Vote! 

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Editor:

Rex Bohn is a positive, honest upstanding member of our community. He works tirelessly for our county and has every day and night for many years. In 1992, he backed and did everything he could to get the Redwood Fields in Cutten built.

Let's remember the California wildfires. Rex collected donations and volunteers and fed firefighters and victims delicious barbecue.

In 2019, our truckers parade lost its prior funding/backing. Rex gathered a group of volunteers and made it happen, yes, the parade was Dec. 14. Raising more than $20,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods. Thank you, Rex.

Projects spearheaded by Rex Bohn; McKay Tract community forest and trail, showers at St. Vincent, etc.

Please vote for Rex Bohn for First District supervisor. The man with a plan, a vision and the wherewithal to get it going and completed.

Minnie Wolf, Cutten

Editor:

Rex is a dedicated public servant. He works tirelessly for our county locally and at the state level. Rural counties often get overlooked in decisions made in Sacramento.

I have become friends with multiple decision makers throughout California over the years. It's amazing how often Rex's name comes up in a positive way when I talk to these folks. The common message I hear from them is their awareness of Humboldt County's needs and concerns are front and center in Sacramento because of Rex's advocacy. Rex is a powerful voice for Humboldt. That's important.

Rex is responsive to his constituents. He's a problem solver. He doesn't shy away from tough issues. He can be a little rough around the edges occasionally, but that's OK with me — he's human and down to earth. Rex is not only an effective and committed county representative — he's a good person, too.

Johanna Rodoni, Stafford

Editor:

If you live in the First District, a vote for Rex Bohn is the right choice. Rex is accessible to everyone. He is always willing to take calls and stop to talk on the street, or at one of the many, many functions where he volunteers his time. He might not always agree with everyone, but he listens and does his best to make decisions that are best for Humboldt County and the First District.

Rex sees that the county is drowning in a sea of addiction, homelessness and drugs. Rex has been a huge advocate for getting the homeless re-homed, and combating the drug crisis head-on. Because Rex is so pro-public safety, he has been endorsed by fire chiefs, police chiefs and union's. Rex believes that Humboldt County is "Open for Business" and I agree.

Jonathan Flyer, Loleta

Editor:

I've talked with Cliff Berkowitz about conditions in Elk River: the ongoing sacrifice of our forest and water quality, our neighborhoods, homes and orchards, mostly on behalf of big timber, big beef and now big cannabis. He didn't make big promises, but he listened and took it to heart.

The incumbent has long known about these problems. Years ago he participated in a pubic forum where the destruction of Elk River was documented and discussed. He even signed on to a recovery plan. Last year, he came out to reassure us about the industrial grow that appeared without notice in our neighborhood.

But the river's worse than ever, he pulled out of the recovery plan and the neighbors say the greenhouse fans are starting up again. Big wind. Big signs with baseballs.

Cliff for Supervisor. Rex for Little League commissioner.

Jerry Martien, Elk River

Editor:

When Rex Bohn says, "We need to let people know that Humboldt County is open for business," he means it — so long as such business benefits outside corporations, a handful of his local cronies or both — no matter their impacts on the local economy and habitats.

How refreshing, then, to see an excellent supervisorial contender in Cliff Berkowitz. In our climate emergency Cliff will usher in widespread distributed solar, and he'll avoid pet project's like Rex's destructive wind factory. Rather than build ports for coal trains and liquefied natural gas pipelines, as Rex wanted to do, Cliff will nurture and continue to develop Humboldt's growing market share of light manufacturing and tourism. He will protect and expand the rights of small organic cannabis farmers who gave Humboldt the world's most famous brand in the first place, sidelining the huge destructive grows.

Fortunately, Humboldt has a choice. And it's Cliff Berkowitz.

Greg King, Arcata

Editor:

Well, if imitation is the highest form of flattery, I guess Rex thinks pretty highly of Cliff Berkowitz! I'm getting a kick out of watching him steal one good idea after another from Cliff, without once giving Cliff credit for being first with the ideas.

Climate change. Sea-level rise. Solar power. His vision for Humboldt. All of these were issues Cliff talked and wrote about long before his opponent started promoting them as his own. Now, most recently, he's touting the (excellent) idea of a tribal liaison, an idea that Cliff first put forth upon the suggestion of Cheryl Seidner. I'm on pins and needles waiting to see which piece of Cliff's platform the incumbent steals next! Seems he's confused politics with baseball, stealing ideas like they were bases. Sorry, but that's not the ethical way to home base. Vote Cliff for the win!

Karen Abler, Arcata

Editor:

Measure R is meant to fund new positions for the Arcata Fire District. If passed by two-thirds of voters, it would raise $1.9 million per year from added property taxes. The district has a deficit of $250,000 per year.

Measure R is inadequate for addressing long-term solutions as it simply fails to consider:

A) The Arcata Fire Station could easily be used as a live-in training center for first responders.

B) Housing is a known hurdle for those entering this type of public service.

C) Developing a much needed school would alleviate added tax burden on those who least afford it.

We advocate for on-the-job trainees, not merely volunteers.

The Humboldt County Taxpayer League has ultimate respect for firefighters. We want 21st century solutions developed for 21st century problems. Nearly tripling taxes on those of us who make this our home is just too much.

Uri Driscoll, Arcata

Editor:

I've served this community for 38-plus years as cop, police chief, emergency manager and active shooter response trainer. Since 2015, I've volunteered at Arcata Fire District's command posts.

First-hand, I've seen firefighters save the Humboldt State University Music Building, Arcata Hotel, Presbyterian Church, the plaza's east side and a McKinleyville apartment torched by a barricaded gunman. We have a reasonably sized, competent staff doing their best with aging equipment, increased risks and rising expenses that outstrip 1997 funding.

I will be paying more tax when Measure R passes. We must consider our collective community risks, not just our own personal finances. Failure to support Measure R will trigger a brutal one-third cut in emergency response capacity that can't be mitigated by bake sales and wistful hopes for more volunteerism. When your neighbor calls 911, that response should be 100 percent, not 66 percent. Please ensure that AFD remains capable by voting yes on Measure R.

Thomas Dewey, Arcata

Editor:

Humboldt County's life expectancy is lower than that of South Central Los Angeles. We don't have adequate access to doctors or proper substance abuse treatment. People are dying out here. Bernie Sanders wants to expand addiction treatment in rural areas and increase funding for the National Health Service Corps. to bring more doctors to underserved areas.

Here in West Eureka, I see people suffering every day. They suffer from lack of mental health services and housing. Bernie will invest in affordable rural housing and community mental health centers whose services will be covered as part of Medicare for all. I will cast my vote for Bernie so that there is finally some mercy for those who suffer the most.

And finally, Bernie's Green New Deal is by far the most comprehensive. He is humanity's best shot at having any sort of future at all.

Leila Binder, Eureka

Editor:

Bernie Sanders is on the record having unreservedly lavished public praise on anti-American communist dictators like Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro. (Have you ever watched Bernie's infamous videotaped interviews on these subjects from Aug. 8, 1985, and June 13, 1988? You should.)

Then of course, there was Sanders' still-inadequately-explained 1988 marital honeymoon in the Soviet Union, where upon returning to Vermont the Marxist-socialist Sanders predictably and pathetically voiced his unabashed praise for the Soviet system.

Less well known is the fact that in 1963 Sanders lived and worked for several months on a Stalinist commune near Haifa in Northern Israel that explicitly saw the Soviet Union as its political role model.

And then there's that bizarre, incredibly disturbing "rape fantasy" article that Bernie Sanders wrote that was published in 1972 when Sanders was a 30-year-old, far-Left Marxist gubernatorial candidate in Vermont.

Sanders is a sure loser in a general election.

Jake Pickering, Arcata

Editor:

On March 3, voters can also choose candidates for the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee. I urge your vote for Bob and Pam Service. We have served the party for years, doing the work of registering voters, working at events, establishing a new headquarters and helping bring strong Democratic majorities to local offices.

Our overriding goal is victory for Democratic ideals and candidates at all levels. Unlike those running against us, we do not support one faction. We focus on the big goals of universal health care, free education, humane immigration policies and addressing the climate crisis. To achieve these, we must avoid divisive in-fighting and unite. 

We must support our presidential candidate, whoever that is. Otherwise the criminal in the White House and his lackeys at all levels will destroy our nation and communities. Please re-elect that "dynamic Democratic duo" Bob and Pam Service to HCDCC.

Pam Service, Eureka

Editor:

The interviews in the last Journal reveal the differences between the candidates approaches. Rex Bohn seems to emphasize "help is on the way." Cliff Berkowitz stresses the need to develop plans NOW, to have a plan ready to go when federal or state funding arrives. Cliff emphasizes immediate need to deal with sea level rise, and suggests looking into salt marsh restoration, (a great project for HSU students).

Cliff has experience starting small businesses and emphasizes developing small businesses suitable for our environment, not pursuing large outside corporations.

The First District needs new eyes and fresh energy! Vote for CLIFF!

Margaret Dickinson, Eureka

Editor:

The primary on March 3 is our opportunity to express our deepest values without the burden of attempting to predict which candidate is the most electable. If we don't vote with our hearts on March 3, how will anyone, including delegates to the party convention, know what we truly believe and care about?

"Electability" is not discernible before results of primaries and cross-party polls are revealed. In 2016, premature and uninformed judgments about electability discouraged some voters from marking their preferred candidate and led Democratic Party delegates and Superdelegates to opt for a supposedly safely-electable candidate, ignoring multiple opinion polls that showed that Bernie Sanders was the most favored and most trusted candidate across party lines and would draw votes from independents and Republicans, as well as from his Democratic base. (Favorability polls in the spring of 2016: Sanders 60 percent +/-; Clinton 40 percent +/-; Trump 30 percent +/-). The next few months will reveal whether this widespread support for Sanders remains.

Our tasks:

1) Educate ourselves about the efficiency and cost-benefits of enhanced Medicare for All and the essential need to rapidly institute many of the proposals in the Green New Deal.

2) Discuss our options and choices with friends and neighbors.

3) Vote with honest regard for programs and policies that will serve all the people ... and insist that convention delegates do the same.

Chip Sharpe, Bayside

Editor:

"It's a short mental leap for those superior in power and wealth, to infer they are superior in intelligence, morality, and culture ... this is the root cause of one of human civilization's worst maladies: 'racism'." (Historian David Abernethy).

It's disturbing to watch the U.S. president and Humboldt County supervisor candidate Rex Bohn making headlines with racist comments, both ignoring their Constitutional oaths to "promote and secure" the "general welfare" and "posterity" whenever it inconveniences industry elites.

Bohn's advocacy for massive liquefied natural gas towers on Humboldt Bay would have endangered Eureka's downtown residents, tourists and businesses, the same misguided agenda leaving posterity with a bay surrounded in job-killing brownfields.

Humboldt County deserves new supervisors who reject the local legacy of false-choices sacrificing public health and safety for "jobs" that undermine posterity's opportunities.

County residents can register and vote for Cliff Berkowitz, (including March 3rd), at the Humboldt County Elections Office.

George Clark, Eureka

Editor:

Rex Bohn's "entirely family, locally owned businesses" ignores his stint as VP of Evergreen Pulp, abandoning tanksful of toxic caustics to be emergently and expensively removed by taxpayers before "the next rainfall" destroyed our bay. Rex stumped for CalPine's aborted LNG terminal featuring a 250MW power station fueled by a 155-mile natural gas pipeline to warm the explosive radioactive gas transported weekly in two 900-foot-long ships to the old pulp mill site. Rex cheer-led 55 local get-togethers for Terra-Gen, owned by the same hedge funds as Calpine, organized by his hand-picked liaison, but disregarded Wiyot, Scotia and Rio Dell's concerns. In Rex's letter advocating a state drinking water tax to clean up poor farming counties' water contaminated with agricultural chemicals, asbestos and fertilizer runoff, Rex never mentions industrial water users, agricultural and chemical polluters. Cliff Berkowitz prioritizes appropriate development, good jobs, local energy and protection of our precious resources.

Ken Miller, McKinleyville

Write a Letter!

The Journal is no longer accepting election letters endorsing a specific local candidate or measure but we, of course, are still accepting traditional letters to the editor responding to our coverage. Please make your letter no more than 300 words and include your full name, place of residence and phone number (we won't print your number). Send it to [email protected]. The deadline to have a letter considered for the upcoming edition is 10 a.m. Monday.