Pacific Lumber's Money vs. Humboldt County Justice

Eureka, CA - Paul Gallegos took office in late January of last year. He filed the Pacific Lumber lawsuit charging fraud on February 24th, and within a week Robin Arkley Sr. was already offering $5,000 to anyone who would start a recall. On March 11th, when Gallegos went before the Board of Supervisors, there were already numerous PL employees holding up cardboard signs saying “Recall the DA”.

So the recall talk started when Gallegos had been in office little more than a month, and within a week of filing charges against PL. Arkley said “We’re spending a lot of money, because we’ve got lots of money.” Boy, was he right. Of the $25,521 raised by June 30, $22,250 came directly from timber industry sources, including Timber Incorporated, Lewis Logging, Peterson Tractor, Rasmussen Wood Products, Bettendorf Trucking, Joe Costa Trucking, and Arkley himself. That’s 87% of the backing. Arkley explained the reason for the recall thus: “I had enough… My town,.. some good ol’ boys,.. that’s the way it used to be and, by God, we’re gonna do it again” (NPR’s “Morning Edition”, August 21, 2003)

From July through September, another $10,250 came in from timber interests, including numerous PL executives. Though the company itself had yet to put money into the recall, PL said it was “watching it with interest” (Jim Branham).

With all of this timber money coming into the campaign, totaling more than 70%, they still couldn’t generate enough interest to qualify the recall for the ballot. By the end of last summer, the signature drive was failing. That’s when PL came into the picture, paying more than $40,000 to buy 5,000 signatures at $8 apiece. Without PL’s direct funding, there would be no recall.

PL continued to dump more money and resources into the recall effort. Since September, PL’s donations have totaled $69,347, or 93.3% of all money raised during that period. Combined with Steve Wills Trucking and Logging, the two account for 98.6% of all money raised in the last four months. In all, nearly 90% of the funding for the recall campaign has come directly from PL and other major timber industry sources.

Now the powerful special interests that are pushing the recall are trying to tell us that it has nothing to do with PL, or the lawsuit, and they have spent the last year second-guessing every decision the DA has made. Remember, though, that when the recall started there was no track record of any kind for anyone to say he was "soft on crime". The recall was a response to the DA’s lawsuit against PL, pure and simple. All other issues regarding Gallegos are simply diversions and red-herrings.

Despite the cover story that the recall “has nothing to do with PL”, virtually all of the main proponents of the recall have stated otherwise:

Rick Brazeau, in commenting about replacement candidate Steven Schectman’s insistence that he would continue the fraud lawsuit against PL, asked why he would want to “carry on the traditions that got (Gallegos) recalled in the first place?” (Times-Standard, December 13, 2003)

The Committee to Recall Paul Gallegos, in a press release titled “Reasons for the Recall”, lists “In March, he accused a major business of a $400,000,000 fraud and filed a civil case.”

Robert Manne, Pacific Lumber CEO, referring to the DA’s fraud lawsuit against PL: “…are we to sit back and allow that to happen?” (letter to PL employees, October 24, 2003)

Simply put, the recall is about PL, and PL only. It is not about environment, or tree-sitters, or medical marijuana, or anything else. It is truly a question of who runs Humboldt County, and whether a defendant in a lawsuit should be able to avoid prosecution by buying a political office. If the recall succeeds, it will send a strong message to all Judges, Supervisors, City Council members, and other elected officials. That message is: Watch your back.

There has really never been a single issue which has so much potential impact for the future of our County. When it is over, we as a County will have either moved forward, or backwards, but we will not stay the same. It is critical that individuals do what they can to help defeat the recall.