Partisan Politics in a Non Partisan Race

Editorial

Mendocino TV started comprehensive broadcast coverage of the primary elections in an attempt to counter the influence of special interest groups, especially partisan groups like Democrats and Republicans, from attempting to influence a non partisan election. The biggest expense for campaigning is media. In our attempt to donate to the process we decided to ask for sponsors to help defray the considerable time and expense that it took.  We want to thank The American Association of University Women and The Mendocino Womens Political Coalition for their generous support

In the opinion of Mendocino TV, these PACs splinter our community into a power structure based election rather than fostering an issue based election.

It would be unfair to the election if we don’t speak to this undercurrent running throughout the political landscape. We attended the Coast Democrats Club meeting, where they introduced the candidates. This is done so they could vote on who to support for 5th District Supervisor, thereby putting funds and political support behind one candidate. I attended to see whether they were going to invite Art Juhl, a registered Republican, but a Berniecrat, like the other candidates in the room to participate. Art wasn’t allowed to participate! This left Ted, Chris and Alan to introduce themselves to the audience in an attempt to curry an endorsement from the Coast Democrat Club.  The meeting got a little intense when every candidate revealed that they voted for Bernie in the primary, yet when Lee Edwards asked them who they voted for in the November ballot, the meeting was adjourned. Thus began a campaign full of partisan bickering and sniping over who got the real endorsement and why the inland club eventually refused to officially endorse any candidate.

We were never invited to a Republican version of the Coast Democrat Club, so we cannot speak to whom they support. Meanwhile we are watching a microcosm of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, as the party attempts to affect our local election using the same tactics that they used against Bernie, to Berniecrats! In my opinion their endorsement would hang heavy, like a wet blanket, on my shoulders. In the end the Coast Democrat Club came out with an endorsement for Ted but the inland Democrat Club decided to give no endorsement, through a somewhat controversial vote and then some later wanted to give an endorsement. Their process stunk of the same old school back room politcking, trying to intervene in the issues by developing voting blocks. The Democrats should be ashamed of themselves. The 5th District election may be determined by the conservative voters in this district, as the Democrats splinter their vote, stigmatizing their anointed one with a sure fire polarization from the progressive and conservative voter. The Jarod Huffman endorsement was also political in nature, with a curious end twist where he does endorse Chris, but then he said he wouldn’t have, had all of the facts been on the table. I am not in any way accusing any candidate of underhanded or manipulative behavior, any more than what it takes to get your vote. The process hasn’t been called out before, BECAUSE IT’S THE WAY THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE IT, OR IS IT?

Mendocino TV will continue to cover the 2018 election in as neutral a manner as we can. We may make mistakes but rest assured, we try. We do not charge candidates for this coverage, we broadcast this election coverage as “News!” This doesn’t mean that we don’t have expenses. This is where the community comes in. We are looking for sponsors and underwriters to help us defray the expense of 4g service, Video Host Server subscriptions, Cell Service, gas, food, memory sticks, rent and utilities. You get it. We are open to advertising your business as a supporter of Direct Democracy. We will have a chat box available for viewers of this community based broadcast, so they can develop their own community of engaged voters.

We use Facebook but we are trying to get the conversation into a more democratic forum, hence the Vimeo Chat. The Vimeo platform is a new platform with differences from our past video hosting platform, Livestream. Vimeo purchased Livestream and they are in the process of rolling out some new services. We want to assure our viewers that we do everything in our power to broadcast the events live but it just doesn’t work that way yet. Thank you for being patient. We are excited over continuing election coverage up into November.

These are;

• 3 City Council seats
• 3 possibly 4 Hospital Board Directors
• 3 School Board Trustees
• 2 MCRPD members
• 1 congressman
• 2 County Supervisors
• Assessor Clerk/Recorder
• a possible rerun of the Hospital parcel tax