Home Town Sheriff Drama

And now a pause for a little small town election gossip..

Earning Sheriff of Calaveras County
The Ballard vs. Kuntz battle heated up. ThePineTree.net (TPT) weed war turned into a battle of words between the Ballard camp and the Kuntz camp when both parties began accusing each other of tampering with "vote for me" signs and foul play in debate scheduling.

If you caught it, an announcement was made (and removed) on TPT that a debate between Kuntz and Ballard had been scheduled and Judge Mewhinney would moderate it. Apparently, Kuntz had not accepted the invitation and the announcement was removed by TPT.

A "Letter to the editor" written by Jeanie Middleton, a county employee and Ballard election committee member was posted on TPT and the Enterprise. The letter offered an apology for the premature announcement; however, as the discussion degraded, it was clear that this was an actually an accusation that Kuntz was afraid to face Ballard in debate. The Kuntz camp responded that the Ballard camp was scheduling debates and announcing them without coordinating them and that the two had already agreed to a debate that was still scheduled. The camps sparred back and forth eventually going so far as to accuse each other of candidate sign tampering and accusing Middleton of "ruining the [sheriff's] department."

Some of the battles boiled over into coverage by KCRA. Middleton, representing Ballard, appeared on TV challenging that Kuntz used the school under false pretenses for a fund raise, coordinating with the school and the foodbank. You can view this video here and decide for yourselves:
http://www.kcra.com/video/23285302/index.html

View the whole discussion here

Overall, a sad state of affairs for the top spot in the county...

Lead me not into hemptation...

There I was driving through San Andreas to get to an appointment and low and behold, what did I see? Eddie Ballard was standing outside Hemptation apparently.. talking to people? For those that don't know, Hemptation is a smoke shop, skate shop, and hydroponic store in San Andreas. I highly recommend it, by the way.

Anyway, Ballard is either arresting people or .. could this be an overture?

I've sent an email to Middleton, maybe she can tell us what Captain Ballard has to say. She seems to have a finger on the pulse of that campaign.