Rural California county angered over Newsom edicts recalls centrist GOP lawmaker
By: Tori Richards Investigative Reporter
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rural California county angered over Newsom edicts recalls centrist GOP lawmaker
| February 09, 2022 07:34 PM 
A boat crosses Shasta Lake on Sunday, May 23, 2021, in Shasta Trinity National Forest, Calif. The reservoir is at 45 percent of capacity and 52 percent of its historical average. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Noah Berger/AP
People who visualize Shasta County see boats dotting a massive lake, a famous snow-capped volcano, and rural small-town communities.
But it's also been torched by one of the state's worst wildfires and has seen its namesake lake drained to provide water for the rest of the drought-stricken state.
Against the backdrop of this deep-red county is a bitter grassroots contest to unseat a lawmaker accused of being too friendly with the establishment. On the other side are voters labeled as belonging to an alt-right militia seeking to take over the government.
The two warring factions went to the polls Feb. 1 to recall county Supervisor Leonard Moty in a race that now has enough ballots in to make a measured guess: Moty lost his seat by an approximate 12% margin.
The apparent winner is Tim Garman, a local school board president with 2,375 votes. Second-place finisher Dale Ball is 155 votes behind, with just 70 ballots yet to be counted.
Moty said the election won’t be certified until Monday. The registrar of voters could not be reached for comment.
Garman said he was driven to run for supervisor because of the divisiveness that COVID-19 wreaked upon the county, which normally has been united in its war against the state’s runaway liberal edicts. The county is 65% Republican.
Tim Garman
Courtesy of Tim Garman
“When I saw what was happening with our county being so divided, I wanted to step in because I truly believe I can bring our county back together,” Garman said. “We need to have a peaceful conversation.”
Both Garman and Ball told the Washington Examiner that they aren’t part of any militia, aren't alt-right, and jumped into the race before an umbrella group, Recall Shasta, started gaining momentum. Numerous San Francisco-area have claimed that backers of Moty’s recall are extremist militia types.
“I have never been to a militia meeting in my life,” Garman said. “If they are out there, I don’t even know who they are.”
Ball quipped that he doesn’t even own a camouflage shirt.
“The militia is trying to take over our county,” Moty said, naming one person in the county government who was “a major part of it …They wanted their group in power.”
Despite these claims, one thing was undisputed: County residents were furious over COVID-19 lockdowns, school and business closures, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandates, and anything else that curtailed rights. People came out in droves to board meetings to be heard.
“He does not relate to his constituents at all,” Garman said. “When I was out and about door knocking and putting signs out, people said they’ve never seen him in 12 years — won’t return our calls or emails.”
A consensus formed that three of the board members were not paying attention to the needs of residents, and a recall effort started last year. The effort was consolidated and is just focusing on Moty for the time being.
For his part, Moty said he has been a scapegoat over the anger brewing from Newsom’s two years of state-of-emergency edicts. He said the recall campaign was well funded and sent out mailers with lies.
“We were one of the most open counties in the state. We did not issue a single citation or fine to a person or business,” said Moty regarding Newsom’s yearlong lockdown of schools. Businesses were also shuttered to some extent throughout the year due to a mandate whose aftermath saw the permanent loss of one-third of California’s restaurants.
Moty, a former police chief, said the board pushed back on Newsom for lumping Shasta County in with areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco when it has a fraction of the population at just 182,155 people. Some businesses remained open during the lockdown and were reported to the state by other businesses, not by county officials, he said.
"They think at the board [that] we are all buddies of Newsom's and do whatever Newsom tells us," Moty said of his opponents. "That is not true."
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Aren't the MAGA bots angry about everything anyway? Besides, if they like the COVID so much why don't they get a lung full of it?
Shasta County may be rural but the city of Redding is 99% urban, according to the City of Redding web site.
Population in 2019: 92,590 (99% urban, 1% rural). Population change since 2000: +14.5%
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Sounds like they recalled a guy for no reason other than that they were crabby.
Does that qualify as an oxymoron ?
You are in California.
and Redding has the same crime rate and homelessness as many other parts of the great state. Rather than deal with the issue,
Redding chose to fence in their park to deprive the homeless places to sleep...
Yeah, Redding sounds like someone's version of Utopia.../S
Personally I think most of the homeless in Reddung are the misguided white Christian's that think they live in a conservative
Utopia. You don't need to live in the wild to be homeless. Homeless and clueless seem to go hand in hand.
Just my opinion.