Place
• Humboldt Supervisors OK Potter Valley Water Diversion Plan, Paving the Way for Eel River Dam Removal
• PG&E Files Its Application to Surrender its Hydropower License, Paving the Way for the Removal of the Potter Valley Dams on the Eel River
• THE ECONEWS REPORT: When Will the Eel River Dams Fall?

Press release from the County of Humboldt

If you are interested in the McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance, you are encouraged to attend the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s upcoming workshop.

The planning commission will begin its review of the McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance with a public workshop on Thursday, Aug. 21. At the workshop, commissioners will hear a report on the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee’s (MMAC) work in developing the ordinance and will review both the ordinance and the environmental impact report prepared for the ordinance.

Background

The Humboldt County General Plan and McKinleyville Community Plan envision a town center with a mix of commercial, civic and residential uses, along with public gathering areas, open space and wetland preservation. Part of the vision is to create a vibrant area where people can live, work and gather, with easy access by walking, biking, driving or via public transit. Development of the new McKinleyville town center would happen gradually over time, with each new project going through a zoning conformance review process known as zoning clearance certification.

The MMAC has held public discussions on the McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance since 2019 and is close to making its final recommendation. The upcoming workshop will take place before that recommendation, providing the planning commission an opportunity to review the work that has gone into the ordinance preparation and proposed regulations.

Share Your Input

All interested members of the public are invited to attend the McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance Workshop and provide comments on the draft of the ordinance as it currently exists. The workshop will be held in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, located in the Humboldt County Courthouse at 825 Fifth St. in Eureka. The workshop will take place shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 21. Members of the public may also attend the meeting on Zoom or watch a live stream of the meeting on the county’s meeting agenda web page or by watching Access Humboldt on cable Channel 11. Zoom information will be provided in the meeting agenda.

The County of Humboldt is committed to providing equal access to all county programs, services and activities through the provision of accommodations for individuals with qualified disabilities as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). With 72 hours prior notice, a request for reasonable accommodation for this workshop can be made by calling 707-268-3722.

For more information, or if you have questions or comments regarding the McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance, please contact Humboldt County Planning & Building Director John Ford at 707-268-3738 or email jford@co.humboldt.ca.us.

###

###

###

Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

Yurok Tribe Hosts 61st Klamath Salmon Festival — Saturday, August 16

This Year’s Theme: Celebrating the Spectacular Start of the Klamath River’s Renewal!

All are invited to the Yurok Tribe’s 61st Annual Klamath Salmon Festival on Saturday, August 16 in Klamath.

The free, family-friendly event features a parade, Ney-puey Fun Run, live music by Blue Mountain Tribe, multiple kids’ activities, basket-weaving demonstrations, 20 delicious food options, Stick Game, basketball and arm-wrestling tournaments and high-quality gift items made by more than 130 local vendors.

“This year, we have every reason to be thankful — the Klamath River looks better than any other time in living memory, a powerful testament to dam removal and restoration. We invite the community to join us in celebrating the river’s renewal,” said Joseph L. James, the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “It fills my heart to see the Klamath healing with each passing day.”

The theme of this year’s event is “Celebrating the Spectacular Start of the Klamath River’s Renewal!” The Klamath is healing even faster than expected in response to the removal of the last of four dams in August of 2024. A month after deconstruction crews dismantled the last dam, thousands of salmon started repopulating the newly free-flowing part of the river.

A truly special band is headlining the festival this year. Blue Mountain Tribe, an all-Native blues band, is recognized for their original songs that reflect the Indigenous experience in the United States. The quartet has been awarded and selected for more than a dozen film festivals for their music video for “Sacred Flowers.”

The Yurok Fisheries Department will be screening three films during the festival. The screenings will showcase a segment of documentary filmmaker Shane Anderson’s upcoming feature film, “Undamming Klamath”, artist Lucy Raven’s “Murderers Bar”, and Our Changing Planet’s episode titled “River Restoration.” Showtimes are 11 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Anderson and Raven will be in attendance too.

Last year’s arm wrestling tournament was a huge hit so the Tribe decided to put on a bigger and better version of it this year. The 2025 tournament will include Men’s, Women’s, Master’s and Youth Divisions. Sign ups and weigh-ins are from 9am to 11am with the first pull happening at noon. The Ney-puey Fun Run begins at 9am. The annual parade is at 10am. Blue Mountain Tribe is playing at 12pm and 1:30pm.

The 2025 fish forecast is well below average and not nearly large enough for a commercial fishery. For this reason, there will be no salmon at the Salmon Festival. Through dam removal and restoration, the Yurok Tribe is confident that the Klamath’s salmon runs will recover. Right now, there is more positive momentum on the Klamath than ever before. Large-scale river restoration projects are happening throughout the basin.

This year’s festival received generous support from Yurok Telecommunications Corporation, Per-geesh Construction, Yurok Economic Development Corporation, Green Diamond Resource Company and LACO and Associates. The Salmon Festival parking area and shuttles are located off Klamath Mill Road. Please do not park on Highway 101.

*Reminder: For everyone’s comfort and safety, pets are not permitted at the Salmon Festival.

###

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

###

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, the Republican who represents much of California’s rural north, had barely begun his prepared remarks at a town hall in Chico early Monday when a chorus of boos and jeers overpowered him.

The raucous interjections didn’t relent for nearly 90 minutes.

The crowd of more than 650 people at the local Elks Lodge peppered him with obscenity-laden comments and slammed him for his vote for President Donald Trump’s budget bill, which cuts more than $1.1 trillion in federal spending for Medicaid, Medicare and plans under the Affordable Care Act over the next decade. The crowd excoriated LaMalfa for supporting legislation they said will “devastate” rural hospitals and hurt vulnerable people with disabilities and poor families.

But LaMalfa claimed the legislation makes “no cuts to the people themselves” in California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, and instead only targets “waste, fraud and abuse” – a common and misleading line that House Republicans across the country have employed to defend the legislation.

“That’s a lie!” several attendees shouted when LaMalfa trotted out this refrain, amid a chorus of boos. “Shameless!”

“Is this how you get stuff? By yelling?” LaMalfa shot back.

LaMalfa largely defended his record, and those of his party and the president, at his first in-person forum in close to eight years in Chico, a Democratic college town that is one of a few blue dots in his Republican-leaning congressional district.

Tasked with selling constituents on the president’s new domestic policy law, which polls show is widely unpopular, congressional Republicans across the country have faced hostile crowds as they return to their home districts for the six-week August recess.

Voters in blue cities like Chico have shown up in force at GOP town halls to vent their frustration, which the Democratic Party hopes to channel into a victory at the midterm elections. One town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska played out similarly to LaMalfa’s, with constituents lined up around the block to get inside and then, once in the room, booing incessantly.

LaMalfa’s town hall also comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats charge ahead with a frenzied effort to redraw the state’s congressional districts to offset Trump’s plan to retain control of the U.S. House by squeezing more Republican seats out of red states like Texas and Florida. The proposed California maps, expected to be made public this week, could draw LaMalfa and four other Republicans into much bluer districts, according to sources who have seen the proposed districts but aren’t authorized to speak publicly.

The spacious community room was so tightly packed that several turned around and left. Inside, two lines snaked haphazardly down both sides of the room as constituents lined up to ask questions and comment. In an effort to reduce audience outbursts, staff handed out red and green placards for attendees to signal their opinion – but it did little to quiet the crowd.

Community members raise their hands in disagreement during a town hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa at the Chico Elks Lodge on Aug. 11, 2025. Photo by Salvador Ochoa for CalMatters

First: Valerie Griffiths of Paradise reacts with a sign during a town hall meeting. Last: Chris Kidwell of Chico holds a protest sign ahead of the town hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa at the Chico Elks Lodge on Aug. 11, 2025. Photos by Salvador Ochoa for CalMatters

Mathew Hilliard, a youth mental health counselor and social worker from Mount Shasta, drove more than 2.5 hours and waited outside for another hour to be the first in line to question LaMalfa about his support for the megabill. He told the congressman he was very concerned that defunding Medi-Cal could force rural hospitals in Siskiyou County and across the district to close.

“These facilities are vital to our disabled and our working-class people,” Hilliard said. “How could you support a bill that is going to devastate our already fragile infrastructure?”

LaMalfa, from his perch atop a barstool onstage, responded with the misleading Republican claim that the legislation will instead cut people who he believes should be ineligible for the program, such as people living illegally in the country and able-bodied working adults with no dependents.

“Ask Gavin Newsom why he wants $12.5 billion to go to people that aren’t even citizens of our state, thereby hurting the Medi-Cal program,” he said.

Newsom expanded Medi-Cal enrollment to people in the country without legal status, but was forced to rein that in this year amid a forecast budget deficit.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Trump’s legislation will cause more than 10 million people to lose health insurance coverage by 2034, including more than 3.4 million Californians.

While health care dominated the boisterous forum, other questions ranged from Congress’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files to the Israel-Gaza war, and multiple commenters lamented White House overreach as Trump pushes the boundaries of executive power. Several people accused LaMalfa of aiding a descent into fascism and unleashed their fury over immigration agents rounding up U.S. citizens and legal residents in indiscriminate raids.

LaMalfa later agreed that immigration officers “shouldn’t be capturing people that are U.S. citizens,” and he said he would support a pathway to legal status for undocumented workers in crucial industries like farming and services. But he then contradicted himself and said the fear of wrongfully detaining a citizen or legal resident shouldn’t deter officials from casting a wide net, as they have in recent raids at Home Depot parking lots in Sacramento and Los Angeles, and sorting out the wrongfully detained people later.

The in-person, open mic town hall has gradually become a relic in the age of social media, as fewer elected officials are willing to prostrate themselves in today’s hyperpartisan era. House Republicans even discouraged their members from hosting face-to-face forums after a wave of negative headlines out of viral town hall confrontations – including with their own GOP supporters – earlier this year.

Sarah Morris of Chico shouts in disagreement during a town hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa at the Chico Elks Lodge on Aug. 11, 2025. Photo by Salvador Ochoa for CalMatters

LaMalfa’s staff reminded the audience they could get through more questions and comments if they quit interrupting. But there was little appetite for civil discourse, even after several speakers implored their fellow attendees to pipe down.

Ryan Rogoski, a Navy veteran from Chico, told LaMalfa that due to lack of mental health providers in the area, he has to drive three hours round-trip to San Rafael to see a therapist for PTSD, which the congressman admitted was “crazy” and unacceptable. But when Rogoski begged LaMalfa to do something about the provider shortage, LaMalfa blamed it on “a few bad apples” in leadership at the local Chico VA who he said mismanaged existing funds.

“You’re giving the Pentagon so much money!” Rogoski yelled before storming out of the building in tears. He later told CalMatters that LaMalfa’s answer was “extremely false,” using an expletive to emphasize his frustration.

“It has nothing to do with taking care of veterans and our unique challenges,” Rogoski said.

Several constituents implored LaMalfa to denounce all the redistricting efforts this year as has fellow California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who recently introduced a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting.

But LaMalfa said California’s effort was especially reprehensible since voters established an independent redistricting commission nearly 20 years ago.

“Maybe the people in Texas, maybe the people in other states will put their own commissions in place in order to have it be independent,” LaMalfa said in an interview. “It’s really ugly,” he added. “It doesn’t give you more faith in the political process.”