Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Rich Ulery, the 2nd vice chairman of the county Republican Party, wrote this on Russ Steele’s blog:

“Russ,

I think that your comments about the meeting last night at Republican HQ are somewhat misleading. One could deduce from your comments that the entire meeting was a heated criticism of Whitman’s stance on Prop 23. While I agree with you that the Whitman staffers could have handled the questions in a better manner, those in attendance also expressed much support for Meg Whitman’s run for Governor —especially Ted Gaines who had previously supported Poizner in the primary.

“It was entirely acceptable for you and others in the audience to curteously question the Whitman campaign on her Prop 23 position, express your disappointment, and encourage her to reassess her position. You crossed the line, however, when you openly declared your doubt about even voting for her. This event was the Grand Opening of our Republican HQ.

“Its objective was to create enthusiasm, unify our party behind our Republican candidates and recruit volunteers. Using our Grand Opening venue to aggressively express your disdain for our gubernatorial candidate was divisive and inappropriate for the venue. The Left has a clear strategy to divide our party for their benefit in the upcoming election. You contributed to that strategy last night.”

Here’s my two cents worth: When commenting here, Rich has kept more of a “poker face” approach in his comments, so this candid remark was refreshing. My only quibble is with Rich’s last sentence “about the Left’s clear strategy to divide our party.” From my perspective, the GOP has been doing this to itself, and I’m just holding up a mirror. There’s always a lot of material too.

After all, most of us are in the middle.

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The upcoming school district races highlight our county’s problem when it comes to a shortage of candidates for elected office.

There are 12 districts, with 34 seats, scheduled to have elections in November. But only two of them have enough candidates for an election (the county Board of Education and Grass Valley School District), the Elections Office confirmed for me.

The list of open offices is here.

What will be on the ballot is here.

In other instances, candidates who file papers to run will wind up being appointed to the open school board positions by the county board of supervisors, because there aren’t enough candidates to qualify for an election.

School boards used to be stepping stones to elected positions of greater public responsibility, and we struggle to fill them.

The dearth of candidates for elected positions in our county will only get worse with a declining population. It already leads to appointments to posts that are supposed to be elected positions.

Why can’t we attract more candidates? Here’s some thoughts:

•People are too busy with their “day jobs.”

•Running a campaign here isn’t much fun: There’s often a lot of mud slinging, personal attacks and nastiness.

•We have a tendency to be an insular, provincial bunch. Too often the motto is, “It’s not what you know but who you know.” This makes it difficult for outsiders — no matter how well qualified and experienced — to become involved. They get discouraged.

A good example occurred the other day when The Union erroneously referred to Tina Vernon as the “incumbent” for the county Treasurer-Tax Collector race against Dai Meagher.

In fact, there is no incumbent. It’s an open seat.

But this kind of “misperception” manifests itself around here, because Vernon is a longtimer at the Rood Center and was her predecessor’s choice (E. Christina Dabis) for an appointment.

In fact, she has never worked in the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office and listed her job there as a “county budget analyst.”

Meagher, however, is a CPA, making him seemingly more qualified, at least on paper.

So it goes in our county. And so it goes when it comes to finding the most qualified candidates for our open elected positions.

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Madelyn Helling, whom our county library is named after, has stepped down from the board of the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, my sources confirm.

Madelyn was discouraged that her voice was not being heard enough on the board, according to my sources. She is the fourth member to leave the board of the merged Chamber and Business Improvement District.

Madelyn, however, will continue to be a regular volunteer at the Chamber.

It is unfortunate to learn about Madelyn’s departure. My wife and I (who live at a three-digit address in town) are big fans of hers. Our son is excited to know her, because of his interest in books and trains, two of Madelyn’s passions.

Madelyn is independent minded and results oriented. She also played a large and vocal role in the grassroots effort to keep the library system from being privatized recently.

The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, led by Madelyn and others, is a gem of an attraction in our town. She also understands the small details that make our town unique — like real natural gas lamps burning in the historic district.

All too often, we gravitate toward like-mindedness in civic, business and political decision making around here— losing diversity, experience and institutional knowledge along the way. With a declining population — and in this case, a chamber membership base — it seems rather counterintuitive.

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Niello

Gaines

For months, I’ve been writing about the rancor within the GOP in Placer and Nevada counties, spurred largely by the inflexible ideologies of the “hard right” and our Congressman Tom McClintock. Some of the political rhetoric is divisive and “in your face,” too.

Longtime electeds such as Supervisor Jim Holmes and his brother, Mike, on the Auburn City Council, talk more openly about the issue in Placer County compared with ours.

In our county, this schism manifests itself in the debate over Prop. 23 (McClintock is its biggest fan) and the supposedly “nonpartisan” clerk-recorder race (where Tom endorsed the loser, Barry Pruett). Diaz was endorsed by moderate GOPers and Supervisors Nate Beason and Ted Owens. Many moderates, including Meg Whitman, oppose Prop. 23.

Now the foothills GOP divide is surfacing in the campaign to succeed the late state Sen. Dave Cox, as the Sacramento Bee reports. This one pits Assemblyman Roger Niello of Fair Oaks against Assemblyman Ted Gaines of Roseville east into Placer County.

Niello’s longtime supporters including Cox and Doug Ose, who lost to McClintock in the primary two years ago. Gaines has received money from McClintock and is a regular at tea party gatherings (including the one on Sept. 12 in Sacramento that I just wrote about).

“The Ose-McClintock rivalry plays out in the Niello-Gaines race and reflects a fundamentally different vision of what it means to represent the district,” as the Bee’s Dan Morain writes. “McClintock displays an almost religious fervor against delivering federal money to his district, to the dismay of some folks back in his district, like Placer County Supervisor Jim Holmes.”

“Congressman McClintock is an honorable man. But we need someone who can help us govern,” Holmes told the Bee.

“Holmes also is not sure about the party he called his own for most of his adult life. He dropped his Republican registration last year and registered as decline-to-state voter. ‘I’m tired of the rhetoric,’ he said.”

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