Recalling local government officials: a rural-urban comparison (Part I)

I find curious the recent successful recall of a county supervisor by "militia-backed" forces in Shasta County, California--popularly thought of as rural--juxtaposed against the successful recall this week of three school-board members in San Francisco, an uber-urban and uber-woke place. 

One commonality is that both take advantage of the California law that makes it relatively easy to recall--or attempt to recall--an elected official.  Recall that this law was used last year to attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom, an effort that did not succeed.  Another commonality of both elections is that they show voters--at least those who showed up to vote--moving to the right, though not necessarily very far to the right.  These are arguably incremental moves in both urban and rural contexts.  Also, both have drawn lots of media attention.  

Yet the types of media attention are different.  The concern by the media regarding Shasta County is about an "alt-right" force, and the concern in San Francisco is that the recalled officials have gone altogether too woke.  But the tenor of the coverage of San Francisco feels different from that of Shasta County.  Is one more reasonable than the other?  I'll unpack the details of the difference in a future post.