Davies Rebuts "Hit Piece" On Water Board Race

Candidate claims North Coast Journal resorted to blatantly misleading tactics

Humboldt Sentinel
News 10/23/08
By Sentinel Staff

EUREKA -- The role of the area's media in shaping, or slanting, public opinion on local election contests has arisen once again.

This time, the allegations are centered on the Arcata-based North Coast Journal, the county's most widely-circulated "alternative" news weekly, and their coverage of the three races for three seats on the board of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. Their article, "Water Boarding," appeared in the Oct. 16 issue of the Journal and was written by Heidi Walters.

While these are, by far, the most contested elections in the history of the district, with nine candidates vying for three seats in divisions centered on Eureka, McKinleyville and Humboldt Hill, First Division candidate Stephen Davies thinks this is no excuse for what he alleges are unfounded allegations.

"With my real world experience in hydro and morphological engineering aspects of watercourse diversion and Department of Fish and Game Watercourse Protection, as well as advanced training in underwater scientific research, I believe my qualifications compared to those of my opponent speak louder than any hit piece," Davies said in a release. "It's unfortunate to see the Journal resort to such blatantly misleading tactics to prop up my opponent, especially given the lead story in the Times-Standard last week which exposes how the Green Party has gone into a steep decline under the intolerant leadership of Kaitlin [Sopoci-Belknap] and her boyfriend David Cobb."

The Times-Standard report Davies referenced pointed to the statistical free fall the Humboldt Green Party's registration numbers have dove into since the ascension of a handful of activists loyal to failed presidential candidate David Cobb. Green Party numbers in Humboldt have suffered a drop of over 20% in the last year alone, and by nearly a third of the total membership since June 2006. Meanwhile, other "minor parties" such as the Libertarian Party and the Peace and Freedom Party have seen increases in voter registration numbers during the same time frame.

Given the refusal of the Humboldt Green Party to support any actual Green Party candidates in Humboldt County beyond Kaitlin's re-election bid, her defeat would mean the end of Green Party representation in local office for the first time since the election of Bob Ornelas to the Arcata City Council in 1990 (Ornelas was actually the first registered Green Party member elected to office in California). The Journal has yet to report on any of the internal dissension in the local Green Party since Cobb's takeover of it two-and-a-half years ago.

As far as the errors in fact are concerned, Davies lists several. Specifically, Davies,who is a registered Democrat, refutes the allegation that Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap was in any way endorsed by the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee, which is prohibited in its bylaws from endorsing Green Party members such as Sopoci-Belknap -- a refutation backed by the HCDCC chair, HSU professor Milt Boyd in a follow-up letter to the Journal.

"I sure do miss the editorial supervision of Howard Seeman at the North Coast Journal!" Boyd stated. "He kept you guys on a straight and accurate path of professional journalism that seems to have slipped a lot in recent times."

Also, Davies refuted the allegation that he had never attended any meetings of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District's board prior to last week -- in fact, Davies said he was in attendance at the quagga mussel infestation hearing the board held last month. Davies also noted that he had taken the time to review all board meeting minutes since 2005 and was also briefed by district general manager Carol Rische on the operations of the district well before the Journal article came out.

For the Journal's part, they ran a lengthy correction penned by editor Hank Sims in this week's issue, where they admitted to their error in claiming that Davies' opponent, Sopoci-Belknap, had been "unofficially" endorsed by the local Democratic Party.

"We concede both the grammatical and procedural points raised by Milt Boyd in the letter above, though we do maintain that the committee’s failure to endorse a candidate in the race was worthy of note," Sims wrote.

Sims also took the time to correct his reporter's misstatements concerning the Second Division water board race, where Walters had written that candidate Ben Shepherd had lost five elections to the board of the McKinelyville Community Services District. As Sims corrected, Shepherd actually won every one of those elections, and is age 66, not 68.

"I read with shock your article on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, Division 2, where Ben Shepherd’s past experience is wrongly reported. Ben was elected to five consecutive terms to the MCSD Board," Helen Edwards wrote in a letter to the Journal this week. "Anyone who can be elected to five terms certainly had the support of our community. I am a member of the board of the MCSD and I endorse Ben because I know of his outstanding record as a past member of the MCSD Board."

Sims also corrected an error associated with Shepherd's leading opponent, Edward "Buzz" Webb, who Walters had claimed was endorsed by Six Rivers Planned Parenthood. Webb is a longtime member of the SRPP board, on which he serves as board president.

"The organization is a non-profit entity and therefore does not endorse candidates for office," Sims wrote.

Also, longshot Second District candidate Jake Pickering did leave publicly-accessible contact information with the Humboldt County Elections Office, contrary to what the Journal had stated.

"The Journal deeply regrets the errors, and offers its sincere apologies to all parties concerned," Sims wrote.