El Dorado’s political drama comes to climax Tues.
By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee
The questions linger after a tumultuous political and legal drama in El Dorado County. They dangle amid the clutter of campaign signs on hillsides along Highway 50 and beneath Ponderosa pines on back-country roads.
What is the mood of this county after a veteran supervisor, Ray Nutting, was put on trial and stripped from office in what supporters called a political prosecution? What are the challenges of this Sierra foothills region, the birthplace of the Gold Rush, where grass-roots revolts now roil over a proposed residential development boom?
On Tuesday, voters will choose among six candidates in an extraordinary special election to replace Nutting. The winner will take office immediately and serve out the last two years and four months of the former District 2 supervisor’s term.
The candidates include his wife, Jennifer Nutting, owner of a Pollock Pines hair salon and an outspoken critic of what she claims is a county culture of political bullying that led to her husband’s prosecution.
Ray Nutting, 54, a four-term county supervisor, was acquitted on three felony counts for failing to properly disclose more than $70,000 in state income he received for brush-clearing on the family’s 340-acre timber ranch in Somerset. But a judge ordered him expelled from office June 6 because of misdemeanor convictions for improperly raising $55,000 in bail money from two county employees and a construction contractor doing business with the county.
Now the other special election candidates – winery owner Dave Pratt, manufacturing executive Claire McNeal, automotive shop owner George Turnboo, database systems consultant Chris Amaral and Web hosting company owner Shiva Frentzen – are trying to refocus the election to matters other than the Nutting saga.
If people see this reporters name on any stories, reject them he is as far off base as anyone could be and he is clueless. He is also a champion of a convicted corrupt politician who was removed and his wife who was involved in the same crimes. This county will do well to reject him and his stories and his cronies.
Yes Justice, it’s always good to disregard the words and opinions of anyone you disagree with! That seems to be the stock and trade of folks like you.
I’m not saying that this reporter’s view is one I would agree with, I’m just saying that disregarding and ignoring the views and opinions of those that counter your own is just plain……..well, not very intelligent!
Being simple minded like Mr. blank-picture exposes one’s ignorance. Knowing the facts shows intelligence. In this case, most People are very aware of the Bee’s ignoring this reporter’s and some of their other reporters non-fact checked biased reporting about the Nutting prosecution and Mrs. Nut-cases fake campaign. Prior to and during the trial there was a continual media spin of made-up claims by Nutting of political persecution-prosecution. This continued with a barrage of more false articles. One in the Bee after Nut-cases removal proclaimed Nut-case’s wife would easily win the special election to fill the seat and this included a very positive glowing article complete with staged pictures while always spinning a negative and blame others false persecution story. The Bee always fails to pay attention to some facts, like as they were attending Mrs. Nut-case’s first fund raiser it was the first candidate’s public forum and debate and all except Mrs. Nut-case were there. They forgot to mention Mrs. Nut-case afterward appears to have never showed up for anything except fundraisers and she appears to have been a fake candidate which the Bee should have exposed but didn’t because of an agenda to portray this county’s DA and others as a problem instead of Nutting. All of it didn’t work and the voters just agreed that anyone named Nutting should not be elected to anything and all in spite of the Bee and this reporter’s easily seen attempts of promoting Mrs. Nut-case in fictional false stories and not covering any of the other candidates. Nice try though.