Posted in reply to the post by JohnK:
Who Will Carrillo Turn his Back On?
Tom Lynch, who ought to know better, is stridently attacking
Rue Furch ostensibly because of a recent political mailer questioning
Efren Carrillo's independence from development interests.
My chagrin is against Rue's campaign...as stated I do know their are members of Rue's campaign behind the hit pieces and the "Follow the Money" effort.
To tell the truth, here are the facts:
The Furch campaign had no knowledge of the mailer until it arrived in all our mail boxes. The mailer states that it is from “West County Labor, Environmentalists, and Democrats for Change”. The address is on Corby Avenue in Santa Rosa, probably from one of the union halls there. The mailer states clearly that it …”is not paid for by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate”. In fact, it is constitutional for anyone to weigh in, spending their own money, on a campaign; however it is illegal for an independent committee to work with or coordinate with a candidate.
Tom Lynch certainly knows this. Why is he smearing
Rue Furch?
I am smearing a system that allows anonymous entities under the guise of freedom of speech to manipulate the system. That includes the "push poll."
It's so funny I took the poll...someone called and said they were doing a poll about Sonoma County and asked for my wife Svetlana (she was out), I said,"...this is Svetlana." and this obviously not to bright young man on the other end proceeded to interview me. There were questions about many things including Rue's tax problems and I said it doesn't matter...and yes I can see where the source of this "soft money" came from the other side of the coin with the hit piece. I'm so opposed to this kind of nonsense.
We old folks remember Tom Lynch with real admiration. Back in 1993 when Santa Rosa was applying to dump their sewage into the Russian River (and “by accident” and by night was dumping it in the river) Tom, by night, drove a truckload of horse manure into Santa Rosa and dumped it on the steps of the Santa Rosa city hall! We all had a great laugh!
Thank you John ;0).
The mailer (which we have all received, so we can check these facts) is factual. It raises real questions about Carrillo's intentions and ultimate loyalty should he be elected. We should know that the major local consultant for the “Preservation” Ranch development project recruited Carrillo to run, and is now a very close consultant and advisor to Carrillo. And before they can cut coastal trees and build ranchettes, “Preservation” Ranch must be approved by the Board of Supervisors,
Should we believe that with millions of dollars of development money at stake for the logging of 17000 acres of coastal forest and 90 new McMansions, that Carrillo will turn his back on his political mentor and the twenties of thousands of dollars the developers provide for him to run?
Follow the money.
The reason I support Efren Carrillo is I firmly believe he will represent the environment, the economy, and needed reforms better than my friend Rue Furch. There is a collapse coming and in order to avoid a dystopian future we cannot continue with the way we've been doing business.
Carrillo cannot count on his record (he has none) and hundreds of West County supporters the way Furch can. For campaign money, Carrillo has only the gravel miners, the developers, the loggers, and the industrial agriculturalists.
When Carrillo spoke at Sea Ranch a few days ago, he drove there with the lobbyist for the Syar Corporation. Syar is the gravel mining operation that is mining the Russian River. They just had their permit renewed by the Board of Supervisors, but a new Board may challenge their continued mining. (Furch, on the Planning Commission, voted against Syar.) Is it believable that the Syar lobbyist has coincidentally developed a new friendship with Carrillo and wants to drive him around to political events? No.
Is it believable that Carrillo will turn against his new friends if he is deciding their issues on the Board of Supervisors? No.
Yesterday Carrillo was wooing voters at the Chamber of Commerce event on the square in Sebastopol. Who was there handling him? The Syar lobbyist and the “Preservation Ranch” lawyer.
Fellow Efren supporter and friend Helen Libeu (Helen turns 90 very soon) and I tell Efren about past disagreements we have had with some of Efren's supporters. Efren is young and does not have the experience that I have over the last thirty years nor Helen over many more years with some of the great battles we have fought to protect the environment of Sonoma County.
The Sonoma County Alliance? I see the Climate Protection Campaign and the Laguna Foundation are members. I do believe we need to bring everyone to the table to solve problems...but I also believe you sometimes have to use a 2"x4" to get a mule to plow a straight furrow (figuatively of course).
I do not believe Efren Carrillo will sell out the environment and I believe Efren's position is basically the same as Rues and Reilly's with Preservation Ranch (...what is Rue's position anyway? ;0).
There is now an insidious fake telephone poll being conducted against Furch stating lies about her past financial struggles. How fake is this poll? Furch wants the new vineyards and wineries to monitor wells to determine if they are drying up other folks’ wells as they suck thousands of gallons of water for their industrial enterprises. Furch wants to monitor the water so that ordinary folks are not sucked dry. The fake poll makes people think that Furch is intruding on them.
This “push poll” must cost at least $10,000. It is being paid for either by Carrillo or by a committee supported by Russian River gravel-miners, loggers, developers, and industrial agriculturalists.
Sadly Tom Lynch has not denounced this fake poll. Neither has Carrillo.
John...see above. I denounce the "push poll"!!! Do you and Zeno and Rue in turn denounce the unfair hit pieces against Efren?
We all know that Carrillo’s (and Sharon Wright’s) supporters on the Board of Supervisors just voted in the middle of the election campaign to increase the allowed campaign contributions to $5000 so that the few well-heeled development interests and loggers could pour more money into Carrillo’s and Wright’s campaigns. Nobody believes that Wright is an environmentalist!
Efren has capped his donations to $1000 and will refuse any additional donations. I think we're all seeing the amazing thing in this election will be the money spent totally unaccounted for. It amazes me that any person or organisation can spend huge amounts of money anonymously without any rules.
Where is Tom Lynch’s outrage at this blatant attempt by the developers to buy Carrillo, Wright, and our Board of Supervisors? Where is the “Manure Man” Tom Lynch, who dumped that load of manure back on the Santa Rosa City Council steps?
The bottom line is, “Who will Carrillo turn his back on if he is elected to the Board of Supervisors; his gravel-mining, developer, well-heeled supporters or us, the West County First District voters?”