Big LA Times feature on rural Republican gubernatorial candidate

Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times wrote this feature about Brian Dahle, a seed farmer from Bieber, population 266, in Lassen County.  Here's an excerpt that leads with Dahle's "day job" as a farmer:  

With no water to irrigate his crops, Brian Dahle’s success as a farmer depends heavily on the whims of rain clouds drifting over the grassy valleys and frostbitten mountains of California’s northeastern frontier.

But it’s been a long dry spell for Republicans hoping to become governor of California. And the conservative legislator from Lassen County’s fate in this year’s election depends on a break in an unfriendly political climate in a state where the GOP spent years slowly withering into irrelevance.

“This is a tough race,” Dahle said about his decision to challenge Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. “There’s no denying it, but I believe that things are lining up. People are not happy. There’s more money in Sacramento than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. They’re throwing it around — and people are still mad.”

With the California Republican Party’s endorsement, Dahle is favored to finish in the top two in the June 7 primary.

In addition to Dahle's time as a Lassen County Supervisor, a state assemblyman, and now as a state senator, his credentials include time with the informal Quincy Library Group, based a county to the south, in Plumas County:  

Dahle was a member of the Quincy Library Group, a consortium of environmentalists, timber company representatives and elected officials representing the northeastern part of California. The group was formed to quell the decades-long, contentious fights over forest management policies for national forest lands in the northern Sierra Nevada.

* * *

Environmental attorney Michael Jackson, one of the founding members of the Quincy Library Group, said he was initially skeptical of the Republican farmer when he joined them in the 1990s. But those concerns quickly disappeared.

“I’m a hardcore environmentalist Democrat, and I learned a lot from him,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to vote for him over a whole bunch of other things, but he was very, very straightforward and honorable. I admire his character.”

Friends and colleagues in Lassen County and the state Capitol praise Dahle for his warm, friendly demeanor. While true to his conservative opinions, he eschews the caustic partisan politics that is pervasive in Washington and in the national political dialogue.

Dahle and his wife, Assemblymember Megan Dahle, over the years have invited more than 100 legislators from both parties to visit their home in Bieber and their Muck Valley Ranch, named for its sticky, heavy soil. Some members of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus dropped by, as did Democratic leaders such as Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood). They’ve stomped through Dahle’s 1,000 acres of winter wheat and watched bald eagles soar over the Pit River on his farm’s eastern edge.

Prior posts featuring Dahle are here, here, and here, and prior post featuring Bieber are here and here.