Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Tom McClintock’s field representative wondered aloud how much Mary Nichols, the chief of CARB, spends commuting from L.A. to Sacramento “everyday.”

“If so, that has to cost the taxpayer a pretty penny,” she wrote on Russ Steele’s blog.

As it turns out, Mary said she flies back and forth between L.A. and Sacramento about once a week.

“Not that I really like that, but then what do you do when you have a state the size of California and people recruited to work in state government from all over,” commented a reader on this blog.

“I guess it must be expensive for Congressman McClintock to fly between DC and Sacramento as well.”

It’s a good point. So I looked up that bill.

Last year, the expenditure was $11,776 on United Airlines alone, according to opensecrets.org. More was spent on USAir, Southwest, Sun Air Jets and so on.

I’m glad both Tom and Mary are flying around to meet with their constituents. In this day and age it is unavoidable.

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The anti-Mark Meckler Facebook page that I wrote about earlier this week is getting some more national press, and a local has weighed in.

“Well, well, well, the lights in the kitchen just came on. Is that the Mecklers running for cover?” wrote local resident Chuck Shea, a tea party supporter. “The tea party movement is a great effort by individuals and is having a very positive effect. It is not for those interested in personal profit. Hey need a T-shirt?”

I like Chuck. Though I don’t always agree with him, he is straightforward and asks the right questions. That makes some people uncomfortable around here.

In an article “Tea party group under fire,” in Congress.org, the report states: “A national tea-party group is facing attacks from within the movement.”

“Why should we not demand the same transparency and openness from Mark Meckler that we are demanding from our government,” Mark Williams wrote on Tuesday, according to the report.

Last week’s anonymous $1 million donation to the Tea Party Patriots didn’t sit well with Williams, the controversial former spokesman for Sacramento-based Tea Party Express, who said the group should disclose the source.

Meckler countered: “The donor asked us to make it anonymous. That is what many major donors do. The last thing they want is massive abuse. Look at the abuse I’m getting. Why would anybody want that?”

Exit question: Why hasn’t The Union reported this story? It is a national story with roots in our own backyard. In the past, the newspaper has been reluctant to criticize Mark Meckler or the tea party. Some of our residents call The Union “The Tea Party Gazette.”

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed AB 1871 into law that allows car owners to share their personal vehicles in a car sharing service and make money from it.

It is an idea that would be well suited to our rural area. It also could help counter the impact of cutbacks in Gold Country Stage Transit.

The law takes effect Jan. 1 and is expected to lead to a rush of start-ups in personal vehicle sharing.

“We feel like this is a historic moment. This legislation basically revolutionizes the idea of the automobile into being a shared service,” Sunil Paul, chief executive of Spride Inc, a personal car-sharing start-up company, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We think it can have a huge impact over the next many years about the way we think about the automobile.”

The bill was introduced by Assembly member Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) and received bipartisan support, because it was entrepreneurial and offered to reduce the environmental impacts of driving.

A video that explains the business model is here:

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“Yes, you read that headline right. Charlie White, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State in Indiana, the guy who would be overseeing elections laws, is being accused of voter fraud,” America Blog is reporting. “And, it looks like there’s a very strong case to be made against him.”

The story is continuing to grow.

As the Indianapolis Star put it: “It is quite embarrassing.”

After all, Democrats argue, how could White be taken seriously as the elections chief if he can’t even follow the law himself?

The background is here.

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Since relocating here from Indiana, Barry and Kim Pruett have jumped into partisan politics with gusto. Their stripe happens to be staunch GOP.

Trouble is, their roles here are supposed to be more nonpartisan in interacting with the rest of us.

In Barry’s case, he ran for the nonpartisan post of clerk-recorder — and lost in every precinct to incumbent Greg Diaz.

It was a negative campaign with some sharp barbs. Here’s one example: “Please write letters to the editor about how you feel about this issue. We need to keep the pressure up! Thank you for your support! Letters to the Editor should be sent by email to [Angela Diaz' email address]. Because Angela Diaz is Greg Diaz’ daughter, you should also copy [the publisher's email]. You will likely need to follow up to make sure that Ms. Diaz actually gets your letter into the paper. Barry Pruett, Candidate for Clerk-Recorder”

Kim was hired to be McClintock’s field representative. This person “works under the direction of the District Director; represents Member at meetings and events; helps shape Member’s district schedule; accompanies Member to functions; conducts staff outreach,” according to the job description.

We’re a diverse bunch here. Her job includes working with people of all political stripes on nonpartisan issues. But Kim often shows her partisanship — in this case strongly advocating Prop. 23, which McClintock is spearheading.

On Russ Steele’s right-wing blog, Kim took a jab at our state CARB chief, who spoke in Nevada City last night.

“I am not sure if I heard this correctly, but did Mary Nichols say that she flies from L.A. to Sacramento everyday? If so, that has to cost the taxpayer a pretty penny.”

Then she took issue with our ozone problems here, which are well documented. Ozone is an invisible menace, unlike smokestack pollution. “Also, I did not get my question asked, my question was, how did she come up with the evidence that Nevada County has the worst air pollution in the entire United States? I would like to see that data and how she came to that conclusion.”

Then she took issue with CARB. ” Also, they have hired 1,000 workers already, how many more are they planning to hire after they start fully implementing AB32? And how many jobs in manufacturing, construction, etc., will we lose in this state when they cannot meet or afford the coming regulations? Those are the questions that I would have asked last night if I had had the opportunity.”

I would hope that the Congressional liaison would show a more nonpartisan demeanor. After all, you have to work with a diverse bunch of people. The goal is to work together and bring government support to our area.

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The other day, I mentioned we shared some “San Francisco values” with some older parents and friends of ours from Indiana in the City by the Bay. Here’s a photo they posted on Facebook. My question: Who copied whom? LOL.

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Our resident right-wing, global warming denialists attended tonight’s presentation by CARB chair Mary Nichols in Nevada City, sat quietly, then rushed home and filed negative, preconceived reports from behind their PCs.

Sound like “passive/aggressive”? You decide.

“So what we saw tonight was a well rehearsed showtime for backwoods peons from a confident and powerful arm of California’s liberal establishment. They have ruled us for a generation and expect to show everyone what they can really do when AB32 comes into full force,” Pompous George Rebane wrote.

“Now it is Climate Weirdness, not climate disruption,” Pouting Russ Steele wrote. Both bloggers linked to each other’s reports.

No, Russ and George: It’s a public official coming to our neck of the woods to provide some insight. Go back to hiding behind your PC.

My wife and son ran into other attendees on the way to dinner at Matteo’s Public, and that couple was impressed with the presentation.

Another local blogger, Anna Haynes, filed this report.

Ironically, Russ and George had to drive up a street that was just repaved with federal stimulus funds. I figured that would be a deterrent to them showing up in the first place.

Feel free to submit your impressions of the event if you attended.

Exit question: Why do you think we’re viewed as backwoods peons? I would argue it’s partly because of our resident “wingnuts,” who are out of touch with the rest of the state (and world).

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Meg Whitman said Wednesday she paid an undocumented worker to clean her residence and provide other services in her home for *nine years* but insisted that she had been unaware of the woman’s immigration status, the L.A. Times reported.

Do you remember Zoe Baird, who also admitted to hiring illegal aliens in the Clinton administration? She lost her shot at U.S. Attorney General. The background is here.

A similar incident also severely damaged Michael Huffington’s effort to be elected U.S. senator from California in 1994, as the Times reminds us.

This comes on top of Meg’s poor voting record. And she is running for the highest office in the state, no less.

“Whitman, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, said her family hired Nicandra Diaz Santillan through an employment agency to which Diaz Santillan had provided documentation suggesting she was an American citizen,” according to the Times. “Whitman said Diaz Santillan provided a copy of her Social Security card and California driver’s license.”

Whitman said she fired Diaz Santillan in June 2009 after the woman revealed that she was living in the country illegally.

Meg and Jerry Brown discussing their positions on illegal immigration in Tuesday night’s debate is here.

“We do have to hold employers accountable for hiring only documented workers,” Meg said in the debate. Indeed we do.

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I hope you are enjoying the Indian Summer. We are so fortunate to call the Sierra and its foothills our home. Here is a photo of Meeks Bay at Tahoe that I shot this afternoon on my cell phone. I came to Meeks for a “lunch break” while working up here. I’ve been swimming in the lake all summer, including this afternoon. We also have been to the Yuba River repeatedly. I think I’ll break a personal record for swimming in the lake into October. I drove up on Historic Highway 40, one of the most picturesque routes in the area.

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Here’s the makeover of Broad Street in Nevada City, with crews grinding and resurfacing the street for the first time in decades — down to the dirt. The photos are courtesy of Mikail Graham, on his Facebook page. Seeing Broad Street with dirt exposed makes me think of the “rough and tumble” days. There’s a lot of history in that dirt. And to think, the repaving was done with federal stimulus money, no less.

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