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South of Redding, residents formed the Cottonwood militia more than a decade ago when five local businesses in the town were robbed on five subsequent nights, according to one of the group’s founders and leaders, Woody Clendenen. It has since grown from 11 members to a sizeable political force, including Zapata, with an increasingly savvy media reach across Northern California and beyond.
Its members are well-known in the community, offering a scholarship each year, hosting a boys’ camp, and sometimes being called in lieu of the police, said Clendenen.
“It grew into almost kind of a political action committee,” said Clendenen, a Cottonwood barber and bit actor in Hollywood B-movies. Candidates for office would call and court militia members for support, he said. Before the pandemic, he said, “our fundraiser dinners, the sheriff and the supervisors come.”
Tuesday was an emotionally and politically charged day outside and inside the Shasta County Board of Supervisors Chambers.
For months, a vocal group of residents upset with the county’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown up to vent, angry that the county continues to follow state health guidelines and continues to bow to a tyrannical and treasonous governor.
But in recent weeks they have been joined by those who support the mask mandates and other health guidelines and oppose the effort to recall three supervisors because they followed local and state health rules.
It came to a head Tuesday, a day that started with the anti-recall group Shasta Forward holding a press conference before the supervisors meeting to announce it has filed complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against the recall effort, alleging supporters have violated campaign finance rules and are abusing state election law.
During a meeting that included references to the Bible and the U.S. Constitution, three members of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors were told Tuesday that notices of intent were to be filed to recall them from office.
Supervisors Joe Chimenti, Leonard Moty and Mary Rickert were read the notices of recall at the meeting, which drew some 200 people, mostly recall supporters.
Elissa McEuen, one of Tuesday s speakers, cited what she said were numerous reasons for recalling the three supervisors. The trio were called out for failing to stand up to the governor and withdraw from the state tier system of regulations enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.