Hard Truths is a monthly newsletter about national, state, and local issues, with (sometimes sassy, other times serious) personal updates from the author – Heather Schmidt, M.PA. Heather is the owner of Heather Schmidt Consulting Services, Executive Director of VC Voter Edge, and a busy Mom to three.

The world: what a mess (amiright?). Let’s get into it.

National Nonsense

So the United States government is shutdown. But does anyone care?

Well… that depends on if you, personally, are impacted by it. Furloughed workers and certain categories of workers who have continued to work, but without timely pay, certainly are. And roughly 42 million people – 12 % of the country, to be precise – are about to see their SNAP/EBT benefits delayed.

There still remains, though, a sizable chunk of Americans that are simply not impacted (just yet, or that they realize) by the shutdown. And for this reason, many people simply couldn’t care less if they tried (or are so tuned out, they don’t even know). If that sounds callous, well it is. But it is nevertheless the way things stand today, and perhaps an apt metaphor for the situation across this country overall. Apathy has reached all time highs.

So while partisans at the top point their fingers at each other and try to shift to blame (for which – let us be clear – both parties are really blame), average Americans essentially shrug and go on with their lives. Complicating matters is that in the 24 hours news cycle, Americans are continuing to see profound amounts of evidence that many sectors of the government are still working. Since the shutdown began, the peace between Hamas and Israel was brokered; Ukrainian president Vlodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US (actually, several heads of state have visited); and, the President and several members of his cabinet are now on a negotiating tour around Asian countries, in particular China.

While this all goes on, the outrage on the left side of the aisle over changes being made to the East Wing of the White House grows. Since before he became president, all the way back in 2016, Donald Trump has been talking about remodeling to bring a gigantic ballroom to the White House. Now president again, and having secured over 350 million dollars in donations to do so, the ballroom is underway. Naturally, the pearl clutching and liberal outrage has followed.

Now… I’m not one to defend Donald Trump, or any politician for that matter, but the outrage by the likes of Gavin Newsom is perhaps laughable given many of the activities going on in his own backyard. Here in California, while Newsom laments the East Wing renovation, criticizing Donald Trump and calling him a fascist (because renovations somehow now equal fascism), Newsom continues to spend a whopping $1.1B on a renovation of the state Capitol building no one asked for, which includes architectural planning that provides a greater restriction against the media. And… the $1.1B figure is actually an estimate, as lawmakers continue to reject all calls for transparency about full costs, citing NDAs.

If there is one thing I know to be true, it is this: if one partisan is vehemently claiming the other partisan is doing something, you best believe the accuser is doing it ten fold.

From the Greatest State in the Nation

And on the note of things in California that no one asked for: Californians are again heading to the polls in a special election over a Proposition to suspend the independent redistricting committee, forcing a mid-census redistrict of the entire state’s Congressional map as a response to redistricting that went on over in Texas.

You may be asking yourself: what does Texas have to do with California? That would be a great question, which many of us still have no answer to. Or: didn’t we vote on this before? Actually, yes. California voters have twice voted on the issue of just who should be drawing these Congressional maps. Twice. And twice we voted to take the maps out of the hands of partisans and lawmakers. Nevertheless, here we are again: being asked if we can give it back to the partisans and lawmakers (the maps are drawn by consultants at the DCCC) to “stop fascism” (there’s that F word again…).

This weekend, the chairman of the independent redistricting committee said on live television that he had very little confidence that the committee would be given their positions back in 2030, as the proposition suggests. And for weeks, political scholars and experts analyzing the nation overall have found it is statistically likely that California’s redistricting will be likely to lose Democrats seats overall in the end of this “gerrymandering war.” Very few states will do something as crazy as suspend their state constitution in the ways that Newsom suggests. Nevertheless, in a special election, only the most fervent partisans will turn out to vote, and thus the proposition is likely to pass.

I just hope everyone is prepared for the consequences.

Just Local Stuff

Here in Oxnard, there is a real mess growing over at city hall.

Last month, my team and I identified significant levels of potential corruption and malfeasance among multiple elected officials. (You can read about those in full HERE.) This included at least one elected official possibly not residing in their jurisdiction, and numerous and egregious violations of campaign finance laws.

Since then, though, more has surfaced. The mayor took a somewhat unknown trip to Japan, which seems innocuous, until you realize that these types of secret international trips in an official capacity are the kind of thing that got city hall raided by the FBI back in 2010. (I emailed the council on the issue, and included in that email a series of questions… one of the council members copied my questions into a public records request, so we should have some answers on that soon.) And, Oxnard remains the only city now in all of Ventura County that has devoted exactly $0 to local immigrant support. At a meeting a few weeks back, the Oxnard city manager told the council (and public) that staff would be returning with a report on their requested financial planning to support legal aid for families impacted by immigration raids “in early November”… and in the early November council agenda released this last Friday, there is still… nothing…

A county non profit that does incredible work for the community is taking some flack on this issue as well. The Ventura County Community Foundation (VCCF) is now taking heat in different circles for misappropriating funding through a program set up called the “Neighborhood Fund.” Billed as a fund set up to strategically support immigrant families in this uncertain time, the fund is now issuing checks to organizations that may or may not actually serve… immigrant… families. Again, VCCF does incredible work, but it is a fact that their decisions are sometimes cloaked in secrecy, and… well… questionable. We all remember back during COVID when they took $10,000 off the top from the (taxpayer funded) Camarillo small business grant program. When asked what that was for, they stated it was to “help small businesses fill out applications for the grants,” which ended up taking such an egregiously long amount of time to complete, many businesses closed while waiting for their COVID relief grants.

A Bit On Me

Not much to report from me. Just busy-busy, and at the same time finding myself with more and more free time to doomscroll.

On the issue of me… AND local stuff, though… I started another newsletter, this one is specific to Oxnard. And I’m calling it: Oxnard Gossip Column. If you’re local or just interested, you can subscribe HERE.

Happy and Safe Halloween!