Category: Updates

The Republican State Central Committee (RSCC) is the governing body of the California Republican Party.

Each of the 58 California counties have a county central committee – which governs the local Republican Party and appoints delegates to the RSCC.

Committee members represent the county designated district in which they live.

The Tehama County central committee holds meetings once a month. They are looking for citizens to become central committee members.

You do not have to be a Committee member to attend the meetings.

Precinct Strategy

Most of the committees have fewer than 50% of their seats filled. Learn about the power of the committees here: www.precinctstrategy.com

I got my copy of the Live Local Field Manual (LLFM) a couple days ago and have been flipping through it a little – digging into the first section this morning, which is about individual accountability and seeking God every day.

If you’re not familiar with Live Local – I encourage you to learn a little about the concept.

The main goal is to combat globalism by living local. We do that by getting involved.

“The Declararion of Independence states that the government derives its ‘just powers from the consent of the governed’. Live Local is about ensuring the consent has consequence, so that government is just.”

Jarrin Jackson, LLFM

Living Local isn’t just shopping local or showing up to community events. Where we fail immensely – and trust me, I’m pointing the finger at myself here – is getting involved in our government & schools.

“Consent of the governed” simply means that if we don’t object to the decisions our elected officials make, we consent to them.

But do we even know what decisions they’re making?

Did you know that in 2020, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors we’re drafting a “Penalty Ordinance”? This would allow them to hire enforcement and hearing officers to cite and fine citizens for not wearing a mask and businesses for not enforcing the governors “guidelines”.

How do we know what they’re doing if we don’t read the agendas and go to the meetings?

How do we know what they think if we don’t sit down and talk with them?

Candy Carlson holds a townhall meeting every month to hear from her people. Until recently, the other supervisors were not doing this.

Do you know who your supervisor is? Each county has 5 districts & supervisors.

Learn About Local Government and Find Your Supervisor Here

If they hold townhall meetings, GO. If not, make an appointment to meet with them.

We need to:

1. stop voting for people who don’t have our best interest at heart
2. hold our elected officials accountable for the decisions they make – especially when those decisions go against the will of the people

Every election, I pull out my ballot and fill in the circle next to the name of a person or next to a Yes or No on some issue.

These are HUGE decisions!

But honestly, I usually didn’t give those decisions the time and energy they deserved.

Whose name did I remember from signs around town? Which propositions seemed appropriate? Didn’t I see a commercial or a letter about that? Did my party support it?

We vote people into office to made decisions for us. If they think it’s good – maybe it is.

Or maybe we voted the wrong people into office.

I listened today to interviews of certain candidates running for local office. One says a lot of right things – he is well rehearsed and seems knowledgeable. The other says good things too, but he doesn’t seem to have as much support.

So it would make sense to vote for the first guy right?

But how do you know the smoothe talkin, educated, experienced candidate isn’t just a good actor?

We’ve seen it enough – people sweet talk us during campaign season, they do everything right, they say everything we want to hear – then they take their oath and everything they said during campaign season goes out the window.

If you vote the way I used to – name recognition, and what sounds good – please shift gears this years.

Do your homework. If one person sounds too good to be true, maybe find out why the other candidate is so passionate about running against him.

Read the details of the propositions. Don’t just read the pro and con blurbs – I mean really get into the details.

And if you have questions – ask. If you don’t know someone to ask – reach out to me. I may not always have the answers and I’ll never tell you how to vote – but I’ll certainly tell you why I’m voting the way I am.

This election year is unlike any other for me. Over the last 2 years, we have learned so much about our world, and in particular, our country.

The covid chaos has taught us how much our government has deceive us.

The 2020 election opened our eyes to election fraud and the great lengths people will go to win.

“There are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them.”

Johnny – Dirty Dancing

But the biggest thing for me has been seeing how many people have their heads in the sand. And I’ve been one of them for far too long.

There are so many individuals in local office (both elected and appointed), that have gotten there by taking advantage of the system and of the people. They do not have Tehama County citizens best interest at heart.

I never cared before. I just trusted the people running our county were doing the right thing.

But now I can’t unsee what I’ve seen. I can’t I hear what I’ve heard.

So this election, I am much more alert to the people running running for office. I want to know how they’ve conducted themselves in their own lives and in their work.

Some of our candidates have not been known to act with integrity. And yet at the first sign of public information that shows that, people jump in to defend that person.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

~from the Declaration Independence

Integrity is important. We have to be willing to get out of our comfort zones and have more detailed discussions about difficult issues. We have to be willing to identify weaknesses in our candidates.

That doesn’t mean we have to condemn them for those weaknesses. But we should expect them to overcome them. We should expect them to learn from their past mistakes and do better in the future.

We are all complaining about the people in office across the country and in our county who are doing bad things. But guess what folks – WE PUT THEM THERE!

It is OUR responsibility as voters to put the right people in office – not the one with the most experience, not the better public speaker, not the more popular person. We have to find the ones who will do what’s right and represent the individuals they govern, even when it’s hard, even when it goes against their own personal interests.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

~from the Declaration Independence

Listen to what people say – even if it’s hard to hear.

If you know that a candidate has a history of wrong-doing – reach out to me confidentially. Let’s find a way to get that information on the table.

How that person responds will tell us whether he or she is truly acting with integrity.

I want to encourage you to read the Declaration of Independence excerpt below. Our founding fathers understood that people become accustomed to suffering and that we would be more willing to suffer wrongdoings than to fight to correct them.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

~from the Declaration Independence

It’s time for change friends. We don’t necessarily need to establish a new government – we just need to get the right people into office and then hold them accountable to the oath they take.

It starts with us. It ends with us.

When I first started this group, our BOS was considering a penalty ordinance for individuals not wearing masks and businesses not enforcing them.

I was proud of our board for listening to our hearts and not instituting that ordinance. I truly believed we had a largely ethical and moral community leadership overall.

Since then, more and more information has come to light that has completely destroyed that belief – creating a passion in me to work towards educating our community and helping people get involved in our county.

Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles

Integrity is a critical component to anyone holding an elected or appointed government office, as well as for being an officer, prosecutor, etc. People aren’t perfect, we all have failings in their lives – we are all just human.

But how do we handle things when we mess up? Do we own it and work towards improving? Or do try to cover it up and act like we didn’t do wrong?

To me – that’s what integrity is all about. It’s not just trying to do the right thing – it’s also having the willingness to acknowledge our failures.

Over the last 2 years, people have brought to my attention concerns they’ve had in the running of our county. Concerns at every level of local government.

Initially, I dismissed most of the complaints because they came from people I thought were being petty or had wrong motives.

But here’s the thing – even if they are petty and have wrong motives, they aren’t necessarily wrong!

The more I learn, the more disappointed I am in how unethical the people are who manage our local lives. We elect people into positions of authority and responsibility – people who represent us in making decisions about our community.

Shouldn’t we be able to ask them anything BEFORE we vote? Shouldn’t we want potential problem areas made public BEFORE we vote? Shouldn’t we be digging into their lives so we know we are voting for the person who will accurately and effectively represent us with integrity and intention?

Yesterday, information was made public about one of the candidates for sheriff. The person who shared this information had an anonymous account. The initial response from the candidate in question was to deny it and accuse the other candidate of dirty politics.

Some people understand the gravity of the issue – others immediately trusted the candidate in question and offered him support – without doing any research into whether the allegation was true and without understanding the weight of the issue.

It was that easy to convince people.

Why? Because we don’t like confrontation. We don’t like hard conversations. We don’t want to be part of the yucky stuff.

Where has this gotten us? We feel bad for the person “being attacked” and so we go vote for them. And we end up with a bunch of people in office who have a history of deceiving us!

Politics are ugly because people have a history. The question isn’t who has more history – the question is who handles their own history with integrity.

There are several positions in Tehama County that have more than 1 candidate. Don’t just watch for who has the better sign – don’t make your decision on who presents him or herself better. Dig in when issues come up and go learn the truth.

Ask questions of everyone! Someone has answers.

Tehama Tomorrow is circulating a petition to add a measure to the November ballot.

The measure would include:

• Limit BOS to 3 terms (12 years)
• Establish rules assigning work to BOS members & limit them from serving more than 2 terms on any commission, committee, etc.
• Require each Supervisor to hold quarterly town meetings in their districts
• Increase BOS compensation levels to median of nearby counties (currently salary is $12,540 per year)
• Require county to live stream meetings

I think these are all good things. Read the full document below and let me know if you see any red flags.

shawn@tehamafreedom.org