Republicans vow to continue fight for beliefs

Glenn County Republicans say they will bounce back from the 2012 election that kept President Barack Obama at the helm in the White House and placed a Democrat in a newly drawn congressional district that swallowed up most of the county.

"We got knocked down in a lot of places, but we will pick ourselves up and go forward," said Glenn County GOP Chairman Lee McCorkle. "We know the other side would like us to stay down, but we are not going to do that."

Bouncing back from an election that also gave the Democratic Party a supermajority in the state Legislature was the overall theme at Saturday's annual Republican fundraising dinner.

Party supporters gathered at the Glenn County Fairgrounds, where Assemblyman Dan Logue, of Loma Rica, Sen. Jim Nielsen, of Gerber, and US Rep. Doug LaMalfa, of Richvale, vowed to fight new taxes, over-regulation and liberal policies on crime.

"We have to trust what we're doing," Logue said. "We have to bring the party together if we are going to fight liberal socialist policies that are destroying our country. We have to take the country back because we cannot face the alternative."

Nielsen, who attended the memorial service earlier in the day for Marysa Nichols, the 14-year-old Red Bluff girl who was strangled to death and left in a field by her high school, said the party needs to stand strong to fight liberal policies that keep felons out of prison and releases hundreds more unrehabilitated felons back into the community.

The man accused of the murder, former Willows resident Quentin Bealer, 39, is a convicted felon, but was not released as part of any special program.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey, the guest speaker at Saturday's event, also raised the war cry to defeat liberal policies that erode freedom and destroys the nation's heritage, the economy, way of life, and the safety, health and welfare of the citizens.

Dubbed the "Constitution Sheriff," Lopey is a former Marine, combat veteran, and a retired Army colonel and California Highway Patrol assistant chief who vowed to lead the fight against state and federal regulations that he believes have resulted in the loss of control over local resources and constitutional rights.

Lopey is among a growing number of rural sheriffs, county supervisors, farmers and ranchers from Oregon and Northern California who have drawn fire from some media — including one national media outlet — for their stand against environmental policies and federal forest management practices that they contend put the wellness of spotted owls and fish before the people of the Northstate.

"At least we're being noticed," Lopey said.

Lopey said the loss of timber businesses and water rights in the northern regions have decimated the economy, which has had a trickle-down effect on all forms of crime.

Siskiyou County, he said, has become a welfare state with abject poverty and a high incidence of drug use and related crimes.

"Last year was a record year for homicides, and we had fewer resources to respond," he said.

Lopey blames a decimated North State economy on the ill-conceived ideals of extreme environments which support a near complete decimation of the timber industry and the removal of dams in order to protect endangered species.

LaMalfa vowed to fight when he returned to Washington to wage support for the 10-year Republican budget plan.

The proposed budget was released Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

With a trillion dollars in cuts to social programs, including Medicaid and the repeal of Obamacare, the proposal will likely stand in stark contrast to the budget to be released this week by Senate Democrats, which will rely partially on tax increases, LaMalfa said.

"The Democrats propose new taxes every time," LaMalfa said. "That is why we push back."

Saturday's event is the only large fundraising activity for the Glenn County Republican Party.

McCorkle said the Glenn County GOP registered 85 new Republican voters in 2012 and sent a representative to the Northern California Republican Convention in Sacramento.

CONTACT Susan Meeker at 934-6800 or smeeker@tcnpress.com.