Hard Truths: March 2026

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 Christena Schmidt Community Consulting, President of VC Voter Edge, and a busy Mom to three.

Normally, I center these monthly newsletters around recent updates in socio-political events at the national, state, and local levels. No real rhyme or reason to them, or underlying theme. Of course war with Iran, the State of the Union, the absolute clown show that is the California Gubernatorial primary, and more – well, with all of that, there is certainly a lot to go over. But everyone is talking about all of that; whereas it seems as though no one is talking about the real issue impacting American life in this moment: attacks on what is the most foundational, fundamental aspect of being an American:

Democracy.

I don’t mean the nebulous “Save our Democracy” stuff you see extremists holding banners on overpasses about, clutching their pearls and wringing their hands as they “woe is me” about partisan politics. I’m talking about the actual nuts and bolts that go into our democratic process.

National Nonsense

Recently, a story went viral alleging the Trump Administration had violated the First Amendment by pressuring CBS to not air an interview between Colbert and Texas Senate candidate, James Talarico (D). Talarico is currently running against Jasmine Crockett (also D) in the Texas primary in an attempt to turn the seat over to Democrats come the fall. Talarico was invited on the show, Crockett was not. After CBS pulled the show, Colbert and Talarico stated they believed it was because Donald Trump didn’t want to hear more criticisms.

But one little detail was left out: the FCC has a clear “equal time” rule, and it applies to all candidates and all media venues.

At the end of the day, the network’s concern was about a possible violation of newly updated FCC’s equal time rule. Whereas talk shows and late night television has not traditionally been held to the rule, recent changes to FCC guidance have changed that. If there are multiple candidates, they are supposed to be afforded equal time. The FCC is currently investigating The View for a similar violation – which did air; and what is striking is to see the Democratic Party – the ones typically screaming the loudest about the First Amendment – criticizing the new rule, as if it does not by all accounts promote fairness and democracy.

All of this comes after the scandal with Jimmy Kimmel, where he was briefly suspended after cracking jokes about the death of Charlie Kirk.

We can debate extensively whether the Colbert episode was pulled down over Trump, or FCC rules. Maybe (and what I believe) is that it was a little of both. The real thing I’m concerned about is the tendency of media outlets and personalities to pick favorites. Why didn’t Colbert want to just invite Crockett on as well? Why hasn’t The View given Crockett equal time considerations? This isn’t limited to federal elections, or the specific election in Texas either. This is happening all over the country, at every level and venue: candidates are being effectively denied equal time and exposure, with who makes the decisions of what candidate(s) get the time continuing to be elusive.

At the end of the day, this just exhibits an increasingly more common trend in American politics and society: the free press choosing freely to suppress information that would enhance our democratic processes.

From the Greatest State in the Nation

This morning, the entire state of California woke up to a memo from Rusty Hicks – Chair of the California Democratic Party. It was just weeks ago that the CalDem convention was held in San Francisco, but the party remains so divided over its candidates for governor, none reached the 60% threshold to obtain an endorsement. The memo this morning?

It called on lower hanging fruit candidates – in other words, the ones still polling in the single digits – to get out of the race before Friday.

According to analysts, the Democratic Party is growing increasingly concerned that the crowded field of candidates for governor will yield two going to the final that are actually Republicans; that Democrats could be completely choked out of this one, if for no reason other than they had little to offer. For weeks now, Republican candidates such as Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco have polled at the top, and rather than reflect the reasons why Californians favor them over other candidates, the Democratic Party is doing what it does best: turn on itself.

But getting back to that notion of our democracy; of what it takes to have a thriving democracy… it is options. It is the low hanging fruit staying in the race until the end. It is the best candidates winning, irrespective of what their political party is or how many candidates they have to beat to get there. Obviously the goal of the Democratic Party is to control seats, to win offices, to retain power.

But control and power is not a recipe for democracy. Not by a long shot.

Just Local Stuff

Which is also…

A Bit About Me

I seem to have gotten myself involved in a local scandal. Not sure how, but then that’s nothing new.

Last fall, I started a little blog over on Substack to talk about local news, government stuff, meetings, events, and to share my opinions about it all. I wanted it to be fun, to bring back the satire and the jokes from my Mom Blog days…

I called it The Oxnard Gossip Column, and I post on it about once a week. Nothing too serious, but it’s gotten overwhelmingly positive responses from the community. I think ultimately people like to read about perspectives, poke fun at the stuff that deserves to be poked fun at, and know what’s going on in the community. The local media does not do that; in fact, the Ventura County Star has begun a noted strategy of suppressing Letters to the Editor by people of all political persuasions, the topics being suppressed running the gamut.

Last week, I received an email from the Oxnard City Treasurer’s attorney, accusing me of defamation and malice over something I said in a post last November. As a courtesy, I took the post down, but when I responded to their email, I reminded them that opinions are protected speech.

For those not from around here, the history of the Oxnard City Treasurer is a long one. He’s been terminated by the City, won a wrongful termination suit, then run for election to the City Treasurer’s seat, which is when things really went off the chain. He was accused back before COVID of violating sexual harassment policies by over a dozen people, then of a lot of other improper activities in his capacity in the city – including interfering in the very investigation into him. He ultimately admitted to the sexual harassment, and was stripped by ordinance of some of his duties.

The City and Treasurer have been embroiled in back and forth litigation for years over many details, including what he can do, how much he should be paid, and more. At one point, he requested the court un-redact the investigation so he could see who had reported him…

Opinions about the behaviors of this guy run in every direction, but at the end of the day we are all entitled to our opinions about him. And, as a government official, the First Amendment protects our right to express them, to even engage in satire about it. That is our right. That is our democracy.

So in response to this all, I shared another post that was more clear, that stated only the facts – available all over Oxnard and beyond. Did I do it satirically? Sure. But that is my right.

That is my democracy.

The response has been nothing short of insane. The City Treasurer’s attorney emailed me three times in the span of 7 hours. Two of those times were after I told him not to contact me again.

I informed the Oxnard City Council and City Attorney by email of what was happening, and before the City Attorney’s office even got a chance to ask me for some clarification and additional information so they could review the situation…

…it would appear one of those council member notified the City Treasurer and his attorney that I had contacted them.

So the saga – I have no doubt – will continue. And against my will, I am somehow thrust into the middle of it.

Those of you that are interested can check out the Oxnard Gossip Column at the following link…

Until next month!