Heated election highlighted divisions

Tuolumne County was a milieu of the most divisive year in American electoral politics during the 2020 election, though the victories of three new county supervisors signaled the public was eager to set the county on a new path.

“I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for our community to reevaluate the direction we’re going in and choose to do better, to revitalize, to look into new business and support new jobs and housing,” said County Supervisor-elect Jaron Brandon, who beat out District 5 incumbent Karl Rodefer in a heated and mud-slung race. “I don’t think anyone is going to miss 2020, so the question is how we’re going to bring everyone together to realize that goal.”

The county catalogued its highest ever voter turnout of any election dating back to 1990, which is as far back as records go on the California Secretary of State’s website.

Out of 35,042 registered voters, 30,829 cast ballots.

Nationally, the county continued in its deep-red tradition by voting 58.17% for Donald Trump compared to 39.39% for Joe Biden. The entire state of California, by contrast, voted overwhelmingly for Biden.

But for some, it was the abject partisanship of the national election that seeped into and marred the local elections, which traditionally have not been party-affiliated positions.

“I do believe a good part of the division started at a federal level and carried down to local politics,” said County Supervisor-elect David Goldemberg, who defeated write-in candidate Cody Ritts in the District 1 race. “It just brought things to a level that was very, very low.”

Most notable in the “dirty politics” 2020 election was an anonymous website associated with the Constitutional Patriots of Tuolumne County PAC, a political action committee aligned with members of the Tuolumne County Republican Central Committee.

The website purported to show screenshots from Tuolumne County Indivisible, a group founded in 2016 as the local chapter of a na

tional organization to help promote left-wing advocacy.

A full-page ad in the Union Democrat advertised the web page and implored the public to vote for Rodefer and Ritts, while tying Goldemberg and Brandon to Indivisible.

“I’ve never seen dirty politics like this,” said Sonora Mayor Matt Hawkins, who was involved in Brandon’s and Goldemberg’s campaigns. “I think it’s a symptom of how great this country has been. People don’t realize how far we’ve come as this country, and people are very angry.”

Near to election day on Nov. 3, members of both parties and candidate affiliations claimed their roadside signs were either being vandalized or disappearing.

“In our local community, our offices are supposed to be non-partisan, and yet the campaign this year for board of supervisors was very dirty,” said Marvin Keshner, a member of the Tuolumne County Democratic Central Committee. “Fortunately, it didn’t work, and it’s really great that it didn’t work.”

Keshner noted that the three new supervisors, Brandon, Goldemberg and Kathleen Haff (who won the District 4 election during the spring primary), represented a changing of guard from the entrenched political power institution of prior years.

Rodefer was seeking his third term in office, and District 4 County Supervisor John Gray retired after taking office in 2009. Former supervisor Randy Hanvelt served as the leader of the Constitutional Patriots of Tuolumne County PAC. District 1 Supervisor Sherri Brennan also dropped out of the race following the spring primary election after she and Goldemberg qualified for a runoff.

“Clearly people were desiring change, it’s pretty apparent,” Goldemberg said. “What we need is to have people comfortable with their government. I hope to see people get more involved.”

The platforms of the new supervisors are bold and span from economic development to housing, though they will first be confronted with the ongoing local management of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

“I’m hoping coming out of COVID we’re really going to have a lot of opportunity to do better over the next four years,” Brandon said.

The Tuolumne County Republican Central Committee is looking toward 2022 as a banner year to reestablish their endorsed candidates into local prominence, said spokesman Tom Crosby.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted, “he said. “We are trying to understand our path forward so that what we’re looking for for our community can be realized in the next election cycle. We are actively and positively evaluating the election cycle ahead of us, how we can be best prepared to see our community is best represented in that effort.”

Crosby said the presidential election, which has been declared for Joe Biden by the electoral college with 306 electoral votes, was “not over until it’s over.”

President Trump has claimed widespread voter fraud led to his defeat and has not conceded the election, though the inauguration of Joe Biden is approximately three weeks away.

“We have a process, and we’re law abiding Americans,” Crosby said. “We should wait for the process to take its course, and we will abide by the answer.”

Kesher said that Trump’s claims were erroneous and spurred conspiracy down to the municipal and local level.

“Unfortunately most of our local issues don’t need that, and it makes them worse,” he said. “We have a lot of common ground, and we need to find it.”