D.A. GALLEGOS RECALL ROLLING; FARMER RESURFACES

A quickly mounting and attention-getting effort to oust Humboldt District
Attorney Paul Gallegos has marked a milestone by serving him a notice of
intent to circulate recall petitions.

The notice is signed by 40 Humboldt County residents and was handed to
Gallegos and filed with the county's Elections Department on April 24. Hot
rhetoric is rolling to an early boil, as Gallegos' supporters and detractors
jockey for advantage in a countywide power struggle that saw a dramatic and
unexpected shift last March, when Gallegos won the edgy D.A. election.

He upset longtime D.A. Terry Farmer, bumping him with a 54 percent share of
votes, and wasted little time in effecting change.

Gallegos' expansion of medical marijuana limits - announced three weeks into
his tenure - is opposed by many police officers and sheriff's deputies. But
a more fiery controversy exploded when the fledgling D.A. filed a
multimillion dollar fraud lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Company (PL), the
county's largest employer.

Embryonic at this point, the recall campaign is already demonstrating how
the two sides of a long-brewing ideological clash draw their lines. A press
release from the committee helming the recall drive asserts that Gallegos is
"incompetent," has "instituted public policy that is harmful to communities
and children," and "doesn't understand the job of district attorney."

The press release highlights Gallegos' revamped and "profoundly disturbing"
increase in medical marijuana cultivation limits and accuses him of being
anti-police. The recall effort's trigger, the PL lawsuit, is mentioned last,
but is characterized as a "weak and complex" case.

Conservative Backlash?

Gallegos' supporters are rallying as hard as they did during the spring
election to keep their man in office.

Richard Salzman, a key Gallegos campaign volunteer, formed the Alliance for
Ethical Business as a supportive response to the PL suit. In an April 24
press release, Salzman alleges that class division is the recall's
motivator.

"We can't grow our economy if we turn a blind eye to law-breaking by the
richest and most powerful members of our community," the release asserts.
Later, it adds that "Humboldt is too grand a place to hand out special
privileges to the rich and powerful."

In an interview, Salzman, an effective campaign engineer who assisted with
Supervisor Jill Geist's successful campaign, said that the recent power
shift in the D.A.'s office has led to a predictable backlash. "The people of
the county voted for change, and now that it's come, the 'old boy network'
wants to get back what it lost," he continued. "They've paid good money over
the years to maintain control of Humboldt County and now they want to get
their power back."

Salzman added that the recall is being helmed by "[Terry] Farmer's
operatives and PL apologists."

Political observers agree that a recall election is highly possible, as many
of the 11,200 signatures of registered voters needed to bring it about are
likely to be drawn from PL-friendly locales like Rio Dell, Fortuna and
Ferndale, and from the company's 1,000 employees. And if a recall happens,
the political contest will be a rematch of sorts - Rick Brazeau is president
of MTC, Inc., the Arcata-based advertising agency that's coordinating recall
P.R., and he has faced Salzman before.

'Wrist Slaps'

Farmer hired MTC in last spring's election. Brazeau also handled advertising
for the unsuccessful supervisorial campaign of Ben Shepard, who lost to
Geist. Brazeau, however, has ushered officials like Supervisor Bonnie Neely
(Farmer's wife), Eureka Councilman Chris Kerrigan and Eureka Mayor Peter
LaVallee into office.

Identified as a spokesperson for the recall effort in the press release,
Brazeau said the list of residents on the notice of intent includes "working
people, small business owners, a union shop steward, retirees, law
enforcement officers, senior citizens, Republicans and Democrats."

Brazeau added that Gallegos' actions, presumably regarding the PL suit,
"threaten to misuse public money." Gallegos' medical marijuana policy has
"drawn fire from from law enforcement, educators and families," Brazeau
continued in the release.

Gallegos has been charged with being soft by a police official from the
Eureka Police Department, who, in an unusual move, challenged the D.A.'s
dropping of some charges in a drive-by shooting case.

The D.A. has countered that he had to drop some of the charges because of
incomplete police reports, and that the defendants in the case are facing
seven-year prison sentences as is.

But Brazeau faults Gallegos for not prosecuting cases himself, as he said he
would during his campaign. "Instead, he spent his career [prior to being
elected] defending the types of criminals he now wants to let go with wrist
slaps," Brazeau said. "We have yet to find a single criminal defense case he
won in private practice. It appears that he was no better as a defense
attorney than he is as a prosecutor."

D.A.'s New Ways

Humboldt's new - and currently besieged - D.A. has become the county's most
newsworthy figure. And he said his desire to effect change has led to
predictable contention.

"I'm everything I led voters to think I am and other people are bummed out
about that," Gallegos asserted. "I was elected for change, and Brazeau and
his people don't want to see it happen. Clearly, Mr. Brazeau stands for no
change - he supported Terry [Farmer] and lost, and now he wants a second
bite of the apple."

On the criticism of his medicinal marijuana guidelines, Gallegos reminded
that state law supports cultivation of cannabis by patients, and his rules
are based on those already in effect in Sonoma, Mendocino and Del Norte
counties.

Gallegos characterized the statements about his career track record as
"lies" and suggested those with doubts can "talk to any of my deputy
attorneys, I've been in court with them many times."

He believes the recall architects want to "reclaim their throne, divert my
attention from the tasks at hand and intimidate my office." Gallegos said
his work is a higher priority than opposing a recall and will ultimately
swing votes.

There would appear to something of political civil war bubbling, but
Gallegos said many residents don't fall on one side or the other. "Much of
the community is in the middle and I think they're trying to run for cover,"
he said. "I'm in the middle, too - I enforce the law, equally."

Political, Legal Showdowns

Fortuna Mayor Mel Berti is a member of the recall committee, and said his
group hasn't picked a candidate and may not. "We're going one step at a time
and we expect candidates will come forward. Basically, we think there would
have been other candidates last time [Gallegos and Farmer were the only ones
to run] but no one wanted to run against Farmer."

Berti regrets that both he and his wife voted for Gallegos, believing change
would be positive. But he said that with a 99 plant medical marijuana limit,
"You'd be the happiest sick person in the county."

The PL suit is a particular insult to Berti, who's been a member of the
Fortuna City Council for 19 years. Fortuna hosts PL operations sites where
many city residents are employed.

"The D.A.'s job is not to prosecute honest lumber companies, it's to
prosecute criminals," Berti said. "If he has an environmental platform,
fine, but he shouldn't use our tax money to further his environmental
movement."

Robin Arkley, Sr., the former owner of Blue Lake Forest Products, is the
recall drive's founder and he's pleased that "the response has been simply
amazing." He called the recall "a bipartisan effort to save our county, for
the good of our families and our children," and said it will enlist masses
of new voters.

"We've drawn the line in the sand - it's our county and we're going to take
it back," Arkley continued.

Salzman has challenged PL to "agree not to support the recall campaign."

Jim Branham, PL's communications director, said his company "is not
involved" in the anti-Gallegos campaign.

Branham was asked to respond to Salzman's portrayal of resistance to the
suit as evidence of a "16th century attitude toward law enforcement, where
the kings and the princes don't have to follow the same rules as you and
me."

"Richard is one of the anti-PL groupies," said Branham. "The truth is, the
suit's factual errors and its complete lack of merit are the problems with
it."

The D.A.'s lawsuit has taken some P.R. knocks. The state Department of Fish
and Game has called it bogus, in so many words, the county's Board of
Supervisors has declined to approve a contract for outside legal help and
efforts to woo the state attorney general to support it have failed.

But an amended complaint will be filed in May (shortly before PL's motion to
have the suit dropped is heard), said Tim Stoen, Gallegos' lead prosecutor
in the case and its motivator. Stoen has assured that the suit is about to
be strengthened, but Branham said that "people under oath in court will be
very clear and I suspect it's going to be rather embarrassing for Mr.
Gallegos."

Mendocino District Attorney Norm Vroman, whose office Stoen worked for prior
to coming to Humboldt, has written letters to newspapers supporting
Gallegos' efforts.

The factions on each side of the lawsuit are developing and carrying out
publicity campaigns to sway residents.

Meanwhile, the earliest date a recall measure could appear on the ballot is
November. That would happen only if recall campaign workers do an efficient
job gathering signatures.