Doug LaMalfa
ORLAND -- Former state Sen. Doug
LaMalfa said he intended to pay "a friendly visit" to the Glenn County
Republican headquarters, which is in Orland.
But headquarters manager Gloria Irwin said she didn't find LaMalfa's stop
there friendly at all. She was upset when she heard about it, she said.
So what happened?
LaMalfa said he was driving through Orland and decided to stop at the
headquarters to say hello and thank the volunteers.
When he walked up, he saw that an Enterprise-Record editorial criticizing him
had been put up in the front window.
LaMalfa went inside, removed the editorial from the window and put it on a
desk. Then he wrote on it, circling a section near the beginning in which the
editorial board gave its view of why LaMalfa, who is running for Congress,
resigned from the state Senate last week.
The second and third paragraphs say that after LaMalfa resigned, his
"campaign painted him as a hero. They said he was doing the good deed to save
taxpayers the $2 million cost of a special election.
"In reality, he was doing it in (an) attempt to give his hand-picked
successor and political ally, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, an inside track on his
Senate seat — and to spite Assemblyman Dan Logue ... ."
LaMalfa wrote, "this is not factual," next to that part of the editorial,
Irwin said.
Irwin was the one who put up the editorial. She said she did it because she
felt "at last someone has told the truth."
In a phone interview with the E-R
Thursday afternoon, LaMalfa said the editorial's accusation was false.
How, he asked, could anyone know what was going on his mind when he resigned?
In fact, he said, he did resign last week to save the taxpayers money and to
ensure that the district had continuous representation in the Senate.
Money would be saved because the election of his replacement could be
combined with the November election instead of holding a special vote in the
spring. And if his replacement wasn't elected until spring, that person wouldn't
be in office till long after the legislative session started in January, he
said.
As it is, there will likely have to be a special vote in January. Unless
someone gets 50 percent of the vote plus one Nov. 6, the top two vote-getters
will face a runoff Jan. 8.
Logue, who announced Friday he would run for LaMalfa's seat, said he didn't
believe for a second that the former senator was being altruistic. He said
LaMalfa's ensuring that his replacement would be chosen in November, giving
Nielsen a big advantage. Nielsen has been campaigning for months for the Senate,
he said, but others who run for the seat now only have two months to campaign.
Taking down the editorial wasn't the only thing LaMalfa did during the
headquarters visit.
He also put up a large campaign sign for Nielsen's Senate bid.
Irwin said LaMalfa's actions were "inappropriate." He had no right to take
down the editorial, and he should have asked permission to put up the sign.
LaMalfa said the volunteer on duty at the headquarters told him it was OK to
put up the sign.
Also, he said, it was the right thing to do because Irwin had been removing
Nielsen campaign material from the headquarters.
That's true, Irwin told the E-R. "I threw it away, and I admit it."
Irwin, who has been active in local GOP politics for many years (she said she
founded the Glenn County Republican Women group) said she was disgusted at how
some officials try to select their successors and support them with a lot of
money.
For example, she said LaMalfa endorsed Nielsen to replace him, and Nielsen
endorsed Bob Williams to be the next assemblyman. Williams, however, lost to
Logue in the primary.
"Handpicking is wrong," Irwin said. When incumbents like LaMalfa and Nielsen
try to choose their successors, "they scare off people who might be thinking of
running because (the incumbents) have the money."
Many years ago, she noted, wheeling-and-dealing Democratic Assembly Speaker
Jesse Unruh said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics."
Irwin added, "And it's still true, unfortunately."
Staff writer Larry Mitchell can be reached at 896-7759 or
lmitchell@chicoer.com.
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