My hat is off to the reigning Queen of local politics, Bonnie Neely. How can you be supported by the liberal left wing faction of Humboldt County and then show up in a picture supporting Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Times-Standard Online - Governor in town pushing Prop. 1B She also showed up to his campaign kick off at the Samoa Cookhouse on June 7th. Oh, yes, she also wrote an editorial on behalf of Arnold's great record. The same guy fighting prevailing wage.
http://sbctc.org/pdf/arnold%20pw.pdf Yes the same Arnold cutting back on worker's compensation.
California Building Trades Council - legislation & politics - schwarzenegger's workers' comp slashes disability payments And there is Bonnie smiling in the background. Wow. And everyone on the left just ignores her neo-con leanings. Yes, she supports Bush, Arnold and every right wing candidate and agenda. But she needs the Democrats to get elected. So she uses them. And they fall for it. Good grief!
30 comments:
Anything to get elected. I have lost all faith in Bonnie Neely for this very matter. It's just a popularity contest for her. Like Homecoming Queen and all of a sudden you start liking the nerds and stoners and rejects along with the jocks, the preps and the bookworms. Then when you get elected Queen you go back to your regular clique. It's a rather appalling trait. So, does she represent the entire population of the 4th district? I don't know, ask Blue Lake Casino. I quess it depends on if it is an election year or not. If I were in the Republican Party...I'd suggest she move on. Talk about career politician. Next stop State Assembly, I'm sure.
If it is a populrity contest, Bonnie will win. She genuinely likes all sorts of people. With Nancy, you only get her notice if you are a certain type of person.
Pardon my sticky keys. "Popularity."
6:02pm-Bonnie ran for the State Assembly and was trounced by Margie Handley in the primary race for the Republican Party in 1995. The only election Bonnie has ever lost.
Nancy is a friend of my wife and I do not consider her as an elitist. We have been invited to her place and Nancy has been nothing but honest with me, and yes we do not agree on everything. But she is respectful of my positions and does ask me to change my thoughts.
Only love can break your heart....only love will mend it again.
I dunno Richard.... Shall we have confidence in the voters to see though this prism or, do we give it up in the competing hues of volume vs substance.
There's a lot at stake...colors notwithstanding.
Ask Nancy to make a list of the people she has literally turned her back on and refused to talk to. The list may be short or long, but if you are on that list, the experience is one you never forget. Especially if she was the Mayor of your home town at the time.
What's good for the gander is good for the goose. Bonnie deserves no lesser treatment from the voters than Terry got when he ran for re-election after 20 years!!
Good point Richard. As a life-long Democrat I agree 100 percent about Bonnie, which is why I supported you when you ran. I don't support Republicans against Democrats!
The only problem is... now you're supporting an Arkley Republican against a progressive Democrat for Mayor of Eureka.
Maybe you and Bonnie are more similar than you would like to admit.
Supporting only Republicans because you are a Republican or only Democrats because you are a Democrat is just plain stupid. Voters should support the candidate that is most qualified for the job and will do the best for ALL of their constituents.
8:31 you are very correct. And the best Candidate this election for the 4th District is Nancy Flemming. Bonnie has been the Supervisor for 20 yrs and her District, the 4th, has a higher poverty rate than the State average--that is just a shame! As the song says---don't bring back my Bonnie to me!!!
And the other Richard, is this an endorsement for Flemming??
The 4th District (as well as the rest of Humboldt County) has always had a higher poverty rate than the State average. It really doesn't matter who has been at the helm. Our rural county has a low population and simply does not have the money that the more populated areas of the state have . . . and it never will!
3:09pm Touche! He who has never been hypocritical in their life, go ahead and throw the first stone at me. I do not make it a practice to endorse Republicans. Virginia is an exception. She is a lifelong Humboldt County Resident who has seen and experienced the evolution of Eureka. She grew up down the street from me in Myrtletown and we share many of the same friends. I feel Peter is part of a liberal faction that is polarizing Humboldt County Democrats and paralyzing other moderate Democrats like myself who seek public office. I am hoping for a regime change for local Democrats. So, be patient, this election is over in less than a week and then I will focus on how us working class Democrats can move forward positively in this community.
Supporting only Republicans because you are a Republican or only Democrats because you are a Democrat is just plain stupid. Voters should support the candidate that is most qualified for the job and will do the best for ALL of their constituents.
Depends on the position. In Rhode Island the majority there actually like Lincoln Chafee, but he caucuses with the Republicans and a vote for him means a vote for Bill Frist as Majority leader rather than Harry Reid. For this reason and this reason alone (ie, his party membership) he's going down on Tuesday.
Eric, I don't know anyone locally other than you that gives a shit about Rhode Island. That has nothing to do with our local election. It doesn't depend on the position or the party; it depends on the individual.
Richard Marks-I like you more every day. Too bad you were running against Nancy Flemming who I believed already had it sewed up. Well, she didn't at first and I think the whole two Republicans vs a Democrat really threw them a curve.
But with 60% of the vote going for a change in Supervisors-she is in the Home Stretch now and I can certainly say thanks in advance for pointing out that Bonnie Neely could have been a better quasi-Democrat by supporting union wages and job creation.
Are you perhaps a candidate for consideration of Virginia Bass's vacant seat? It would be especially terrific to see you on the city council first! I hope the cards are stacked that way.
Eric, I don't know anyone locally other than you that gives a shit about Rhode Island.
Well, what happens in Rhode Island will have a lot to do with what happens here. Off shore oil drilling for instance, whether you're pro or con.
No oil wells are coming to HUmboldt County! Who says there were any plans?
Pombo.
Supervisor is a non-partisan position and it shouldn't matter what the person's party affiliation is - unless that person is so partisan that they cannot represent all of the people equally and fairly.
And, speaking as one who made the front page of the TS because I had the audacity, as a Dreaded Republican (oh, TOKEN Republican, I believe Salzman called me) to attend a Thompson fundraiser and sit with some Democratic friends, I think the whole thing is quite ridiculous.
Defining, and hating, people by labels such as Republican/Democrat/Green does a disservice to us all. Was it always this way? It doesn't seem to me that it was.
Richard M, you were in it for the right reasons, and you would be no matter what party we wrote after your name.
The HCDCC treated you shamefully, they treated Worth Dikeman even worse, and their treatment of Jill Geist is nothing for them to be proud of. I can't see a single redeeming factor in that private little club, and it has nothing to do with the Party name they're chosen to camouflage themselves with.
Rose: To be honest, Worth had more to be upset about than me. He has been a Democrat longer and I think he would have been fine with no endorsement by the HCDCC. I was the only Democrat in the race. But alliances were made and favors called in by Bonnie for the help of the Democrats. And yet she openly supports all of the Republican agenda. Just ironic I think. Non partisan? Oh, all these races are very partisan. To the extreme.
E Von Kirk and Pombo, the off shore drilling is a bogus story Neely and her so called "progressives" created. All any of them have are lies and fantasy in the hopesof causing enough fear and confusion to possibly win an election. Backing Bass is the only answer for Eureka, just because I am a Democrat does not mean I have to vote for a complete idiot just because he is the only Democrat running, that is just not realistic! Bass is without question the best choice.
RMostranski said...
8:31 you are very correct. And the best Candidate this election for the 4th District is Nancy Flemming. Bonnie has been the Supervisor for 20 yrs and her District, the 4th, has a higher poverty rate than the State average--that is just a shame! As the song says---don't bring back my Bonnie to me!!!
It figures. Mostranski has his (or her) logic just as bass-ackwards as his (or her) folk-song. The song asks that My Bonnie be brought back to me. And for Mostranski to blame Bonnie for poverty, which may be higher or lower now than it was when she was first elected, is absurd.
But, then, without a sprinkling of absurdity, what fun would the election season be?
JIll Geist gave the HCDCC no reason to believe she knew they existed until she wanted an endorsement.
Nor did she give any of her time, energy, etc. to fellow Democrats or any Democratic events.
So, why should they have endorsed her?
She didn't ask for their endorsement.
This makes the third time she has run for office, and WON, without the HCDCC endorsing, supporting or helping her. She also won with active opposition from the Salzman machine.
She is someone the "Party" should be PROUD to call one of their own.
But your comment reveals the truth, the HCDCC is a closed little club, and if you don't play ball, you are "not one of us."
And Richard's experience shows that even playing ball isn't enough to gain you admittance into the clique. You must meet some higher criteria. Being a Dem is not enough. Serving your party is not enough. You have to please the machine.
Richard and I have both lost elections to Bonnie Neely. Let's start a club. Let's make a list of the issues on which we agree. Rose seems to have less in common with us, value-wise. No doubt she feels like a real patriot, just as we feel. Rose, everything is partisan now. It has to be, since the Republican Party abandoned the concept of rule by the people. Richard, after the election there is only one HCDCC meeting (Wednesday night). After that, it will be January. My hope is that you, and others like you, will join us in healing our differences so we can work together in the name of real democracy. Most of my personal involvement in local politics (these days) has been motivated by a desire to save my grandkids' future from Dubya's domination. I posted a piece on Greg's List explaining further.
Is it getting too wet for softball? I played some night league (F or G League, I recall - our pitcher popped nitro between pitches to stay alive. You may remember Roger Craddock - good pitcher, retired Salvation Army guy).
Greg: I have seen those die hard softball players. Love them all. I will be playing in Redding in a few weeks with the Murphy's gang. Can't hardly wait!
Carol:
"Richard, I did not know you when you appeared at the HCDCC and asked for our endorsement. You completely surprised me. I remember asking others on the committee if there was a democratic contender prior to giving my support to Bonnie. I was told there was none."
I told your leader Patrick Riggs plenty of time before that meeting of my intention to run for that office. He choose to not share that with the committee. He had already promised Bonnie he would help her and he should have told me that then.
"And Richard, I am new to politics. Got involved after the shock of the 2004 elections. Exit polls historically have been accurate. Kerry was winning. Suddenly, the votes changed for Bush that night. It was eerie. Like many others I joined the HCDCC to see what we could do to help. Perhaps we are a different group than when you were on the committee."
I'll say. I was unanimously endorsed by the HCDCC in 1998 to run against Bonnie. No friendly faces this time around. At first I just wondered what I could have done to offend anyone. I don't have many enemies outside the political arena.
"Well all this is in the past now. I hope that in the future, prospective candidates and caring people will join the HCDCC and get involved. There is room for debate.
Whether someone is a life-long democrat or newly registered as a democrat does not make them any more of a democrat."
Agreed.
Richard,
You're wrong about the lack of friendly faces. Actually, they were mostly just neutral because so many of us had never heard of you.
And some of us took no stand on it because it was clearly going to be Neely vs. Flemming and that was an easy choice. Though not all members joined the Dems for Neely, it was clear that those were the only two who'd make it in a runoff and we just didn't know you. We know the other two and Flemming is frightening in her blind obediance to Arkley.
While we understand now that you have a long history of Democratic involvement, many of us had no reason to believe you had a chance. We would have viewed things differently had you joined us and let us see you in action.
1:58pm- Join you? I never left the party, I was just working along the same lines as a worker advocate in the form of a union organizer. I barely lost to Nancy without the HCDCC backing. You all decided to choose between two Republicans. What was the risk for giving support to the only Democrat sticking their neck out to run for this position? None. Justify all you want. It is over. I hope you all learn a lesson and never back one Democrat over another or not endorse a fellow progressive Democrat that expresses their democratic right to run for public office with no democratic challenger. Let's just close this subject now.
Jill did not ask for your endorsement Carol - as she had had three previous occasions to come before the HCDCC/races in which she was told that the HCDCC did not endorse one dem over another. Simply coming to meet with you does not constitute asking for an endorsement.
Obviously that policy changed with your new regime to accommodate the Cult of Paul.
Still wondering if you attended the debate between Gallegos and Dikeman.
lol - I am quite certain that you and I have nothing in common "value-wise," Greg.
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