Tag: Hilary Hodge

Boardman Part II: Even Hodge thought The Union columnist was being unfair to Miller

What a hoot! Besides belittling staunch conservative Brian Dahle’s ability to work with progressives on some issues, The Union’s weekly columnist Boardman took a swipe at Dan Miller.

Boardman was challenged, and as usual, his response was defensive and arrogant on The Union’s website: “One more time, Linda: KNCO is a major force in a small media market, and any on-air personality associated with a popular activity like high school football develops a ‘good guy’ aura that can influence undecided voters in an election. Major networks remove personnel from the air when they declare their candidacy but before they officially file; KNCO should follow the same policy.” Then he blamed ‘Dave Bear at KNCO,’ instead of himself, for getting Dan’s tenure in the booth at football games wrong. How’s that for accountability?

But it gets better. Even Hilary Hodge, who is running against Dan for District 3 Supervisor, thought Boardman was being unfair.

She wrote on The Union’s website: “While The Union asked me to step down as a columnist, I think it is a mistake for KNCO to remove Dan Miller from the air as a local football commentator. Both Dan and I spend a lot of time in our community. We live in a small town, and our contributions to our community matter. Dan’s commentary is a service to our community. Whereas, my column was issues-based. While I understand that FCC regulations require equal time, I don’t think Dan’s contribution for NU Football poses a problem. Of course, if KNCO is worried about equal time, Dan and I could do the broadcast together. I love football.”

That had Boardman gnashing his teeth, responding: “That’s practically the same thing Terry Lamphier said four years ago. That approach didn’t do him any good.”

And Hilary handled the snipe beautifully, stating: “George Boardman I’m not Terry Lamphier.”

You can’t make this stuff up! Memo to Don Rogers: Take George out of his misery, and find a new columnist.

Local right-wing blogosphere shows stupidity in attacking Hodge for Supervisor

No sooner had Hilary Hodge made her candidacy for District 3 Supervisor “official,” running against Dan Miller ( AKA “Dan has lived in Nevada County since he was a sophomore at Nevada Union High,” as Patti Ingram Spencer wants to remind all of us) than the local right-wing blogosphere began a pit-bull attack on Hodge.  They made fun of her job, her skills, and columns (“sounds like somebody done got fat shamed”) and even commented on her looks.

And they illustrated their sheer stupidity.

George Rebane wrote on his blog “Hillary Hodge running for Nevada County’s District#3 supervisor?!” And Rebane concluded his rant, writing “Would I be that far off to doubt that even the Sierra Business Council would have a hard time endorsing her as our county’s revitalizing sparkplug?  Well, maybe.”

No, George. As Steve Frisch had to remind him: “Just for the record the Sierra Business Council, the organization I work for, does not endorse political candidates. As a 501c3 nonprofit we are precluded from endorsing candidates.”

But wait there’s more.

Gregory Goodknight wrote: “Look at the bright side on the Hodge candidacy… it means she won’t be writing the column in the Tea Party Gazette until it’s over. I find it interesting that the candidate HH has opted for a new, cleaner looking hairstyle and covering up that tattoo on her chest. Now if she can button up the hate she has for people who think her worldview is at right angles to reality… nahhhh.”

Then Todd Juvinall weighed in: “She has a tatoo on her chest? LOL!”

Someone named “ScenesFromTheApocalypse” corrected them and and linked to a photo to prove it.: “This pic?http://www.theunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/HilaryHodge-GVU-mug-5.jpg Looks like a necklace.”

Gregory concluded: “I stand corrected…. in the low res color printing of The Union it always looked like a tat to me but zoomed in, it’s obviously a necklace.”

As I said, this race is going to be ugly.

Hodge’s run for Supe confirms The Union columnist Boardman got it wrong (again)

“Bored Georgeman”
Credit: The Union

“What office is Hodge seeking? How about GV Council?” The Union’s columnist George Boardman wrote on his blog on July 11.

No George, you got it wrong. Again (examples here, here , here and here). Hilary is running against Dan Miller for District 3 Supervisor, as she announced in a press release this afternoon. Even arch-conservative Don Bessee had figured this out in advance.

But instead of apologizing to his readers for getting it wrong, Boardman spins his own fantasy that I am a “boy toy” for Hilary, just as he claims I was a “fav” for Terry Lamphier.

In fact, I did not endorse Terry, and I do not plan to endorse Hilary.

The “boy toy” for Hilary’s campaign, I suppose, was The Union, who got the press release ahead of others in the media. She had been a weekly columnist for The Union.

It didn’t bother me to post the “news” later, because it was old news (except to Boardman). Still, Hilary wrote this note to me: “Sorry about the delay out of the gate there. A friend just told me that I should send my PRs to all media on the same email. I’ll use better protocol as I get the hang of this.”

While I didn’t endorse a candidate in the District 3 race, I did do some reporting. I was happy to call out a bullying campaign practice where Miller’s supporters hung a sign over the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce during last District 3 race, supporting Miller. The Union wrote about it too. It showed no class.

Boardman goes on to speculate: “He yearns to see Hodge join Heidi Hall and alleged liberal Richard Anderson on the Board of Supervisors to create a new progressive majority.”

Other than sounding threatened, Boardman is wrong (again). But what Hilary does bring to the table is a more mature temperament that what I have often seen from the boisterous 60- and 70-something “get off my lawn” white males in our towns (Boardman is one of them), who dominate our homogenous demographic.

We are changing, though. In fact, I noticed a loyal show of support for Hilary on social media, including from some longtime residents. It’s apparent that some are fed up. The results of the last local election showed as much.

And as I predicted the campaigning already is getting ugly. On Facebook, an ugly group called “Deplorables of Nevada County” posted this under the announcement on The Union’s Facebook page. Here we go again!

 

 

It’s “Miller Time”: Pruett, among others, early donor to Dan’s campaign

It’s Miller Time!

The District 3 Supervisor’s race already has become interesting with only one candidate (so far)! Local Barry Pruett, who lost the clerk-recorder’s race to Greg Diaz in 2010, one of the most polarizing local campaigns in memory, is among those who already have donated money to Dan Miller’s re-election campaign for District 3 Supervisor, according to public records.

Pruett — who once declared “the only way I can fight back is to never vote for a Democrat” — donated $100 to Miller’s campaign on 6/26, the documents in the Elections’ Office show. Other donors include Miller’s friend since high school Patti Ingram Spencer ($100), Amos Seghezzi ($100), and David Scinto ($100) — part of Grass Valley “old guard.” Miller’s latest report shows an ending cash balance of $4,427. The document is HERE.

The Nevada County Contractors PAC has amassed a $10,873  “war chest’ for upcoming elections, according to filings. The NCCA has supported Miller in the past. The PAC Chairman is local contractor Keoni Allen. (Remember the “It’s Miller Time” signs when Dan ran against Terry Lamphier?)” The Elections Office document from the NCCA PAC is HERE

The filing also shows $500 in consulting fees to Dauntless Communications, a public affairs and digital communications outfit out of Roseville. It has worked for Republican causes.

With thousands of dollars already in hand, Miller’s camp must be thinking it is going to get some formidable competition, even though nobody has announced they are running against our District 3 incumbent.

Hilary and Congressman Ami Bera at a recent Democratic gathering (Credit: Nevada County Democrats Facebook page)

Hilary Hodge, who has become active in local Democratic politics, has announced she is going to be a local candidate in the upcoming elections but hasn’t said what race.

The Union columnist George Boardman thinks Hodge is going to run for Grass Valley City Council, he wrote confidently on his blog. Hmm. That doesn’t pass the smell test, at least to this seasoned journalist. (Of course I only worked at The Chronicle for 12 years, not the teeny-weeny San Mateo Times as Boardman did). lol

This wouldn’t be the first time that The Union’s columnist Boardman got it wrong.

And it wouldn’t be the first time that we had an ugly, polarizing race for a nonpartisan seat in District 3. Here we go again.

Rachel Maddow reposts tweet from local Democrats: a sign of their renewed organizing clout

Enterprising local Hilary Hodge (social media marketing manager, writer, and executive director of Sierra Commons) volunteered to launch and manage a Twitter feed for the Democratic Party of Nevada County just two months ago, and the account is now receiving national recognition — the latest kudos coming from prominent progressive political commentator Rachel Maddow, no less.

This weekend Maddow retweeted a tweet from “Nevada County Dems” (@NevadaCoCADems). It was a photo from the local Dems Twitter feed, which reported on Congressman Doug LaMalfa’s Town Hall meeting at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in real time this past weekend. The headline read: “Line at the in Grass Valley.” And it was a long line. (See screen grab below).

The Nevada County Dems and LaMalfa’s Town Hall meeting also were mentioned on Maddow’s show. “We (Nevada County) just got a shout out from Rachel Maddow! The resistance, of course,” wrote Heidi Hall, the newly elected District 1 County supervisor, on Facebook. Hodge added: “[Maddow] retweeted one of the Tweets I sent out from the Nevada County Democrats on Saturday.”

Maddow’s Twitter feed has 6.78 million followers. Her show on MSNBC has experienced gigantic ratings growth as MSNBC’s primetime audience grew more than twice as fast as Fox News in the first quarter, according to an MSNBC press release.

That is a big megaphone for the Nevada County Democratic Party — in what has long been a “red” county! The local left has been reinvigorated, as this blog has been reporting. This is the latest example. It comes amid a continued shift to the left in local politics, as we’ve been reporting. One of the reasons is here.

By contrast, the local right looks tired and shrill, at least judging from local opinion articles in The Union by longtime local hard-right activists Fran Freedle and Todd Juvinall. Freedle lashed out at The Union, and Juvinall lashed out at Hodge. Both articles were juvenile and had no merit. The local right needs more sophisticated-sounding spokespeople and some “new blood.” A memo from the local GOP leaders became featured political satire in the Sacramento Bee, drawn by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jack Ohman. What a hoot!

And The Union’s George Boardman calls himself a journalist?

Fred Lynn and Jim Rice: nicknamed the
Fred Lynn and Jim Rice: nicknamed the “Gold Dust Twins”

Epilogue to this post: After my wife and I finished our lunch at the New Moon Cafe last week with Hilary Hodge and her wife, Angelica, one of our neighbors Larry Kaufman came up to us in the parking lot and said hello. We greeted him, and I later joked to my wife that Kaufman was the one who recently had written an “out-of-left-field” letter to The Union suggesting — of all conceivable topics — an “in-depth article about (George Boardman) — his background and writing experience. I am sure all his readers would enjoy learning more about your talented columnist.”

Huh? Here’s yet another anecdote that could be used to illustrate George’s total ignorance, to go along with his error-prone prose, or what he confesses has been some “sloppy note taking.” No kidding!

On his blog, George refers to “Gold Dust Twins” as an all-purpose cleansing agent in the ‘1890s — an arcane reference, to be sure. In fact, dredging it up, including a mention of  “racial stereotypes of the times,” reflects more on where George’s mind is at.

For the rest of us, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “gold dust twins” as “a pair of inseparable and indefatigable workers.” In our case, this is what my dad meant when he referred to my wife and I as the “gold dust twins” during our world travels as newlyweds. He was not making a racist reference.

George glosses over that “gold dust twins” is a sobriquet that is often used to describe two talented individuals working closely together for a common goal, including sports (ironically a subject he claims to master).

For example, the Globe sportswriter Peter Gammons referred to Fred Lynn and Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox as the “Gold Dust Twins.” “There will never be another season like ’75, when the Gold Dust Twins (so named by then-Globe beat reporter Peter Gammons) took over the Boston baseball scene and pushed the Sox all the way to the seventh game of the World Series,” as the Globe reported in 2014. More references are here.

Of course, George Boardman is no Peter Gammons — and never will be. George’s journalistic claim to fame is void of an experience at a big-metro daily newspaper such as the Globe or San Francisco Chronicle; rather it is is minor league journalism outfits, like the San Mateo County Times, which is no longer even published. And public relations.

For George’s edification, here are some other examples of using the “Gold Dust Twins” as a nickname, as Wikipedia reminds us:

George Boardman “journalism”: You can’t make this stuff up! I can only imagine how that “profile” suggested by Larry Kaufman would read. Perhaps it could be a standing feature: “On the Lido Deck with George Boardman!”

Locals Hodge and Senum make Sac Bee’s “Capitol Report”

“Symposiums about water policy don’t typically spark dust-ups about ticket refunds and allegations that members of Congress are trying to duck their constituents,” the Sacramento Bee is reporting this morning.

“But some people living in the districts of Reps. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove complain they were summarily disinvited from Friday’s conference of the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association entitled, ‘The New Trump Administration – A View from The Top.’

“The all-Republican lineup of elected officials at The Ridge Golf Course and Event Center in Auburn includes LaMalfa and McClintock, as well as state senators Jim Nielsen, Tom Berryhill, and Ted Gaines, and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley.

“Among those who bought $40 tickets to the event were Hilary Hodge, the executive director of Sierra Commons, a small business education center in Nevada City, and Nevada City Councilwoman Reinette Senum. Hodge said they wanted to question McClintock and LaMalfa about water policy.

“Last week, though, Hodge and several others received refunds and were told the event was sold out. The real reason, Hodge alleged, is that she and others are not ‘politically aligned’ with the speakers.

“’It’s an unfortunate exclusion because they are now having a conversation with themselves because they’ve excluded people with an outside perspective,’ she said.

“But John Kingsbury, the association’s executive director, said he made the decision – free of political interference – to refund more than 20 non-member tickets after demand greatly exceeded that of past conferences. Some people, he added, view Friday’s event as a town hall, which it isn’t.

‘”Normally we don’t have anybody register,’ Kingsbury said. ‘I needed to make sure I had capacity for my dues paying members.'”

The rest of the article is here.