Big LA Times profile of the man financing the far-right revolt in northern California

Jessica Garrison offered a deep dive yesterday for the Los Angeles Times from Shasta County, California, about former filmmaker Reverge Anselmo.  The headline is "The ex-Hollywood filmmaker bankrolling a far-right political revolt in rural California."  Mr. Anselmo has been mentioned in recent reporting out of Shasta County, especially regarding the successful recall of Republican county supervisor Leonard Moty in early February.  Read more here and here.  

Before this story, the best explanation I'd seen about Anselmo was from Doni Chamberlain, an independent Redding-based journalist, when she appeared on a Berkeley, California radio program in mid-February.  Sadly, no link to that program is available, but in it Chamberlain made a lot of the points that Garrison echoes in this story, with a focus on Anselmo's axe to grind over his winery, event-business, and a Catholic chapel he built on his ranch east of Redding.  For years, he fought both state and county efforts to regulate his use of the land, ultimately abandoning the property nearly a decade ago.  

Here' s a great quote from Mary Rickert, a member of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, who survived a recent effort to recall her when proponents of the recall failed to secure enough signatures to get it on the ballot.  (This was the same effort that succeeded with Moty's recall).  Regarding the Anselmo-funded effort to take over Shasta County's government:  

I’m watching a county collapse. They want to take over. They want to replace anyone who knows how to do anything with people that don’t know. I’m really scared.

Rickert says she and others in Shasta County didn't know why Anselmo left in a huff, "especially when his business was 'thriving,' his property 'beautiful' and his wine 'wonderful.'”

Another supervisor, Glenn Hawes, added, “Golly sakes, everything we did we tried to help him. ... We could never explain why he did what he did. None of us could.”

It's interesting that it was government regulation that enraged Anslemo, given that the northstate of California is notoriously anti-regulation.  Imagine if Anselmo had been building in a more urban setting, with a higher degree of regulation than the likely faced in Shasta County.  Or maybe he expected that, in choosing to move to and invest in Shasta County, he would avoid the very thing in which he ultimately got bogged down.    

Both Chamberlain's and Garrison's reporting suggest that Anselmo is an urban fellow (born in Connecticut and living there now) who is using the rural--here for political gain, or perhaps just pure revenge.  

Postscript:  Capital Public Radio reported this morning that Mary Rickert has been removed as vice chair of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, a position she rose to in January, before the recall.